“Is fake meat safe?
NOTE: this article was originally published to YourAmericaNews on July 22, 2019.
There’s a substantial push in America to have “plant-based meat” replace the real McCoy.
So far, sales have outpaced demand, but some journalists have exposed possible health concerns with the genetically modified food. (Hot Air)
Fair enough, but what about the juicy nature or a real burger? We all know where it comes from… blood. But plants don’t have blood, so how are they getting these frightening burgers to “bleed” when you bite into them? Jack DeWitt, a farmer-agronomist writing at Agdaily.com, looked into the matter and found out. And the story behind this fake blood is, if anything, more lurid than the process of making the burger patties.
Their controversial “blood” source is soy leghemoglobin, the red-colored protein found in the nodules attached to the roots of soybeans and other leguminous plants. Here Rhizobium bacteria take nitrogen from the air and supply it to the plant in exchange for some carbohydrate from the plant — a symbiotic arrangement.
Boy howdy! The “red-colored protein found in the nodules attached to the roots of soybeans.” Makes your mouth water just reading the words, doesn’t it?
But DeWitt is a man of science and points out some disturbing facts here. Chief among these is the fact that Leghemoglobin “has never been consumed by humans before.” He points out that Impossible Foods conducted “very little safety testing” before injecting this fake “blood” into their burgers. Further, the FDA warned the company that they had not proven that Leghemoglobin is safe for human consumption but they’re still allowing the company to market the burgers anyway.