AI beefs up veggie burgers as market booms

I enjoy a good beef-alternative burger periodically. A nice halloumi burger, or a portabello burger, or even some chickpea patties can be pretty yummy.

I find the fake meats to be a little nauseating though. I prefer to have a real-meat burger.

When they first came out, veggie burgers could be pretty awful. Not so today. Some of them are delicious, as well as healthy.

Veggie burgers can be healthy, but those fake meat burgers are high in saturated fat, heavily processed (processed food is not good for you), and often very high in sodium. If you're not going to eat meat, then go with a proper veggie burger. But if you're aiming for a healthy diet, these fake meat burgers are best to skip. And if you really feel the desire for a burger enough to eat a fake meat burger, just eat a quality real-meat burger, it will be much healthier for you. You're not ready to give up meat. When you're ready to give it up, you won't want or feel the need to eat fake meat.

@NAM: I certainly agree with you, I love a good falafel patty and a grilled portobello mushroom on a bun with slices of tomato, onion, roasted pepper, and a sprinkling of gorgonzola if you're going vegetarian rather than vegan is hard to beat.

A burgeoning veggie burger industry is using artificial intelligence to propose alternatives.

"Artificial intelligence can generate millions of possibilities," Barra said.

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He said the algorithms can generate not only a wide range of flavor combinations but also factor in shifting consumer preferences, along with technical or regulatory constraints.

The algorithms can propose multiple combinations that the human expert aromaticians might not have conceived.

Algorithm does not equal AI and neither does equal to ML. AI is thesedays mostly a buzzword, hidden behind a plain algorithm. An algorithm is any form of automated instruction, written piece of code.

I really prefer falafel and black bean burgers. I never saw the point of trying to make plants taste like meat, but I understand some people are really into it. I wish Japan had more variety of just bean-based or mushroom-based food, rather than all this over processed fake meat stuff. To each their own I suppose

tokyo-m:

When I compare the vegan foods available back home in the supermarkets in the UK, and the vegan foods available in the supermarkets here in Japan, I want to cry. Change is coming to Japan, but it's so, so slow.

I know what you mean. I wish I could step into a UK supermarket (via a wormhole) for 10 minutes everyday to do my shopping. It's not just the vegan food, but also the variety, price, lack of annoying music and no announcements being shouted into my ears. So many types of plant-based yoghurts, lots of vegan savoury stuff that don't rely on soy, inexpensive plant-based milks, healthy wholegrain breads, vegan Kit Kat for junk food addicts too!

When they first came out, veggie burgers could be pretty awful. Not so today. Some of them are delicious, as well as healthy.

Just what we need, more chemical foods. Not like we are ingesting a ton already.