((PKG)) PLANET FRIENDLY BURGER
((Banner: Less Meat))
((Reporter/Camera: Steve Baragona))
((Adapted by: Philip Alexiou))
((Map: United States / Gaithersburg, Maryland))
((NATS))
((Rob Morasco, Senior Director for Culinary Development, Sodexo))
Normally when you cook a burger on a griddle, you'll see a whole lot of juice come out of it and flow around it. But this one, as you can see, not a lot of that happening because the juice is staying in because the mushrooms are pulling all that juice back in from the meat. Rob Morasco, I am Senior Director of Culinary Development for Sodexo here in North America.
((Richard Waite, Associate, World Resources Institute))
This is potentially a dish that could have broad mainstream appeal and also a pretty big environmental benefits. So, it’s interesting to see food service companies and restaurants starting to pick this up.
Since Americans eat about 10 billion burgers per year, if 30 percent of the beef in those burgers were subbed out and replaced with mushroom, it would save as many greenhouse gas emissions as taking 2.3 million cars off the road. And it would reduce agricultural land demand by an area larger than the state of Maryland.
((Rob Morasco, Senior Director for Culinary Development, Sodexo))
So, it’s very interesting. We did a lot of work with our consumers around when you come to the topic of beef and proteins and beef in particular, what we learned from consumer surveys was cleaner label products free from artificial ingredients and preservatives, right.
((Consumers))
It doesn’t taste a lot like mushrooms.
I’m not a big fan of mushrooms, but on the burger it makes the taste perfect.
It really feels like a genuine home style burger.
((Rob Morasco, Senior Director for Culinary Development, Sodexo))
When we did the mushrooms and people cared about what was in their meat, but then when you look at vegetables compared to beef from a carbon impact standpoint and all those percentages, how vastly different it is for a pound of vegetables versus a pound of beef.
((Richard Waite, Associate, World Resources Institute))
Producing a pound of beef emits about 20 times or more greenhouse gas emissions as producing a pound of mushroom.
((Rob Morasco, Senior Director for Culinary Development, Sodexo))
But button mushrooms, the best part, not just the neutrality of flavor, the best part is the moisture absorption and retention. You can tell it’s fat because it kind of mushes under my finger where that’s a mushroom. It’s pretty solid and it’s not going anywhere. But what the beauty of the mushroom is, like I said, it will absorb whatever moisture the ground beef gives off, so it’s pretty awesome. 25 percent mushrooms, but you won’t taste any.
((Richard Waite, Associate, World Resources Institute))
So, it potentially caters to a much wider audience.
((Rob Morasco, Senior Director for Culinary Development, Sodexo))
You know, if you still like to eat a hamburger and you crave that indulgent flavor and the thick grilled char on it and all that stuff, you can still have that. It’s still actually meat, but it’s meat that is raised a little cleaner and a little more humanely and it’s got a little, slightly better health benefits for you and reduces your carbon environment impact all at the same time. I hope you like the burger.