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I鈥檝e been eating veggie burgers for a long time. If it鈥檚 sold in Canadian grocery stores or fast food restaurants, there鈥檚 a good chance I鈥檝e tried it. There are some I , and some I , but they all fall into one of two categories: fake meat and veggie.

I like a veggie burger that knows it鈥檚 made of veggies, not one that鈥檚 pretending it鈥檚 beef. Mostly because all fake meat patties seem to come out as bad imitations. But, that seems to be changing in a big way.

, made by , is a plant-based burger designed to fry, bleed, taste and smell just like beef. Incredulous? So was I.

What makes this burger different? The same thing that makes Fireball taste so good and Buckleys taste so bad. Chemistry!

The molecule responsible for the 鈥渕eaty鈥� taste of meat听is 听and it鈥檚 found in animal muscle cells in the protein . Sadly, there are no non-animal sources of myoglobin, but there is something pretty close: .

Leghemoglobin is found in the roots of legumes and can provide a 鈥渕eaty鈥� taste very similar to its animal-based brother. It鈥檚 not especially environmentally friendly or affordable to dig up bean plants for their roots, so Impossible Foods had to get creative. They yeast to make leghemoglobin, so that by growing the yeast in fermentation vats they were able to create all the heme needed to make a meaty tasting veggie burger.

Other than heme, the ingredients of an are pretty similar to any other fake meat product. Wheat and potato protein, coconut and soy oil, some binders. All perfectly safe (despite over soy and GMOs).

How does it taste? On a recent trip to New York I went out of my way to find one and was not disappointed. The texture isn鈥檛 perfectly meat-like听(or at least how I remember the texture of meat) but the taste was very similar, as was the look. But don鈥檛 just take my vegetarian opinion on the matter, here鈥檚 what , The Project Director of the ,听had to say on it:

鈥淚f I hadn't known what the Impossible Burger was - and, more to the point, what it wasn't - I'm not sure I'd have been able to tell.听It definitely wasn鈥檛 the best burger I鈥檝e ever had, but it also wasn鈥檛 the worst, and that鈥檚 pretty impressive given that the rest of them (at least, I hope the rest of them) had the head start of actually being a burger. Possibly the most remarkable thing about the Impossible Burger is that they鈥檝e managed to make a meat-substitute that differs from meat so little as to be unremarkable. If you鈥檙e looking to reduce or cut out meat but fear you鈥檒l miss the experience of eating meat, it鈥檚 a pretty solid substitute.鈥�

Sadly, the Impossible burger still isn鈥檛 available in Canada. A rival product however is being pushed by A&W: .

This meat alternative also makes about tasting, smelling and having a meat-like texture. However, as far as I can tell it contains similar ingredients to any other veggie burger, with some beet added to dye the uncooked patty red. A&W's website proudly states (several times) that their product is GMO free, a big change from Impossible Food鈥檚 pride in their GM technology.

Never one to pass up a veggie burger, I obviously went and tried the Beyond Meat Burger too. I was, to put it nicely, underwhelmed. It didn鈥檛 taste like meat. It didn鈥檛 really taste like anything other than a typical cheap veggie patty, and I honestly think I preferred A&W鈥檚 old veggie burger. It was boring enough that I鈥檒l probably just opt for some French fries next time we make a road trip stop at an A&W.

But it鈥檚 not all about taste, right? Maybe the Impossible burger is delicious but very unhealthy? Well, nutrition-wise the two new veggie burgers actually beat out their meat competitors in terms of protein and iron (two of the nutrients vegetarians often struggle to consume). The Beyond Meat Burger has a lot more fat than the Impossible burger, but is still on par with the meat burgers. Perhaps the biggest lesson to learn from comparing the burgers is that while veggie burgers tend to cost the same (or less) as meat ones, at least at A&W they鈥檙e much larger!

听

Even if you鈥檙e not passionate about finding the perfect veggie patty like I am, there are good reasons to care about the evolution of vegetarian meat alternatives.

The meat industry is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Animals raised for meat expel of all human-released methane. They also require enormous amounts of water. 1 ton (907 kg) of beef takes to produce, which is more than six times the required for a ton of soy.

There is also the animal welfare aspect of the meat industry to consider, as well as the documented health benefits to minimizing your meat intake. Technologies like lab grown meat听or ethically raised animals can help your conscience, but not your wallet or heart. Part of what makes meat-like alternatives so compelling is their affordability.

While there are issues with replacing all meat with vegetable proteins, such as plant sources lacking some nutrients and ethical issues of putting herders out of work, there is a lot to be gained by embracing a vegetarian diet (or just going veggie sometimes). The Impossible Burger, and other products I hope are available shortly, might be a simple way to do that.

Until then, I guess I鈥檒l stick to grilling Portobello mushrooms. Not such an impossible task.

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