Alternative meat company applies to allow genetically modified fake blood product

Monday, 20 January 2020

New Zealand beef and lamb farmers are not impressed by Air NZ's plant-based Impossible burger. Martin van Beynen takes a bite out of some real beef.

The American food technology company Impossible Foods has applied to the food safety regulator for approval of its genetically engineered imitation blood ingredient in New Zealand.

Impossible Foods, makers of the plant-based meat alternative the Impossible Burger, applied to Foods Standards Australia New Zealand on December 20 to allow the ingredient, called leghemoglobin which is derived from genetically engineered soy, to be used here.

The application is open for submissions until February 14.

Leghemoglobin is produced from the fermentation of a yeast called Picha pastoris for use in plant-based 'meat analogue' products to make them look and taste like real meat.

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Spokesman for GE Free New Zealand, Jon Carapiet, was concerned about the application, and said it did not have the proper safety profile for approval of the ingredient.

The Impossible Burger really is 'impossibly' meaty due to the addition of heme.

The 'blood' in fake meat burgers has already been given the green light from US food safety authorities, and Canada approved its use earlier this month.

The Impossible Burger has has been available on Air New Zealand flights between Auckland and Los Angeles since July 2018.

Carapiet said this circumnavigated New Zealand regulations, because the ingredient could not be sold in the country.

Consumers may not be aware of the novel ingredient, which is derived from soy heavily sprayed with pesticides, he said.

'The promotional hype around the product will probably mislead people into thinking it is a safe, sustainable, or even [a] healthy meat alternative,' he said.

Beyond Meat, a competitor to Impossible Foods, is selling the Beyond Burger in New Zealand supermarkets. It is made from pea protein and does not contain the controversial imitation blood.

Founder of Impossible Foods, Pat Brown, has said the company's aim is 'to save the world from the biggest environmental catastrophe that it faces, which is the insanely destructive impact of the meat industry'.

Brown has predicted that by 2035 all meat will be produced without slaughter.