FDA approval of 'plant blood' would allow Impossible Burger to be sold in raw form at grocery stores beginning Sept. 4

The Food and Drug Administration has cleared the way for the Impossible Burger with soy leghemoglobin — also known as "plant blood" — to be sold in its raw form in grocery stores.

The Impossible Burger (Photo by Getty Images)

An FDA rule making soy leghemoglobin a safe color additive will take effect Sept. 4 if no objections are raised that cause the agency to reverse its ruling, Bloomberg reports.

When heated, soy leghemoglobin lends the look and taste of real ground beef to the Impossible Burger by releasing the iron-based compound heme “the same way myoglobin in beef would release its heme,” Pat Clinton writes for The New Food Economy. “Heme is part of the characteristic flavor of meat, which is why Impossible wanted it in the first place.”

The Impossible Burger has been sold in restaurants for years (Burger King will offer an Impossible Whopper at all of its 7,000 U.S. restaurants beginning Aug. 8), but the raw version couldn’t be sold in stores without an FDA rule change about the safety of the color additive. Now Impossible Burger is poised to compete in stores with the other major plant-based, fake meat, Beyond Burger.

“Beyond’s shares have rocketed nearly eightfold since the company’s May initial public offering, putting the company’s current value at $11.8 billion,” The Wall Street Journal reports. “Late Wednesday, Beyond conducted a sale of 3.25 million shares at $160 each. Meanwhile, Impossible in May raised $300 million in new funding from private investors, valuing the company at $2 billion.”