Rebel whopper, which is made from a soyabean protein based vegetarian Patty, will go on sale in 25 countries including Germany, Spain and Italy on Tuesday and in the UK early next year, the financial times reported.
Unilever is a newcomer to the whole new world of plant-based meat. Unilever, the global daily chemicals giant, bought vegetarian butchers, a netherlands-based plant-based meat company, about 11 months ago, hoping to catch up with big food manufacturers such as Tyson Foods.
This is isn't the first time burger king has introduced a plant-based burger. In August, burger king rolled out the Impossible Whopper meatless burger to Impossible Foods, one of the two largest us plant-based companies. Impossible Foods is still applying for a European sales licence, the ft said.
David Shear, burger king's director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said, "there are many companies to choose from in the plant-based meat market, and we made the best choice after considering the texture and quality."
In terms of price, according to Reuters, rebel whopper's price is close to that of beef burgers sold in Europe. In North America, a plant-based burger costs $1 to $1.50 more than a plain meat burger. Burger king's Impossible Whopper, for example, costs $5.59 each, $1.40 more than the $4.19 price of a regular Whopper.
Impossible Foods also made its debut in mainland China during the second expo, which ended last week, bringing plant-based burgers as well as lion heads and shaomai. At the time, Impossible Foods founder and chief executive Patrick Brown told reporters that burger king's sales would reach their highest level in nearly four years this year thanks to the success of Impossible Whopper.
The financial times cited UBS estimates that while the vegetable meat market will reach $50bn by 2025, it is still dwarfed by the pure meat market, with global consumers spending $1.2tn a year on meat products.
the artificial meat burger
The term "artificial meat burger" refers to a product produced by artificial means that is similar in nutrition and taste to meat.
