Anyone try the KFC Beyond nuggets?

[maxaroni]

We won‘t try them due to being fried. If they weren’t fried, we’d would most definitely try them. We eat impossible beef and have made burgers and used the plain chop meat in sloppy joes. We mix the impossible beef with ground turkey for a meat loaf.

Not sure I would have even tried any of it if my DH hadn’t had triple heart bypass. Our daughter in law suggested DS go to the cardiologist as heart disease runs in DHs side. Cardiologist told DS to try and eat more of a plant based diet. There are many things that DS has had that he likes and we have also incorporated more of the plant based items into our diets.

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[DLgal]

I'd rather just eat less meat than eat fake meat. If I'm going to eat vegetables, I'd like them to be recognizable as such. All of these meat substitutes skeeve me out.

 

[ronandannette]

I have not tried them and probably won't, but if they coated cauliflower florets in KFC coating and deep fried those, well I'd definitely be up for trying that!

You might be on to something! I'm an unapologetic omnivoir and I see no reason why I'd ever bother with meat substitutes. That said, I also LOVE vegetables and novel ways to have them prepared. I'd go for Finger Lickin' Florets as a side over fries for sure!

 

[luvnwdwgal]

I stay away from all that stuff. Too much sodium.

 

[MomOfDisneyPrincess]

You might be on to something! I'm an unapologetic omnivoir and I see no reason why I'd ever bother with meat substitutes. That said, I also LOVE vegetables and novel ways to have them prepared. I'd go for Finger Lickin' Florets as a side over fries for sure!

Finger Likin' Florets!!! I LOVE IT!!!

 

[TwoMisfits]

I'd rather just eat less meat than eat fake meat. If I'm going to eat vegetables, I'd like them to be recognizable as such. All of these meat substitutes skeeve me out.

That is exactly how I feel...the PP who mentioned them being "long lasting chemical creations" is also how I see them. They aren't food - they are alt-food. And the PP who mentioned deep fried ACTUAL veg would be good - if I could eat it there, that would be my 100% preference.

But, with my allergies, I can't eat at KFC, so I couldn't try them even if I wanted to.

 

[Mysterian]

I’ve heard the plant-based meat industry is better for the environment, yet the food’s still highly processed. I wouldn’t mind trying it once out of curiosity, but with healthy eating in mind, I still stay away from fast food.

By the way, everyone just remember that the film Soylent Green took place in 2022. Relevance to topic? Minimal, but just subtle enough to apply. Dun-dun-dunnnnnnnn!

 

[DisGirlAllie]

I've had a few friends who are vegetarian/vegan try them and they've gotten mixed reviews. The consensus seems to be that if you like beyond beef products, you'd like these.

 

[penn19]

You might be on to something! I'm an unapologetic omnivoir and I see no reason why I'd ever bother with meat substitutes. That said, I also LOVE vegetables and novel ways to have them prepared. I'd go for Finger Lickin' Florets as a side over fries for sure!

Buffalo Wild Wings sells fried cauliflower florets. You can get them rolled in different sauces. They’re pretty decent but I wouldn’t equate the coating with KFC. I wonder if they’d make them extra crispy if I asked? That would be pretty good.

 

[Lilsia]

I’ve had the plant based chicken and burgers. I’ve tried. I really have. I can’t get over the texture. If I had a baby today I’d probably raise it with plant based so they don’t get used to the yummy deliciousness of regular meat!

I am not against vegetarianism or veganism, but there is something about these items that are so processed and have so many additives in them, that I can't imagine that they are better for you then actual meat. I think in fact that they have shown that they are not better for you. I can see if you can't or don't want to eat meat, but I would stick to eating more natural items over these processes, lab made items. JMO

 

[bcla]

This is for the people that are not necessarily have a moral objection, just don't want to eat meat. I have worked in food for over 30 years and there are plenty of people that are fine with this. Not every place can retrofit or have a dedicated area to such a small percentage of their menu. I wonder how well they will do. It seems as if all of the fast food places are trying to get at least one Impossible alternative on the menu. I would be interested in knowing how many they sell. I imagine it is a food trend.

It was always interesting going to Red Robin with a Hindu vegetarian. Not only was meat not on the table, but with a strenuous objection to beef. No objection to anyone else, but man that was odd. His only option was the veggie burger at the time, although I'm not sure exactly what it was. Might have been mostly black beans. I'm not even sure they reserved a part of the grill just for that. Even the Hindus I knew of that had no objection to chicken might have been upset if the grill was used for beef, or others like Muslims who might object if the same grill was used for bacon. I've worked with lots of people from different backgrounds, and finding places that would be fine for everyone could be tricky.

Burger King doesn't cook the Impossible Whopper on a separate setup except on request. They'll clean off an area to do that. Not sure about Red Robin. They claim they have vegetarian/vegan options, which sounds like a separate area, but I guess one should ask to make sure.

 

[pigletto]

I am a-ok with alt food because at least it’s a fast food option for people that isn’t factory farming. People aren’t going to fast food places for “real food” or their health anyway.

 

[bcla]

I know what the tagline is on it, but personally, I'm more of the opinion that it's just a way to harness humans into eating more blobs of chemical goo that are cheaper to get into households because the goo doesn't go bad & is cheaper to transport, just like with sugar and corn syrup. Humans need to eat, it's expensive to get good food to poor people so to me, maybe this is plan B.

Not a betting person but I would venture to bet that that if you put impossible foods next to whatever it is simulating side by side in the fridge the real world food would rot many times faster.

Caveat Emptor, thanks for teaching me that Ralph Nader.

It's mostly not a chemical concoction. Impossible Foods relies on ingredient (heme) that they produce through genetic modification of a microorganism to produce a specific animal protein that seems like the blood from meat. They even claim that it "bleeds".

Beyond is mostly just blending all sorts of food ingredients. I saw the titanium dioxide, but that's pretty harmless as it can be natural, is used for cosmetics, and is found in things like the letters on M&Ms. Many of the chemical they have can be found in natural foods. Modified food starch is chemically processed food starch to make glutamates (think "hydrolyzed soy protein" as a soy sauce substitute).

 

[Lilsia]

It was always interesting going to Red Robin with a Hindu vegetarian. Not only was meat not on the table, but with a strenuous objection to beef. No objection to anyone else, but man that was odd. His only option was the veggie burger at the time, although I'm not sure exactly what it was. Might have been mostly black beans. I'm not even sure they reserved a part of the grill just for that. Even the Hindus I knew of that had no objection to chicken might have been upset if the grill was used for beef, or others like Muslims who might object if the same grill was used for bacon. I've worked with lots of people from different backgrounds, and finding places that would be fine for everyone could be tricky.

Burger King doesn't cook the Impossible Whopper on a separate setup except on request. They'll clean off an area to do that. Not sure about Red Robin. They claim they have vegetarian/vegan options, which sounds like a separate area, but I guess one should ask to make sure.

Absolutely, I never said that there are not those that want their food cooked on a different surface. My point was that since these kitchens are not able to do so, they have these warnings and they are marketing this for those people without a moral, cultural, or religious objection to meat. The problem is, depending on where you live, vegans and vegetarians are a very small minority and not worth the extra money and hassle for many restaurants to accommodate that. I am sure that will change over time, but it is very hard to retrofit a kitchen to accommodate such a small group of people. The last place that I worked for 15 years, rarely had anyone come in and say that they don't want their food prepared where meat items where also prepared.

 

[ronandannette]

It's mostly not a chemical concoction. Impossible Foods relies on ingredient (heme) that they produce through genetic modification of a microorganism to produce a specific animal protein that seems like the blood from meat. They even claim that it "bleeds".

Beyond is mostly just blending all sorts of food ingredients. I saw the titanium dioxide, but that's pretty harmless as it can be natural, is used for cosmetics, and is found in things like the letters on M&Ms. Many of the chemical they have can be found in natural foods. Modified food starch is chemically processed food starch to make glutamates (think "hydrolyzed soy protein" as a soy sauce substitute).

Here's the ingredient list for the basic Beyond Chicken Nugget product available here in Canada; having been offered by A&W quite a while before KFC. I suspect most of the ingredients are not chemical additives but instead are things we'd recognize by more common names. I also imagine some of the more questionable ingredients are actually part of the coating, not the nugget itself. Can anybody with expertise chime in?

It's also worth noting that there's absolutely NOTHING here that should make the concoction taste like chicken, so anybody who thinks it does must be subject to the power of suggestion.

 

[LuvOrlando]

It's mostly not a chemical concoction. Impossible Foods relies on ingredient (heme) that they produce through genetic modification of a microorganism to produce a specific animal protein that seems like the blood from meat. They even claim that it "bleeds".

Beyond is mostly just blending all sorts of food ingredients. I saw the titanium dioxide, but that's pretty harmless as it can be natural, is used for cosmetics, and is found in things like the letters on M&Ms. Many of the chemical they have can be found in natural foods. Modified food starch is chemically processed food starch to make glutamates (think "hydrolyzed soy protein" as a soy sauce substitute).

If it doesn't grow out of the ground or eat the stuff growing out of the ground it's in the realm of "non-food but let's stamp it edible anyway".
The most interesting part of the trajectory of these items is how it started as a health food thing but these same health food people who are hyper aware are maybe possibly giving this goop a go. If it's all about nature, well we evolved with certain sets of ingredients in our world, how anyone is convinced the tinkering won't have profound effects from an evolutionary standpoint if sort of baffling to me.

The biggest argument against this being a great idea is probably that I am about a thousand times positive that this particular set of options is neither being served nor requested with any degree of regularity in the high end pricey places the elites dine. This whatever it is, on the other hand, is being passed to the masses and less thans. If we are conserving food we really should be wondering who exactly we are conserving it for, and also, at whose expense. I don't know know the A+B=C on this but I'm pretty sure noone is going to like the answers.

Legumes are cheap and plentiful, we should be focused on this category. What I see now would never have been believed when I was a child.

 

[bcla]

If it doesn't grow out of the ground or eat the stuff growing out of the ground it's in the realm of "non-food but let's stamp it edible anyway".
The most interesting part of the trajectory of these items is how it started as a health food thing but these same health food people who are hyper aware are maybe possibly giving this goop a go. If it's all about nature, well we evolved with certain sets of ingredients in our world, how anyone is convinced the tinkering won't have profound effects from an evolutionary standpoint if sort of baffling to me.

The biggest argument against this being a great idea is probably that I am about a thousand times positive that this particular set of options is neither being served nor requested with any degree of regularity in the high end pricey places the elites dine. This whatever it is, on the other hand, is being passed to the masses and less thans. If we are conserving food we really should be wondering who exactly we are conserving it for, and also, at whose expense. I don't know know the A+B=C on this but I'm pretty sure noone is going to like the answers.

Legumes are cheap and plentiful, we should be focused on this category. What I see now would never have been believed when I was a child.

With Impossible, they are absolutely not marketing it as healthy in any way. They use tropical oils to try and mimic beef fat.

However, I'm kind of torn on some claims of "manipulation". There are a lot of things that we do to foods traditionally, where a lot of these processed foods are just variations on that. Things like fermentation. Or the use of chemicals such as lye (lutefisk) or vinegar to change the nature of foods. Native Americans had to process acorns before they could safely eat them. Cooking is a chemical process. A lot of things in nature would be difficult for humans to consume without cooking.

 

[georgina]

I rarely eat fast food, and don't go to KFC ever, so, no. My vegetarian DD eats Beyond burgers sometimes and Tofurkey sausages. I have had Impossible burgers and thought they were pretty good.

By the way, everyone just remember that the film Soylent Green took place in 2022. Relevance to topic? Minimal, but just subtle enough to apply. Dun-dun-dunnnnnnnn!

Have you seen this? Really unfortunate choice of a name IMO.

https://soylent.com/

 

[porschegrl]

Have you seen this? Really unfortunate choice of a name IMO.

https://soylent.com/

From their website:
Our founders named the product Soylent, in homage to the novel Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison. It’s a dystopian sci-fi novel that explores population growth and world resources. (Yes, we know that there is a Hollywood movie that is an adaptation of the book that involves people. See below.)

 

[Communicore1991]

Beyond meats may be good for those who are vegetarian or are unable to eat meat for some reason. However, if you are eating it to be "healthier" I stay away from it: https://www.mashed.com/192631/what-youre-really-eating-when-you-eat-a-beyond-burger/