I can’t believe it’s not burger

Plant-based patty invented in a lab looks, tastes and sizzles like meat

A VEGGIE burger which sizzles, smells, tastes and even “bleeds” like beef is coming to the UK.

The patties are taking the US by storm and are available in hundreds of restaurants across 31 states.

Invented by biochemist Pat Brown, the Impossible Burger is built entirely from plants and genetically modified yeast in a Silicon Valley laboratory.

It took the firm Impossible Foods five years to develop the veggie burger, which it calls “meat without animals”.

The secret ingredient is “heme” an iron-containing molecule abundant in animals, but also found in plants.

And the animal fat which gives traditional burgers their satisfying sizzle comes instead from coconut oil and soy beans, while the protein comes from wheat and potatoes.

The Mirror sampled the burger at Saxon + Parole, in Manhattan, New York, where it was served in a bun, with the usual trimmings of tomatoes, lettuce and pickles. We found when cut in half, it exposed a pinkish hue of a medium-rare “meat” in the middle and brown on the outside, just like a real burger.

The consistency was similar to beef, too, with the same texture as fibres of minced meat.

It tasted slightly sweeter than meat, but with a caramelised crunchiness to the outside and a convincing bounce to its texture. And it also had a fatty flavour, although faint, and a lighter texture than a meat burger.

In 2015, the US Food and Drug Administration found there was not enough evidence to establish the safety of soy leghemoglobin – the form of heme used – for consumption.

However, as it was not explicitly ruled unsafe, the burger is now on sale at restaurants all over the US. Impossible Foods said: “We genetically engineer yeast to make heme, which then allows us to produce the Impossible Burger with the lowest achievable environmental impact.”

The firm is set to increase production and get the burger into more outlets in the US, as well as in the UK.

Its researchers are also testing alternatives to chicken, pork and fish.

TASTE TEST Nada samples the Impossible