Impossible Foods product-development associate scientist Kyle Okada measures plant-based burgers tailor-made for Burger King at a facility in Redwood City, Calif. (Jane Lanhee Lee/Reuters)
Yet Burger King does have one advantage as the chain introduces the Impossible Burger: The patty will be based on Impossible’s 2.0 formulation, which the company announced this year, according to CNET. The new formulation, according to the tech magazine, can better withstand the rough treatment that patties, beef or otherwise, receive in a fast-food environment. The company’s latest vegetarian patty is also, apparently, good enough to fool taste testers. A CNET reporter sampled the Impossible patty after it was grilled on one of Burger King’s flame broilers and substituted for the meat in a Whopper purchased from a bricks-and-mortar location.
“The remarkable thing was how unremarkable they were: Nothing gives away the fact that this Whopper contains a different main ingredient,” Brian Cooley wrote.
Should Burger King make a success of the Impossible Whopper, the billion-dollar question is: What will McDonald’s do in response? McDonald’s has more than triple the sales of Burger King in the United States, according to a QSR magazine chart based on 2016 sales. McDonald’s has a McVegan burger available only in Finland and Sweden.
But if history in any indication, McDonald’s could be pressed to introduce its own veg burger, should the public take a shine to the Impossible Whopper. In his 1977 autobiography, “Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s,” Ray Kroc, the man who transformed McDonald’s into a fast-food behemoth, wrote, “The Big Mac resulted from our need for a larger sandwich to compete against Burger King and a variety of specialty shop concoctions.”
Could history repeat itself?”