(Koshertoday.com) The kosher community warmly welcomed the vegetarian, pareve, Impossible Burger, produced by the Impossible Foods Company, soon after it was certified by the OU last summer. The Impossible Burger, currently available wholesale and offered in selected restaurants, has a retail offering coming out soon. The patty uses wheat, coconut oil, potatoes, as well as the newer ingredient heme, a molecule that gives the burger its meaty taste. Heme contains iron and can be found in every single plant and animal. The heme molecule in plant-based heme is identical to the heme molecule found in meat. That’s what allows for the richness of the Impossible Burger.

The meatless burger was one of the new foods that is part of the growing trend for healthier foods, according to Tim Ryan, Ph.D, president of the Culinary Institute of America, one of the world’s most prestigious culinary institutions.

Ryan’s comments were not lost on the kosher food experts in the audience who participated in a session “Kosher…It’s Not for Jews Anymore, with presentations by Menachem Lubinsky, founder of Kosherfest and Rabbi Moshe Elefant, COO of the Orthodox Union.

The presentations were part of the Hudson Valley Food & Beverage Innovation Summit on May 14th. In a 45-minute presentation, Ryan showed some examples of the new trends in foods, all welcomed by the kosher community because of the relative ease that some of these natural products can be certified.