Leghemoglobin

Type of Protein	Meat - Functional
Protein name	Leghemoglobin
Companies producing this protein	Impossible foods
Function (dairy alternative, colorant, texture, taste...)	Colorant and taste enhancer (Ahmad et al., 2023)
Target application (cheese, infant formula, meat...)	Used in plant-based meat alternatives (H. Wu et al., 2024)
Purity requirement/purification values	≥65% pure for the leghemoglobin additive of Impossible Foods (Younes et al., 2024)
Techno-functional properties	Give typical red meat color when not cooked and dull-brown color when cooked (Ahmad et al., 2023) Gives a similar flavor profile as triditional meat (Ahmad et al., 2023)
Nutritional properties	Good source of iron, especially in plant-based diets (Świątek et al., 2023)
Advantages	Adding leghemoglobin to plant-based meats increases its nutritional value and taste (Ahmad et al., 2023) Low risk of allergenicity and toxicity (Y. Jin et al., 2017)
Challenges/risk factors	Leghemoglobin is less stable than myoglobin due to higher rate of auto-oxidation (Hargrove et al., 1997)

Kluyveromyces marxianus

Corynebacterium glutamicum

Komagatella phaffi (Pichia pastoris)