Heme is an iron-containing molecule that is essential for life. It’s found in every living being -- both plants and animals. (In animals, heme is carried by hemoglobin and myoglobin, among other proteins.)
Although heme has been consumed every day for hundreds of thousands of years, Impossible Foods discovered that it’s what makes meat taste so meaty. We make the heme for Impossible™ Beef Made From Plants using a yeast genetically engineered with the gene for soy leghemoglobin, which is derived from soy plants.