Q: What is Crossover Meats?

A: Crossover Meats is a food technology company that makes 100% ground meat products that have up to 50% of the environmental impact of your traditional ground beef, pork and lamb.. We believe in protecting the future of the environment - but we also know that a sudden, global shift toward eliminating meat is hard to do. Our mission is to make an amazing product that fills in the environmental gap between regular meat and plant-based for the 90+% of the world that is still putting real meat into their grocery basket and onto their dinner table - so we can do everything we can to protect this beautiful planet.

 

Q: How does Crossover Meats reduce the environmental impact of ground meat without using fillers or GMO’s?  

A:  Without getting all sciency or complicated, we’ll do our best to break it down. All meat is composed of muscle protein, blood, and fat. Fat and blood give meat the distinct beefy/porky/lamby flavor we have come to crave, which means that the majority of the muscle protein can be replaced by another meat protein with a much smaller environmental impact without losing any of the flavor. As we explored our options, we knew we had to choose between crickets and chicken… Don’t worry, we chose chicken protein. And before you go breaking out your meat grinders and science kits, there’s a little more to it than just mixing all these ingredients together, but we’ll leave that job to our processors so you can focus on the cooking.

 

Q:  Why is blood used as an ingredient in Crossover products?

A: Blood contains hemoglobin, which is an essential part of the flavor, color, and nutrition of meat. A lot of blood is lost when we sub in chicken for beef/pork/lamb muscle protein, so we add it back to make sure our products still taste like the real deal. All the blood we use is approved by the USDA as a natural hemoglobin additive, and you won’t be consuming any more than you would with regular ground meat. Don’t worry, we’re not undercover Brits sneaking blood sausage into the American diet.

 

Q: Does it have to have blood, though?

A: Well… other companies use hemoglobin substitutes for a “meaty” taste - but they’re genetically modified (aka nasty GMOs), and the thought of meat being grown in a lab just doesn’t sit well with us. With real blood, we can go the all-natural, no-additives, no-weird-guys-in-lab-coats-pouring-over-petri-dish-meat route.

 

Q: What about beet juice?

A: Beet juice only adds visuals - it’s usually used in plant-based meats to create the pinkish look of meat and to simulate “blood.” If we tried to use it in place of hemoglobin, we’d need artificial additives to make it taste like meat (again, nasty GMOs).

 

Q:  Does Crossover use additives or colorants?   

A: No. When we started Crossover, our mission was to provide an all-natural alternative to regular ground meat. That means all-natural ingredients, and never artificial flavoring, additives, colorants, fillers, allergens, GMOs - you name it, we don’t got it. 

 

Q: Are Crossover products vegetarian/vegan?

A: No. That’s kinda the whole point. 

 

Q: Is the CEO actually vegan?

A: Yes, but she prefers “plant-based” - and yes, we do see the irony in a meat company being run by someone who doesn’t eat meat. But we think this says a lot about why our company was started: because we care so much about food security and improving food’s impact on the environment, we decided to tackle issues plant-based meat can't. We know we can’t expect everyone to cut meat out of their diets completely and because of that, we came up with a response to make meat more environmentally sustainable. But don’t worry, most of us eat meat and can fully vouch for the deliciousness of our products (no, we’re not just saying that because we work here). 

 

Q: Do I cook Crossover Products the same way I would cook regular ground meats?

A: Yes. Our products are designed to look, cook, and taste the exact same as their counterparts - but you’ll have to make sure they’re cooked to an internal temperature of 165F/74C, which means the center is pinkish gray. (Another reason to break out your turkey thermometer besides just at Thanksgiving.)