Plant-Based Burgers Versus Bison/Beef Burger

This burger was made by our customer, Azita!

Many people have started to try out new vegetarian/vegan burgers, such as the Impossible Burger. The Impossible Burger’s goal is to prevent a vegetarian alternative to traditional bison or beef burgers that tastes just as good. In this post, we’ll break down the key points of an Impossible Burger including taste and ingredients.

*To be clear, this article is only meat to discuss the differences between plant-based burgers and meat. We do feel that the Impossible Burger and other plant-based proteins are a great alternative for vegetarians and vegans.

The History of Impossible Burger

The Impossible Burger started in California in 2016 and has helped drive up plant-based meat alternative sales by 11% in 2019. The Impossible Foods CEO founder Pat Brown left his job as a professor with a mission to eliminate the meat industry. After he concluded his sabbatical to research the perfect alternative, he realized people would fully never cut out meat from their diets and his new goal was to now recreate plants as meat. In 2019, Impossible Burger hit households and grocery stores nationwide and continues to grow as the demand rises. It looks like he's starting to achieve that goal as fake meat sales increased over 264% in May during the pandemic when traditional meat shortages started.

The Plant-Based Taste

The first thing you may be thinking if you’ve never had an Impossible Burger before is, does it taste like a traditional, animal-based protein? The answer is, in our humble opinion, no. This article by Simon Andrews rates the Impossible burger 4 ½ stars for its taste and vegan attributes. They noted that it tasted more like a beef burger than other competitors and generally thought for a moment that they may have been eating traditional beef burgers. The main issue they discovered is that the burger became a tad dry over time, whereas traditional beef burgers stayed juicy throughout the whole burger. Other articles we’ve found online note that the texture wasn’t as good, and it was a little softer and crumbled more than an animal-based protein. Overall, the consensus was that it did taste a little like beef, even despite the texture, but testers still said they were missing something. That doesn’t mean that in the future the Impossible Burger won’t taste and feel like a real burger, but as of the writing of this article, it doesn’t feel like a real burger based on the articles and personal taste test we conducted.

Is The Word “Meat” Limited to Real Burgers?

Some countries, such as France, have cracked down on the words “burger” and “meat” as they can be misleading to customers. The goal is to lessen customer confusion so people can make more informed decisions about what they eat. In fact, meat producers are actually suing to have the words “meat” and “burger” restricted to real animal-based proteins. This may be due to the rise in popularity of plant-based products such as the Impossible Burger and its similar taste. The question remains if the taste is similar, is the nutrition as good?

Plant-Based Nutrition Versus Animal Protein

The processed, plant-based alternative to traditional beef or bison burgers can be tasty, but overall it’s not as healthy as an animal-based burger. This may be surprising given the hype around plant-based protein, but given the fat and sodium, it comes as no surprise. The Impossible burger contains less protein than real meat and scores higher in saturated fat and sodium. The main difference between plant-based and animal-based protein is the cholesterol, which bison burgers contain much less than compared to a beef burger.

Impossible Burger [according to Impossible’s website]:

Calories: 240
Total Fat: 14G
Saturated Fat: 8G
Cholesterol: 0MG
Carbohydrates: 9G
Sodium: 370MG
Fiber: 3G
Sugars: <1G
Protein: 19G

Bison Burger [according to verywell]:

Calories: 121
Total Fat: 2G
Saturated Fat: .8G
Cholesterol: 55MG
Carbohydrates: 0G
Sodium: 186MG
Fiber: 0G
Sugars: 0G
Protein: 24G

Conclusion

While plant-based burgers, such as the Impossible Burger, are a fantastic alternative for vegans and vegetarians, you can’t beat the taste, texture, and overall nutrition of a classic bison burger. You can buy your bison burgers at JJ Bison to have a heart-healthy alternative to beef with an even better taste. Don’t give up meat until you try our bison!