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Comment by caymanjim | Hacker News Reader

> What's bizarre is that beef burger makers see this as a threat worth addressing... like, nobody's accidentally buying veggie burgers.

I think that's exactly what they're worried about, though. There wasn't much chance of confusion before, so it wasn't a big priority. Now that vegetable alternatives like the Impossible "patty" are becoming indistinguishable from beef, they're more concerned. If McDonald's or some other giant purveyor of beef could switch and save money, they would. They're rightly worried about a loss of market as the meat alternatives get better at mocking the real thing.

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People keep saying "indistinguishable from beef" but oh boy... I literally don't know what burgers these people have been trying.

I've tried them all, including the newest versions, and they're still not even close. They're fine, but still completely different... kind of like how soy milk is fine but certainly doesn't taste anything like cow milk. And I'm certainly not a supertaster or anything...

I'm personally of the opinion we'll have self-driving cars long before we come up with a non-meat burger that is actually as satisfying, in the same ways, as a beef one.

I agree, it's not that Impossible is anywhere near a good real hamburger, but when it comes to fast food, the bar is low. With all the low-grade beef, fillers, and flavor science involved, I bet I couldn't tell the difference in, say, a White Castle burger or a Taco Bell burrito. They might not be there yet, but they're damn close. That's the market the industry is rightfully concerned with.

I think people underestimate the quality of meat in fast food.

At least for McD's, for example, it's 100% beef and salt, no fillers or flavor science needed, just browning reactions from a hot griddle. The quality bar is actually pretty high for, say, a quarter pounder, and the flavor of the sandwich is predominantly the beef itself -- flavors like American cheese, raw onion, ketchup and bread are quite weak in comparison.

Taco Bell is a little different -- it's about 10% seasoning and 90% beef because that's what taco meat is supposed to be, but again the browned beef is the primary flavor component of the taco -- no amount of cumin will make up for it.

I'm not sure where people get the idea that fast food beef is somehow tasteless, low-quality, or engineered in any way that, say, home hamburgers aren't. It seems like it's just this urban myth that perpetuates itself because it's fun to believe.

The truly amusing part is that they think spending money on labeling issues will do anything to stop it

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