Fast-food giant Burger King is launching a lab GMO sandwich of plant origin. The FDA has approved the new food, although the meat has not been tested for safety.
The fast food chain Burger King will offer a meatless sandwich “Impossible Whopper”. Vegetable meat, offered as a vegan alternative to burgers, is developed in the laboratory by genetic engineering. No safety tests are known.
Bleeding Vegetable GMO Meat
Impossible Burger looks like real meat with bloody juice. This vegetable meat releases a compound called heme made by a process of synthetic biology (synbio).
Heme occurs naturally in beef and is released during the cooking process. Heme can also be obtained from the roots of soybean plants. But it is not sustainable, because one acre of soy is needed to produce one kilogram of soy heme.
The FDA Approved the Synbio Compound
Synbio hems are produced by inserting the genetic code for heme protein into genetically modified yeast. After the yeast is fed, it produces hems.
The FDA recently approved this synbio “heme” as an additive to paints, meaning that Impossible Burger can be sold in supermarkets. Rules for the sale of plant products in restaurants are not defined.
Biopharmaceutical Compounds in Food
Many biopharmaceutical compounds have been produced using synthetic biology yeasts, including antimicrobials such as penicillin, or painkillers (hydrocodone, opioids), and antioxidants (resveratrol, β-carotene, lycopene).
None of the foods produced by synbio need be labeled as “bioengineered”. Novel foods will appear on the market that will lack genetic engineering safety testing.
Source: https://healthimpactnews.com/2019/what-makes-impossible-burger-possible-new-gmo-plant-based-meat-approved-by-fda-but-not-tested/, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wrQWxTwLdI&feature=emb_title
