Impossible Burger Clears First Food Safety Hurdle in Europe

Impossible Foods Inc. has made it past the first hurdle in a protracted process to sell its plant-based burger in the European Union, the world’s biggest alternative-meat market.

The European Food Safety Authority has ruled that soy leghemoglobin, an additive in the Impossible Burger known as ‘heme,’ doesn’t raise safety concerns at the proposed use and level of use, according to a filing. The ingredient helps the burger taste and smell like meat and is derived from a genetically modified yeast strain Komagataella phaffii, formerly named Pichia pastoris.

The decision by the EU’s food-safety watchdog marks ...