Making Meat from Plants with Impossible Foods

Learn about making meat from plants from Dr. Sue Klapholz, VP of Nutrition & Health at Impossible Foods. Impossible makes plant-based foods designed to replace animal meat, including the shockingly realistic Impossible Burger. 
 
Dr. Klapholz has had a diverse career as a doctor, scientist, teacher, editor and writer. In this conversation she shares the inside scoop on:

– How Impossible Foods creates “meat” from plants
– Similarities and differences between proteins from plants and animals
– How protein quality is measured
– Why and how food manufacturers use microbes to produce ingredients
– Why the word “processed” need not be a dirty word
– The impacts of animal agriculture on the planet

Disclosure: I have a personal connection – but no financial connection – to Impossible Foods. I did my PhD in genetics at Stanford in the lab of Impossible’s founder, Dr. Pat Brown. The company was launched in 2011, five years after I graduated. I’m grateful to know both Pat Brown and Sue Klapholz personally.

Links

Studies

Safety Evaluation of Soy Leghemoglobin Protein Preparation Derived From Pichia pastoris, Intended for Use as a Flavor Catalyst in Plant-Based Meat
 
Assessment of the potential allergenicity and toxicity of Pichia proteins in a
novel leghemoglobin preparation
 
A metabolomics comparison of plant-based meat and grass-fed meat indicates large nutritional differences despite comparable Nutrition Facts panels
 
Perspective: The Public Health Case for Modernizing the Definition of Protein Quality
 
Dietary protein quality evaluation in human nutrition