What Is the MorningStar Farms Incogmeato Burger?
Incogmeato is the "for meat-eaters" sub-brand that Kellanova (formerly Kellogg's) built under the MorningStar Farms umbrella, and the Original Burger Patty is its flagship product. Unlike the classic MorningStar veggie burgers that have been sitting in freezer aisles for decades — the ones built from vegetables, grains, and mushrooms that never tried to fool anyone — Incogmeato is engineered to compete directly with Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. It's soy-based, it's meant to sizzle and char on a grill, and it's marketed squarely at people who aren't vegan but are curious about cutting back on meat.
The burger ships frozen, usually in a box of two or four 1/4-pound patties, and shows up in the refrigerated or frozen meat-alternative section next to Beyond and Impossible at most major grocery chains. It's one of the more widely distributed plant-based burgers in the U.S., which matters if you've ever driven to three stores looking for a specific brand that turned out to be a regional exclusive.
Ingredients
The Incogmeato Original Burger Patty's ingredient list is short by plant-based-meat standards: water, soy protein concentrate, canola oil, palm oil, and methylcellulose form the base, with the remaining 2% or less made up of natural flavors, potato starch, salt, yeast extract, cultured dextrose (for freshness), apple juice powder (for color), cornstarch, sunflower lecithin, vegetable juice concentrate (for color), thiamin hydrochloride (vitamin B1), vitamin B12, and ascorbic acid (for freshness).
A few things stand out. First, there's no coconut oil "fat marbling" trick the way Beyond Meat uses — Incogmeato relies on canola and palm oil for its juiciness and mouthfeel. Second, methylcellulose (a plant-derived binder used in everything from ice cream to piping-hot fast-food veggie patties) is doing the structural work of holding the patty together as it cooks, the same role it plays in Impossible Burger's formula. Third, the coloring comes from apple juice powder and vegetable juice concentrate rather than the heme/soy leghemoglobin Impossible uses to bleed like ground beef — so don't expect the same pink-to-brown color transition when you cut into it.
If you're checking a product for hidden animal derivatives, run any label through the spvegan.com ingredient checker before you buy — "natural flavors" and "yeast extract" in particular trip people up because they can occasionally source from animal or dairy inputs in other products, even though in this case Incogmeato confirms both are plant-derived.
Is the Incogmeato Burger Vegan?
Yes — the Incogmeato Original Burger Patty is 100% vegan. MorningStar Farms/Kellanova states that all Incogmeato products contain no meat, dairy, egg, or other animal-derived ingredients. There's no honey, no gelatin, no casein or whey hiding in the "natural flavors," and no shared-line cross-contamination claims that would flag it for strict avoidance the way some snack products do.
One caveat worth flagging: Incogmeato is a sub-brand of MorningStar Farms, and MorningStar's broader product lineup includes items that are vegetarian but not vegan (some of their classic veggie burgers and breakfast items contain egg whites or dairy). The Incogmeato line specifically is formulated to be vegan across the board, but if you're grabbing a box in a hurry, double-check you picked up the Incogmeato packaging and not a standard MorningStar Farms box sitting on the same shelf — they look similar enough to grab the wrong one.
Nutrition Facts: How Does It Compare?
Here's how one Incogmeato Original patty stacks up against the two biggest names in the category, Beyond Burger and Impossible Burger, using each brand's published nutrition data for a single patty.
| Nutrient (per patty) | Incogmeato Original | Beyond Burger | Impossible Burger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 220 | 230 | 240 |
| Total Fat | 14g | 14g | 14g |
| Saturated Fat | 5g | 2g | 8g |
| Sodium | 370mg | 310mg | 370mg |
| Total Carbs | 12g | 8g | 9g |
| Protein | 20g | 21g | 19g |
| Base Protein | Soy | Pea & rice | Soy |
The headline: Incogmeato lands squarely in the middle on calories and protein, undercuts Impossible on saturated fat by a meaningful margin (5g vs. 8g), but comes in well above Beyond Burger's reformulated 2g. If you're specifically watching saturated fat, Beyond's current formula (which switched to avocado oil a few years back) still wins this three-way comparison. If you're avoiding pea protein for allergy or taste reasons, Incogmeato's soy-based formula puts it in the same camp as Impossible rather than Beyond.
None of these are "health foods" in the whole-foods sense — they're processed patties built to mimic ground beef, not nutrient-dense plant meals. If your goal is fiber and micronutrients rather than a burger-shaped protein delivery vehicle, a bean or lentil patty will beat all three of these on paper.
Taste and Texture
This is where Incogmeato actually earns its "for meat-eaters" tagline. The patty is dense and holds together well on a grill or in a pan — it doesn't fall apart or turn mushy the way some earlier-generation veggie burgers did. Cooked from frozen, it develops a genuine sear and a bit of char at the edges, and the apple juice powder in the ingredient list is doing quiet work here: it caramelizes slightly under heat and contributes a faint sweetness that reads as "grilled" rather than "beany."
The interior stays notably juicy thanks to the canola/palm oil combination, without tipping into the greasy, oil-slick texture some plant patties get when they're microwaved instead of pan-seared or grilled. It doesn't have the blood-red-to-brown color shift Impossible is known for, so if you're going for a rare-to-medium visual cue, it won't deliver that; what it does deliver is a firm, meaty bite that holds up under a stack of toppings without disintegrating — no small thing if you've ever had a veggie patty crumble the second you add a slice of tomato.
Where it falls slightly short of the category leaders is aroma while cooking — it smells more like a well-seasoned veggie burger than beef, even as the texture convinces. If you're cooking for a mixed household of vegans and omnivores, that's a minor tell that attentive eaters will pick up on before they even take a bite.
How It Compares to Other Plant-Based Burgers
| Burger | Protein Source | Texture | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Incogmeato Original | Soy | Firm, juicy, holds shape well | Grilling, burger nights with omnivores |
| Beyond Burger | Pea & rice | Softer, slightly looser bite | Lower saturated fat, soy-free diets |
| Impossible Burger | Soy | Closest color/juice mimicry to beef | Diners chasing the "bleed" effect |
All three are widely available at major grocery chains and typically run somewhere in the $5.99–$7.99 range for a two- to four-patty box, with prices fluctuating by region and store promotions — worth checking current shelf tags rather than assuming a fixed price, since plant-based meat pricing has moved around a fair amount over the past couple of years.
How to Cook It for the Best Results
Incogmeato's packaging recommends cooking from frozen rather than thawing first, and that's genuinely the better move — thawed patties tend to lose structural integrity faster once heat hits them, since methylcellulose firms up as it cooks and works best when it isn't already softened by a fridge thaw. On a grill or a cast-iron pan over medium-high heat, expect roughly four to five minutes per side, flipping once a solid crust forms, until the internal color shifts from pink-tinted to fully opaque throughout.
Pan-searing with a thin layer of oil gets you the best char and the crispest exterior; if you're going the oven or air-fryer route instead, you'll get an evenly cooked patty but a noticeably softer crust, since neither method delivers the direct contact heat that builds a proper sear. Avoid the microwave entirely — it's the fastest way to turn a genuinely good patty into a mushy, unevenly heated disappointment, and it's the single most common complaint in online reviews of this product.
One small but useful tip: because the patty doesn't shed much fat the way ground beef does, you don't need to worry about grease flare-ups the way you might with a traditional burger, which makes it a slightly more forgiving option for less experienced grillers.
Who Should Buy the Incogmeato Burger?
This is a strong pick if you're hosting a cookout with a mix of vegans, vegetarians, and meat-eaters and want one burger that won't get singled out as "the fake one." It's also a solid choice if saturated fat isn't your primary concern but you want something soy-based rather than pea-protein-based, either for taste preference or because pea protein's slightly chalky aftertaste bothers you in other brands.
It's a weaker choice if you're specifically minimizing saturated fat intake (Beyond Burger's current formula beats it by 3g per patty) or if you have a soy allergy, since soy protein concentrate is the primary protein source here rather than pea or mycoprotein. It's also not the pick if you're looking for a whole-food, minimally processed burger option — like the other big two, this is an ultra-processed product engineered for a specific eating experience, not a health food.
Final Verdict
The Incogmeato Original Burger Patty does what it sets out to do: it grills like meat, holds together like meat, and lands close enough to Beyond and Impossible on nutrition that the choice between the three comes down to protein-source preference and how much you care about saturated fat. It's not the healthiest patty on the shelf and it doesn't nail the beef aroma the way Impossible does, but as a crowd-pleasing, genuinely vegan option for mixed cookouts, it delivers.
Rating: 7.8/10 — a dependable, widely available burger that's easy to recommend for grilling season, with saturated fat as its one real weak spot next to Beyond Burger's current formula.
