The plant-based burgers cooking on the grill pan in the Star’s test kitchen range in texture from Spam-like to canned tuna. Two of the patties release juices and sizzle like a beef burger, while the other two are reminiscent of sponges that have been microwaved.

This new crop of veggie burgers that aim to resemble ground beef — but be better for our health and the planet — have set the culinary world on fire, winning over big-name chefs at top-rated restaurants, selling out in supermarkets and restaurants across Canada and the U.S., and making companies millions.

But what do these burgers taste like and are they really more nutritious and environmentally friendly than their beefy counterparts?

Among the choices on my grill pan are the California-based Beyond Meat, supplier of meatless options to fast food outlets A&W, Tim Hortons and Quesada and grocers such as Sobeys and Longos; UK-based Meatless Farm Co.’s simulated beef burger, which I found at Longos; and two Canadian offerings — LightLife by Maple Leaf Foods and the Undeniable Burger by President’s Choice. Both were introduced in grocery stores in May.

A fifth popular patty, Impossible Foods’ burger, also from California, is currently sold out in the U.S. at fast-food outlets such as White Castle, Burger King and Bob’s Big Boy and is not available in Canada.

These meatless burgers come with a lot of hype and a premium price, too. A pack of two Beyond Meat burgers retails for $8. Same for two LightLife burgers. The Undeniable Burgers from President’s Choice are $10 for a pack of four, or $2.50 per patty. The Meatless Farm Co. sells two patties for $7.

To compare, a package of eight plain Angus beef burgers from President’s Choice cost $12.99, or $1.62 per patty.

Regarding taste, Star staffers found the Beyond Meat burger the closest to a meat patty: juicy with a nice chew (though a bit bouncier than actual beef). LightLife came second with a similar texture but the heavy spice mix threw some tasters off. The Meatless Farm Co.’s burger was spongy with a faint taste of cardboard. The Undeniable Burger’s spongy texture fared the worst.

Related: How do plant-based burgers stack up nutritionally?

All four plant-based patties are mainly made of pea protein, which is derived from the yellow pea that’s part of the legume family. Before these burgers arrived on the market, soy was the most common protein source for veggie burgers as found in popular brands such as Yves Veggie Cuisine and Kraft owned Boca.

Consumers are increasingly wary of soy, says Toronto-based registered dietitian Leigh Merotto. She adds there’s a misconception that consuming too much soy will cause hormonal imbalances in the body because soy contains phytoestrogens, plant chemicals that can cause estrogenlike effects (for those wondering, the scientific community agrees that consuming soy is fine for the average person). Soy is also identified as a common food allergen by Health Canada, alongside eggs, milk, peanuts and fish, and consumers are wary about soy being a commonly genetically modified crop.

Another reason producers are moving away from soy burgers is that it never quite managed to replicate the texture of meat, says professor Alejandro Marangoni at the University of Guelph’s food science department. It has a firmer texture that lacks the crumbly consistency of ground beef and is more akin to firm tofu.

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Enter pea proteins, which have seen exponential growth in production in recent years as plant-based proteins grow in popularity. Companies are scrambling to secure enough peas from farmers, many in Canada, to keep up with the demand. In addition to not having the baggage of soy, peas have that crumbly texture soy lacks, making it a fairly convincing meat substitute, says Marangoni.

He adds that all of the plant-based meat alternatives on the market now simulate ground beef or chicken nuggets because to date no meat substitute mimics the fibrous nature of a cut of beef or chicken breast. That’s something he and his team at Guelph are currently working on — a plant-based tissue similar to a cut of meat.

Making pea protein burgers is much more involved than mashing yellow peas together to form a patty. The complicated process includes heating, freezing and pulverizing the peas to isolate the protein and turn it into a powder, says Marangoni. The powder is then mixed with some form of a starch or emulsifier to hold everything together, then flavouring and extra vitamins are added. Most often beets are also added to give the patties a red-meat colour.

The recommended daily allowance of protein for the average adult is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight, so a person who weighs 68 kg (150 lbs.) should eat about 54g of protein each day for example. The pea-based burgers range between 20 and 27 grams of protein per patty. A beef burger patty contains 20 grams of protein, while a soy burger from Yves contains 12 grams.

But Marangoni says that not all proteins are created equal.

Proteins are made of amino acids — organic compounds that link together to form protein chains essential for the body to grow and function. There are 20 kinds of amino acids, the human body can produce 11 of them. The remaining nine, dubbed “essential amino acids” are found in meat, seafood, eggs and dairy which are considered to be “complete proteins.”

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Most plant-based proteins contain lower amounts of amino acids than animal-based proteins. And some may be abundant in one amino acid, but deficient in another. The Beyond Burger reformulated its burger in June to add rice and mung bean proteins to make up for pea protein’s low percentage of methionine, an essential amino acid. Maple Leaf Food’s LightLife burger also lists the addition of methionine and another essential amino acid, tryptophan, in its ingredient list. Meatless Farm Co.’s burgers add soy and rice proteins, as well as iron and vitamin B12, which are common in animal proteins but scarce in plants. President’s Choice Undeniable burgers also contains rice protein and additional vitamins.

When Johann Tergesen, the CEO for Burcon NutraScience, a Vancouver-based plant-protein company, opens a processing plant in August 2020, it will combine pea protein with protein extracted from the canola plant to make a more complete product, he says. Called Nutratein, it will be available in two versions: one for making foods such as burgers and the other for making plant-based milks. Tergesen says its protein quality will be on the same level of animal protein.

Dietitian Merotto cautions against treating this new wave of burgers as a healthier meat alternative as many of them have similar amounts of saturated fat and calories to beef, not to mention higher sodium levels from the flavourings used to get that beefy taste and texture.

And while soy is a more common allergen than peas, the fine print on the package of the Beyond Burger warns that people with severe allergies to legumes, including peanuts, should be careful about consuming pea protein. “We need to remember to read the ingredient labels when choosing foods,” Merotto says, adding that if she were craving a burger she’d go to a good quality butcher or make her own veggie burger at home with a combination of whole grains, chickpeas and peas.

Brooklyn-based food writer Alicia Kennedy, a vegetarian who hosts the podcast Meatless, has previously written about these new crop of pea-protein based patties which she calls “tech burgers.” She is not convinced that as demand grows these burgers will change the global food system for the better. While growing peas does have less of a negative environmental impact than raising cattle, she sees parallels between the rapid expansion of pea farming to that of soy in that it could lead to monocropping, a farming process where just one type of crop is cultivated in a field year after year rather than rotating in different crops, resulting in poor soil quality that needs a boost in fertilizers and pesticides.

“For me, my biggest concern is that they’re replacing veggie burgers or veggie options on menus. It makes the food less creative,” she says, adding that she doesn’t eat meat and prefers even the least appetizing airport black bean burger over one that tastes like meat. In fact, she didn’t finish a Beyond Meat burger because it tasted too close to the real thing.

Watching the fast food industry jump on the pea protein bandwagon also makes her skeptical that turning peas into burgers is the answer. After all, she says, it’s not exactly an industry known for promoting nutritious foods or a healthy lifestyle.

Whether your are a vegan, vegetarian or just trying to consume less meat, when it comes to nutrition, Merotto says it’s important to eat a varied diet based on whole, minimally processed foods to get the same combination of essential amino acids, minerals and vitamins that are found in meat.

Correction - July 26, 2019: This article was edited from a previous version that misstated the recommended daily allowance of protein for the average adult as 0.8 grams per pound of body weight. In fact, it is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight. As well, a person who weighs 68 kg (150 lbs.) should eat about 54g of protein each day for example. Incorrect calculation was included in the previous version.