The Checkout: KFC’s Plant-based Chicken Sells Out, Friends of the Earth Fights Impossible Foods

Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) this week became the first American fast food chain to sell plant-based “chicken” — and it sold out in under five hours. Nuggets or boneless wings made with Beyond Fried Chicken, a partnership with plant-based brand Beyond Meat, were offered at a Smyrna, Georgia location, where the line of people waiting to try the chain’s fried, seasoned, plant-based creation wrapped around the building. Calling it a “Kentucky Fried Miracle” on Twitter, the company also told the New York Times the amount of plant-based chicken sold in those five hours is close to the amount of regular popcorn chicken the restaurant sells in one week. As the plant-based battles heat up, and larger companies jump in the ring, Beyond Meat is chasing Impossible Foods’ larger presence in foodservice, which includes Burger King, Red Robin and White Castle, just as Impossible enters retail next month. Whether Beyond Meat can meet the meat-free demand remains to be seen — a few nuggets and boneless wings at a time. Environmental organization Friends of the Earth is firing back at Impossible Foods, just as the plant-based company prepares to enter grocery next month. The group alleges that the “magic ingredient” that makes Impossible Burgers taste (and bleed) like meat — called heme — has not been properly assessed for safety, noting it has not been independently tested by a third-party lab. Indeed, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) questioned the ingredient’s safety in 2015; though it did not have generally recognized as safe (GRAS) approval at the time, the FDA later that year concluded it wasn’t unsafe and thus could still be sold. Now the ingredient is back in the juicy spotlight, just as Impossible Foods prepares for a much-anticipated retail launch. Also known as soy leghemoglobin, heme protein is found in all living things — and contains genetically modified yeast, which Friends of the Earth strongly opposes. According to a Bloomberg article, the organization said “the FDA cannot know whether there could be adverse reactions to the GMO-derived SLH in the intermediate to long-term,” until further testing is completed...MORE