Image: Burger King
Burger King is launching its plant-based Impossible Whopper across US stores this week following the raging success of a trial.
The fast food giant initially launched the burger patty from Impossible Foods at sites in St Louis, where the plant-based option outsold national averages by 18.5%.
Chris Finazzo, president of Burger King North America said in an interview he started thinking about adding the burger a year ago after discovering the rapid rise of flexitarianism.
According to NPD Group, 95% of shoppers who bought a plant-based burger have bought a beef burger within the last year.
Burger
The Impossible Whopper features a burger patty from plant-based meat alternative company Impossible Foods.
The patty is made primarily from wheat protein, coconut oil, potato protein and heme – giving it a meaty taste and texture.
The company has recently been valued at more than $2bn and has celebrity backing from the likes of Jay-Z, Serena Williams and Will.i.am.
Customers have reported that the Impossible Whopper ‘tastes just like meat’ , while Burger King launched a promotional campaign in which meat eaters were tricked into eating the vegan burger, and believed it was the beef option.
The burger contains 17g of protein and has zero cholesterol, and Impossible Foods says the meat alternative ‘delivers the rich, beefy taste that discerning meat lovers demand with as much bio-available iron and high-quality protein as a comparable serving of ground beef from cows’.
McDonald’s is also expected to introduce a plant-based burger named the Big Vegan, with the company currently trialling the burger in Israel.
Will you try the Impossible Whopper? Share your thoughts in the comments below!