Taste-testing alternative protein burgers

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More and more people are trying to go meatless for health, environmental, or ethical reasons, but not all of them are willing to say goodbye to burgers — which is why there’s an entire industry working on alternatives to meat patties, and an increasing number of restaurants putting them on the menu. KTCHNrebl tried the burger alternatives.

How do vegan and insect burgers measure up?

The KTCHNrebel editorial team likes eating new and interesting food at least as much as they like writing about it, so they decided to taste a few for themselves. Testers sampled vegan (purely plant-based) patties by Beyond Meat and Brand C*, along with an insect protein-based option by bugfoundation.

Burger tasting: Andreas Deyerle and Björn Pölking | Image: RATIONAL

For comparison purposes, we snuck a Block House beef burger onto their plates, too… but since they didn’t know one of the options was the real deal, we’re only rating the alternative protein patties. Of course, it wouldn’t be KTCHNrebel without a little help from some culinary expert friends: Björn Pölking, Rational’s former Head of Culinary Excellence and former Head of Food Development at McDonald’s; Florian Hartmann, a former Michelin-starred chef; Andreas Deyerler, Head of Restaurants and Event Services at Rational; and Tamara Bajski, Rational culinary expert and a former product developer with Dean&David.

So what’s in those alternative burgers?

Beyond Meat’s 113-gram patties are packed with 20-grams of pea protein; This is only topped by the Impossible Burger, which has 27-grams protein per patty.

Alternative burgers: Vegan vs. Insects vs. Meat

Comparison: Beyond Meat vs. Brand C* vs. bugfoundations vs. beef patty | Image: RATIONAL

Although meat alternatives aren’t as high in calories as conventional burgers, they’re not “light” products, either— fat-free foods don’t sizzle on the grill as well, and aren’t nearly as convincing imitations of real meat— but health-conscious consumers will appreciate that options like the Impossible Food burger are very low in saturated fat.

	Total Fat	Total Fat	Calories	Calories	Protein	Protein
	Patty	100g	Patty	100g	Patty	100g
Impossible Food (113g)	17g	15 g	290 kcal	257 kcal	27 g	24g
Brand C* (170g)	34 g	20g	421 kcal	248 kcal	25 g	14 g
Beyond Meat (113g)	20 g	18 g	270 kcal	239 kcal	20 g	18 g
Bugfoundation (98g)	19 g	19 g	276 kcal	282 kcal	20 g	21 g
Block House (200g)	44 g	22 g	530 kcal	265 kcal	34 g	17 g

Our six testers did a semi-blind taste test (no actual blindfolds, but without knowing which burger was which) and then rated the samples according to different criteria, using a scale of 1 (not at all) to 4 (absolutely).

Culinary Experts Tamara Bajinski and Florian Hartmann ranking the four burgers | Image: RATIONAL

The results are in!

Beyond Meat

Burger 1: the Beyond Meat patty | Image: RATIONAL

The Beyond Meat burger (vegan but without soy) scored the highest overall, and came closest to real meat in terms of both “bite” and taste.

“Beyond Meat and Brand C* are clearly aimed at flexitarians, people who sometimes decide not to eat meat, but still want that burger feeling,” says Sascha Barby, who led the test. Testers rated the two plant-based patties as particularly juicy, which was one reason that many of them said they’d be willing to offer the Beyond Meat burger to their customers (along with the insect burger).

“It plays with grill and smoke flavors nicely to compensate its lack of inherent taste.”

– Björn Pölking

**Brand C* Burger**

Burger 2: Brand C* burger patty | Image: RATIONAL

Brand C*’s plant-based option (featuring pea, soy, and wheat protein) was also rated as juicy; the raw patty looks the most similar to beef of the three, and the finished product has the most pronounced grill marks. Testers noted that it was firmer in texture than the other two.

“It’s perfect imperfection,”

Pölking says. “The raw product doesn’t look as industrially processed as others do.” The Brand C* burger lost points primarily on (after)taste and consistency, which some testers described as “artificial”.

Bugfoundation

The bugfoundation patty | Image: RATIONAL

It isn’t vegan (60% insect protein, 40% soy), but the jury rated the bugfoundation “good” on taste. Many of them were surprised to discover it was insect-based, perhaps because they deemed the bug burger drier than the others and least like meat from a visual standpoint. Even so, many of the testers said they’d serve it to their customers. Andreas Deyerler:

“It’s well-seasoned, a bit spicy on the tip of your tongue.”

Full comparision chart:

	Beyond Meat	Brand C*	Bugfoundation
The burger/the patty:	Burger 1	Burger 2	Burger 3
is pleasant to bite into.	3	1,9	2,7
has a pleasant consistency.	3	1,7	2,8
looks appetizing.	2,5	2	2,4
is juicy.	3,3	3	2,2
tastes good overall.	3,1	1,8	2,8
taste is similar to real beef.	2,3	1,8	1,4
meets my expectations of a good burger.	2,5	1,8	1,8
is something I would serve my customers.	2,6	1,3	2,6
OVERALL SCORE	2,8	1,9	2,3

When it was all said and done, our six testers crowned the Beyond Meat burger the clear winner.

Tested alternative burgers in comparison

Test review: Beyond Meat vs Brand C* vs bugfoundation | Image: RATIONAL

Availability and price by country

Based on our purchases we have calculated the following prices per patty. Please consider them only as reference value which varies by dealer and country! Purchased via a distributor Beyond Meat costs ca. 2,54 EUR/patty. For the insect-based bugfoundation patty we paid ca. 1,48 EUR/patty via a German retailer. Impossible Foods and Brand C* did not communicate their prices. Availability is as follows:

Impossible Foods burger: Great Store locator