Talk about taking a leaf out of India’s book. Literally. On April Fool’s Day, fast food behemoth Burger King made an announcement which it promised was no joke. The American fast food chain, iconic for its grilled beef Whopper burgers (India has a chicken version, of course), is planning to take the meat out of its sandwiches.
The burger chain announced on Monday that it is testing out Impossible Whoppers, by substituting the beef patties with the plant-based patties made world-famous by Impossible Foods; Impossible Foods had earlier made waves around the culinary world when it introduced diners to its vegetarian faux-meat burgers which look, smell, and taste like the real thing, without all the associated farmyard slaughter; it even ‘bleeds’ like a perfect medium-rare beef patty.
However, just to get into the spirit of things, since it was April 1, the chain first served the meatless burgers to patrons at its St. Louis (Missouri) locations without telling their customers that the burgers contatined no beef. Impossibly, they bought it, as can be seen this Reuters clip below:
‘Little did they know, their Whopper patty was actually made from plants’: Burger King and Silicon Valley startup roll out the Impossible Whopper @leejane71 reports: https://t.co/21k1rd9AdO via @ReutersTV pic.twitter.com/ywLhoU87Jp
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) April 1, 2019
After testing the waters in 59 locations in and around St. Louis, Missouri, if all goes well, Burger King will roll out the Impossible Whopper nationally.
With the Impossible Whopper, Burger King hopes to “give somebody who wants to eat a burger every day, but doesn’t necessarily want to eat beef everyday, permission to come into the restaurants more frequently,” Chris Finazzo, president of Burger King North America, told CNN Business.
Perhaps more vitally, it offers vegan and vegetarian options to a steadily health-conscious clientele who usually have to forgo the American classic.
Impossible Foods, which is based in Redwood City, California, launched its first faux-meat patty over two years ago, using a genetically modified yeast, which helps make the patties ‘bleed’ and taste like real meat.
That’s not to say that Burger King is pioneering the concept. Another company specialising in faux-meat is the Los Angeles-based Beyond Meat, which announced in the begining of this year that it was rolling out its own version plant-based burger at fast-food chain Carl’s Jr. Among Beyond Meat’s investors are actor and long-time conservationist Leonardo DiCaprio, Bill Gates, and former General Electric CEO Jack Welch.