4 ms·

Indeed, unless Burger King is using a completely separate grill for the vegetable burgers, some vegetarians/vegans are going to be upset that their vegetable pa

Indeed, unless Burger King is using a completely separate grill for the vegetable burgers, some vegetarians/vegans are going to be upset that their vegetable patty was prepared where meat was and possibly exposed to meat, and there could be kosher/halal issues.

deleted 8y ago
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Consultant32452 8y ago
I think the people who are concerned with this are familiar with how food is made at restaurants. For example, I worked at a pizza shop in high school and occasionally someone would request we wash our pizza cutter so that their veggie pizza would not be contaminated with meat from previous pizzas. We, of course, accommodated their request without issue. But I worked there for years and saw this request maybe 2-3 times. And that may have been the same customer. The people who take that level of constraint are a tiny, tiny fraction of the already smallish customer base seeking meatless/vegetarian food.
goda90 8y ago
Those people aren't the target audience. It's to get meat eaters to be willing to replace meat in their diet.
JohnFen 8y ago
I may be wrong, but I don't think BK is advertising these as vegan or even vegetarian. They appear to be very careful to say "meatless" instead, which is not inaccurate. They're certainly not advertising them as kosher/halal.
- bifrost 8y ago
  I wonder if this will turn into a "food weaselwords" debate with the FTC. Its basically going to take a concerted study and some food-lab time.
  - deleted 8y ago
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roguecoder 8y ago
This is some of why it is important to distinguish moral food specifications from health-related specification: it takes work for me to eat out anywhere that isn't exclusively vegetarian because meat contamination makes me ill, and restaurants don't understand that, for example, labeling things "vegetarian" when they are fried in the same oil as meat is misleading. Sometimes the grill is well-cleaned and it is fine, and then other times I am in for a night of misery and it's just not worth the risk.
- bifrost 8y ago
  Bingo! This is basically my problem -> I am a human detector of certain animal proteins in my food, if I ingest them my immune system gets angry. I can't be "oh its fine" about certain things in/ob my food so I tend to like vegan options.
- greglindahl 8y ago
  I stopped eating meat for ethical reasons, and after a couple of decades it makes me ill, presumably because my gut flora no longer tolerates it. So any reason to not eat meat can become a health-related specification, given time. From the sounds of it I'm nowhere near as sensitive to it as you and bifrost.
adrianmonk 8y ago
Burger King doesn't use a grill at all. They flame-broil their burgers. I believe some (or all?) of them use a Nieco ( https://nieco.com/ https://nieco.com/ ) brand broiler that basically has a metal conveyor belt that carries the patty through a flame. See this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSuLWkBt5MI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSuLWkBt5MI They could, if they wanted, designate one lane solely for Impossible patties (and other non-meat products). If they don't, looks by the time the belt makes it way back through the flame, whatever residue on it will have been mostly reduced to ash. I would guess the belt wouldn't transfer meat grease and crumbs onto a veggie patty as much as a grill would. But, after it leaves the belt, it slides down to a holding area, where it would come into contact with whatever else was on the belt before it.
- bifrost 8y ago
  Its shared equipment so the effect is the same (grill/broil). I believe you have to hit around 1600F to denature the proteins so "ash" is really more like "crispy protein". If you look at the output side you'll see some pretty tasty carmelized beef stuff, so you're 100% correct, they'd have to dedicate a lane...
MagicPropmaker 8y ago
No person who keeps Kosher eats at Burger King. Even their restaurant here in Israel isn't Kosher https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/burger-king-returns-to-israel-1.5398668 https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/burger-king-returns-to-i...
- Mediterraneo10 8y ago
  TIL. But McDonalds in Israel is kosher, so why didn’t Burger King adopt the same policies in order to better complete with McD?
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    Its a franchise, not a company store; a narrower rule for franchises in Israel might mean that instead of 1 in Israel, they have 0. They make more money off 1 than 0, so... Were Burger King to actively seek to compete in Israel, they might adopt a kosher policy (and might also enforce it on franchisees, in order to protect the brand image). But since they aren't doing that, why bother with extra restrictions on who can pay them money to run a franchise?
  - MagicPropmaker 8y ago
    No doubt if they expand into Jerusalem they will be. They may have wanted to have a restaurant in Tel Aviv that can be open on Shabbos for non-Jewish tourists and business travelers. (Though the food is so good in Israel, I wonder why anyone would seek out a burger chain.)
  - MagicPropmaker 8y ago
    Only 50 out of 180 McDonalds in Israel are Kosher (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s_Israel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s_Israel )

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

Consultant32452 8y ago

I think the people who are concerned with this are familiar with how food is made at restaurants. For example, I worked at a pizza shop in high school and occasionally someone would request we wash our pizza cutter so that their veggie pizza would not be contaminated with meat from previous pizzas. We, of course, accommodated their request without issue. But I worked there for years and saw this request maybe 2-3 times. And that may have been the same customer. The people who take that level of constraint are a tiny, tiny fraction of the already smallish customer base seeking meatless/vegetarian food.

goda90 8y ago

Those people aren't the target audience. It's to get meat eaters to be willing to replace meat in their diet.

JohnFen 8y ago

I may be wrong, but I don't think BK is advertising these as vegan or even vegetarian. They appear to be very careful to say "meatless" instead, which is not inaccurate. They're certainly not advertising them as kosher/halal.

bifrost 8y ago
I wonder if this will turn into a "food weaselwords" debate with the FTC. Its basically going to take a concerted study and some food-lab time.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

roguecoder 8y ago

This is some of why it is important to distinguish moral food specifications from health-related specification: it takes work for me to eat out anywhere that isn't exclusively vegetarian because meat contamination makes me ill, and restaurants don't understand that, for example, labeling things "vegetarian" when they are fried in the same oil as meat is misleading. Sometimes the grill is well-cleaned and it is fine, and then other times I am in for a night of misery and it's just not worth the risk.

bifrost 8y ago
Bingo! This is basically my problem -> I am a human detector of certain animal proteins in my food, if I ingest them my immune system gets angry. I can't be "oh its fine" about certain things in/ob my food so I tend to like vegan options.
greglindahl 8y ago
I stopped eating meat for ethical reasons, and after a couple of decades it makes me ill, presumably because my gut flora no longer tolerates it. So any reason to not eat meat can become a health-related specification, given time. From the sounds of it I'm nowhere near as sensitive to it as you and bifrost.

adrianmonk 8y ago

Burger King doesn't use a grill at all. They flame-broil their burgers. I believe some (or all?) of them use a Nieco ( https://nieco.com/ https://nieco.com/ ) brand broiler that basically has a metal conveyor belt that carries the patty through a flame. See this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSuLWkBt5MI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSuLWkBt5MI They could, if they wanted, designate one lane solely for Impossible patties (and other non-meat products). If they don't, looks by the time the belt makes it way back through the flame, whatever residue on it will have been mostly reduced to ash. I would guess the belt wouldn't transfer meat grease and crumbs onto a veggie patty as much as a grill would. But, after it leaves the belt, it slides down to a holding area, where it would come into contact with whatever else was on the belt before it.

bifrost 8y ago
Its shared equipment so the effect is the same (grill/broil). I believe you have to hit around 1600F to denature the proteins so "ash" is really more like "crispy protein". If you look at the output side you'll see some pretty tasty carmelized beef stuff, so you're 100% correct, they'd have to dedicate a lane...

MagicPropmaker 8y ago

No person who keeps Kosher eats at Burger King. Even their restaurant here in Israel isn't Kosher https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/burger-king-returns-to-israel-1.5398668 https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/burger-king-returns-to-i...

Mediterraneo10 8y ago
TIL. But McDonalds in Israel is kosher, so why didn’t Burger King adopt the same policies in order to better complete with McD?
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  Its a franchise, not a company store; a narrower rule for franchises in Israel might mean that instead of 1 in Israel, they have 0. They make more money off 1 than 0, so... Were Burger King to actively seek to compete in Israel, they might adopt a kosher policy (and might also enforce it on franchisees, in order to protect the brand image). But since they aren't doing that, why bother with extra restrictions on who can pay them money to run a franchise?
- MagicPropmaker 8y ago
  No doubt if they expand into Jerusalem they will be. They may have wanted to have a restaurant in Tel Aviv that can be open on Shabbos for non-Jewish tourists and business travelers. (Though the food is so good in Israel, I wonder why anyone would seek out a burger chain.)
- MagicPropmaker 8y ago
  Only 50 out of 180 McDonalds in Israel are Kosher (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s_Israel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s_Israel )