I can't believe it's not meat: scientists create vegie burger patty that 'bleeds'

Vegie burgers have come a long way from mung bean mush and rubbery processed patties. Sydney boasts a dedicated vegetarian 'butcher', Melbourne plant-based burger chain Lord of the Fries has made the move to Sydney, and an outlet serving only kale-based burgers has been crowd-funded in Chicago.

But the latest in vego-burger innovation takes mock-meat patties to whole new level. American company Impossible Foods has created a realistic-looking faux-patty that can be grilled to blushing-pink medium rare, leaches a red juice when cooked and develops a charred crust.

The blood-like component comes from harnessing haem from plants – a molecule that is responsible for the red colour of blood. The Impossible Foods team found that the haem helped to unlock the burger's red meat flavour, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The bioengineered burger is the brainchild of university professor and biologist Patrick Brown, whose start-up Impossible Foods has secured millions of dollars in financial backing from Bill Gates, Google Ventures and others.

The Impossible Foods team deconstructed the tastes and textures of mince meat at a molecular level, and stripped plant products down into compounds to mimic the make-up of animal tissue, fats, and muscle proteins.

An individual patty costs about $US20 to produce. Impossible Foods has been trialling the burgers in food trucks and hope to be distributing patties in late 2015, the Wall Street Journal says.

Various laboratories have been experimenting with growing and culturing meat from animal cells in recent years – such as the $325,000 petrie dish steak – but the Impossible Burger has been developed using plant compounds only.

Suzy Spoon uses a uses a "mince-like" textured vegetable protein in her burger patties at her vegetarian 'butcher'/cafe in Sydney's Newtown. They took a year to perfect.

She has noticed increasing interest in meat alternatives in recent years.

"You're thinking of the texture, the flavour and the cutability … it's a juggle of the ingredients to get it just right. More important than the texture is the flavour.

"It's a meat alternative and it does have that meaty look, people go, 'Oh my god I can't believe it's not meat' – that's cool, but really, the paramount thing is that it tastes delicious."