Impossible Foods seeks to assure public its vegetarian burger is safe

Impossible Foods, maker of the plant-based Impossible Burger, issued a news release to assure the public of the safety of its product after the New York Times published documents that reveal Food and Drug Administration concerns about a key ingredient, including whether it is an allergen.   The much-promoted burger uses soybean leghemoglobin protein extracted from soybean roots as part of its proprietary process and formula that extracts heme (also found in blood) from plants to give its burger an appearance similar to ground beef.The company is asking the FDA to grant the protein GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status. In a document obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by ETC Group and shared with the New York Times, agency officials stated, “Although proteins are a part of the human food supply, not all proteins are safe. Information addressing the safe use of modified soy protein does not adequately address safe use of soybean leghemoglobin protein from the roots of the soybean plant in food.”