The Impossible Burger might have Bill Gates’ support, but PETA isn’t interested.

This week, the ‘bleeding’ vegan burger was approved by US food regulators, meaning that it can now be served in restaurants across North America.

Impossible Burgers are plant-based and use soy leghemoglobin from the roots of soy plants as its key ingredient.

The soy protein gives the burger a realistic ‘meaty’ taste because it’s similar to the proteins found in blood. It’s the first time that soy leghemoglobin will be widely consumed as a food additive.


However, the animal rights organisation PETA isn’t giving the new burger its backing.



Impossible Foods, the maker of the Impossible Burger, has admitted to conducting tests on animals.

Soy leghemoglobin, the ingredient that makes the Impossible Burger possible, was fed to 188 rats in three separate tests.

A report from Impossible Foods states that the rats were consuming every day ‘the equivalent of more than 200 times the amount of heme, in the form of leghemoglobin, that the average American consumes daily from ground beef’.

The rats’ organs then underwent a ‘meticulous examination’, which PETA maintains means that the rats were killed and dissected for.

PETA’s Director of International Programmes, Mimi Bekhechi, told Metro.co.uk: ‘ While we were delighted when the vegan Impossible Burger was introduced, we are deeply disappointed that company executives chose to harm animals, particularly as there was no legal requirement for them to do so.

‘Force-feeding tests are pointless, as well as cruel, since the results tell us only how a substance affects rats, not humans.

‘Many other wonderful vegan companies and products, such as Beyond Meat, Tofurky and others, have been developed and brought to market without harming animals.

‘Our support of those companies remains unwavering.’

Impossible Foods weren’t required by law to test their soy product on animals. They chose to do so.

So remember – just because something is plant-based, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s vegan or free from animal involvement.

Impossible Foods says: ‘Impossible Foods had to provide an animal test to the FDA so that the nation’s a top food-safety watchdog agency would have “no questions” on the safety of our key ingredient. ‘We sought advice from many sources, including a PETA senior lab oversight specialist, to select the testing lab that employed the most humane practices. We used PETA’s “CRO Checklist”! ‘We spent almost two years attempting to persuade FDA to grant us the “no questions” letter without doing animal-feeding studies, to no avail. So we made the necessary choice to minimize harm to animals and maximize benefit to the world. ‘The real question is, with so much in common, with so many animals’ lives at stake, and particularly after advising on animal-test facilities, why would PETA attack Impossible Foods?’

PETA says: ‘If Impossible Foods wants a food fight, they’ve got it. We tried to steer them away from needless animal tests for their unhealthy heme ingredient, but they weren’t buying. ‘We were pretty calm about the first test and asked them to work with us. Our scientist said we’d work with them, there’s no need to test. They didn’t get back to him, didn’t answer after that and ploughed ahead with 2 more animal tests. Again, no requirement at all. ‘No one cares about their heme: heme is in meat and is linked to cancer! ‘Their top guy’s response to our Senior Vice President who asked them not to continue testing was: “meat eaters will be delighted if PETA is against us”. ‘They may be looking at a potential consumer fraud suit if people buy Impossible on the strength of claims that the company was required to test, or even that it’s healthy.’

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