A L T E R N AT I V E P R O T E I N S Patrick Brown M+P: Because heme is categorized as a genetically modified ingredient that is vital to the healthy appeal of the Impossible Burger, do you see that as a hurdle as far as consumer acceptance moving forward? Brown: We've been extremely open about the fact that we made one of our critical ingredients using a genetically engineered yeast strain and we seize every opportunity to make that clear. We've seen no evidence that this has caused any problems with consumer acceptance. I think actually the problem and my theory of why this whole issue of GMOs has created so much heat is that for a long time the biggest sort of GMO ingredients and crops were treated by their producers as a dirty little secret. We've taken the opposite approach. We will answer any questions about it. This is the absolute best way in terms of environmental IFT - Chicago Booth #S0802 Quick Test Guarantees Happy Bites! CT3 ™ Texture Analyzer Best value in a stand-alone instrument for quantifying cutting, biting & chewing Wide range of probes and fixtures including: TA-SBA Shear Blade ̈ for meat shearing and cutting tests TA-52 (MOHRS) Shear Blade for confining incision to a small localized test area Compression Mode to evaluate cutting & penetration force OHRS) TA-52 (M TEL 800-628-8139 or 508-946-6200 www.belusa.com 40 MEAT+ POULTRY | 04.18 | www.meatpoultry.com impact and food safety to produce this critical ingredient. M+P: Constantly improving the formulation, the mouthfeel and achieving acceptance among consumers is an ongoing and concerted effort throughout the company. Is that something you think the livestock industry gave up on? Lipman: The cow did not evolve to be delicious. Breeders have done their best to improve beef. A lot of that is really about cost and other things. We're talking about a relatively simple system that we can control all the ingredients and with the proper research and experimentation we can keep improving that. Being guided by sensory - that is really the key thing. Our product is being designed to be delicious for meat eaters. There's no reason for improvement to ever plateau. Lee: Consumers not only want it today, they've been wanting it for a really long time. It's just that no one's been giving it to them until us. This mission we're on is because the consumer is demanding it. It's really about them changing the world with our great technology versus us doing it to them. M+P: Is delivering on that promise feasible from a supply standpoint if demand continues to grow for your plant-based products, especially if the expectation is for the inputs to be natural, local and/or organic? Lee: We have to be accessible and affordable. The four major ingredients are natural, including the heme. But we made the deliberate choice not to be precious, or local...or organic. Everything we do is around 'let the most meat eaters have the most crave-able product made from plants all while optimizing for sustainability and minimizing the footprint.' The whole reason the company was created was to massively reduce thehttp://www.belusa.com http://www.meatpoultry.com