How some GM seasoning made possible the Impossible Burger

Air New Zealand’s readiness to dish up The Impossible Burger to a very few premium-paying passengers has prompted scientist Siouxsie Wiles to ask: so what is all the fuss about?

She concludes her article on the topic with a call to revisit genetic modification technologies and their applications – for example – to predator control and healthcare.

Her kickoff point is Air New Zealand’s announcement that Business Premier “foodies” on their Los Angeles to Auckland flights would be able to try out the “plant-based goodness” that is the Impossible Burger.

Lamb + Beef New Zealand, which represents sheep and beef farmers, is clearly peeved that our national carrier wouldn’t rather showcase some great Kiwi “grass-fed, free range, GMO free, naturally raised” beef and lamb instead.

Mark Patterson, New Zealand First’s spokesperson for Primary Industries, even went as far as to put out a press release calling the announcement an “existential threat to New Zealand’s second-biggest export earner”.

Meanwhile, vegetarians on social media are left a bit puzzled as to why Patterson is so against them having a special vegetarian option for dinner. My guess is it’s because the Impossible Burger is no ordinary veggie burger.

The Impossible Burger – Dr Wiles explains – is one company’s response to the challenge of feeding the world’s growing population using our current land-hungry, water-thirsty, pollution-heavy and extinction-inducing ways of producing food.

The Impossible Burger is the culmination of years of scientific research to create a vegetarian alternative to the humble minced beef burger patty that has the look, smell and taste of a delicious juicy burger but without the environmental impact that comes with farming cows. And that’s because the Impossible Burger isn’t aimed at vegetarians. It’s aimed at meat-eaters. And to make it appeal to the most committed carnivores amongst us it uses genetic modification technology.

The Impossible Burger is the first commercial offering from Impossible Foods, a Silicon Valley start-up founded by Pat Brown, an Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry at Stanford University.

Dr Wiles has tapped into the company’s website to learn that the Impossible Burger is made of water, textured wheat protein, coconut oil, potato protein, soy leghaemoglobin, yeast extract, salt, soy protein isolate, konjac gum, xanthan gum, zinc, niacin, and vitamins B1, B2, B6, B12 and C.

The burger sizzles like a beef burger patty while cooking thanks to the coconut oil, and chars and browns like a beef burger patty because of the potato protein. It has a chewy texture too, apparently, because Pat Brown and his team have figured out how to convert their mixture of plant and other ingredients into something that mimics the fibrous nature and tensile strength of animal connective tissue.

Dr Wiles then brings genetic modification into her considerations:

The ingredient that puts the Impossible Burger ahead of its competitors, and will no doubt have the anti-GM protesters up in arms, is the soy leghaemoglobin.

Haem (also known as heme) is an iron-containing molecule that binds oxygen. As haemoglobin, haem gives our blood it’s characteristic red colour and metallic taste, while as myoglobin it gives red meat its characteristic red or pink colour, as well as contributing to its smell and taste when cooked.

Leghaemoglobin is a form of haem found in the root nodules of leguminous plants like soybeans. Here it binds oxygen to protect a process crucial to the health of the plant: the harvesting of nitrogen from the air by symbiotic bacteria called rhizobia.

This nitrogen is then converted into compounds the plant needs to grow and compete with other plants. And just like haemoglobin and myoglobin, leghaemoglobin is also reddish-pink. If you cut into the root nodule of a soybean plant it looks like its bleeding.

Rather than digging up acres and acres of soy plants to harvest their leghaemoglobin, Brown and his team genetically engineered a strain of yeast to produce it instead. That way they can grow the yeast in big vats and sustainably harvest huge quantities of leghaemoglobin.

Although the yeast the leghaemoglobin comes from is genetically engineered, the leghaemoglobin itself is identical to that naturally found in the soy plants. And as the leghaemoglobin is separated away from the yeast after the fermentation process, the Impossible Burger doesn’t contain anything that is genetically modified.

Dr Wiles draws attention to something the outgoing Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister, Sir Peter Gluckman, said a few days ago: we are long overdue a really serious chat about genetic modification.  And not just about the science behind the Impossible Burger.

Dr Wiles points out.

Genetic modification technologies might be the only way we can really achieve our goal of being predator free. The Royal Society Te Apārangi have produced some good resources to explain what the new genetic modification technologies are, as well as some discussion papers on how the technologies may apply to predator control and healthcare.

So, what do you say New Zealand? Let’s talk.

Her article first appeared on The Spinoff.

She has written about The Impossible Burger and the future of food in the book Kai and Culture: Food Stories from Aotearoa, edited by Emma Johnson, and published by Freerange Press.

Source: Science Media Centre

Author: Bob Edlin

Editor of AgScience Magazine and Editor of the AgScience Blog

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