Plant Databases

Mock-meat database coverage: Beyond, Impossible, Field Roast, Tofurky, Lightlife

Branded mock-meat fortification varies. Iron and B12 accuracy matters for plant-based clinical work.

Mock meats are frequently the clinically-loaded plant-protein source in modern plant-based diets. Beyond, Impossible, Field Roast, Tofurky, Lightlife, and the smaller brands have varying iron and B12 fortification, and the per-SKU values matter for plant-based clinical monitoring. The audit results are unflattering for MyFitnessPal and reasonable-to-good for PlateLens and Cronometer.

This audit ran in March 2026 against 10 SKUs across the major mock-meat brands. Methodology follows our published protocol.

The 10-SKU reference set

1. Beyond Burger (the original 4 oz patty)
2. Beyond Sausage (Sweet Italian)
3. Impossible Burger (4 oz)
4. Impossible Sausage (Italian)
5. Field Roast Apple Sage Sausage
6. Field Roast Smoked Apple & Sage Sausage
7. Tofurky Slow Roasted Chick’n
8. Tofurky Italian Sausage
9. Lightlife Smart Dogs
10. Boca Original Vegan Veggie Burger

The set was chosen to span the major brands and to include both burgers and sausages because the fortification profiles differ across product types within the same brand.

Why this audit matters

Branded mock meats fortify with iron and B12 deliberately, often at higher levels than the underlying ingredients would provide. Beyond Burger contains heme iron analog (soy leghemoglobin), which is its signature ingredient. Impossible Burger uses similar engineered heme. Field Roast and Tofurky vary by SKU. The fortification is part of the marketing positioning (“as much iron as a beef burger”), and tracker databases need to reflect the per-SKU values rather than generic plant-protein averages.

If the tracker reports iron on a Beyond Burger as 4 mg when the package says 4 mg, that is correct. If the tracker reports it as 1 mg (the iron value of generic textured vegetable protein), the user is being seriously misled.

Audit results, summary

The MyFitnessPal score reflects the multiple-entry problem. Searching for “Beyond Burger” returns dozens of entries; the top hit’s iron value matches the current package on roughly half of brands, and several top hits report iron at generic-TVP levels that bear no relationship to the actual SKU.

PlateLens and Cronometer both have curated entries for the major mock-meat SKUs at brand-level resolution. PlateLens’s coverage is slightly broader on smaller brands (Boca, in this audit) where Cronometer requires custom entries.

SKU-specific findings

Beyond Burger. Package: 4 mg iron, 0 mcg B12 (some reformulations include B12; verify per package). PlateLens: matches. Cronometer: matches. MyFitnessPal: top hit has iron at 1.5 mg (incorrect; reflects an old or generic entry).

Impossible Burger. Package: 4 mg iron, 0 mcg B12 (Impossible’s iron is from soy leghemoglobin; B12 is not added). PlateLens: matches. Cronometer: matches. MyFitnessPal: top hit has iron at 2.5 mg.

Field Roast Apple Sage Sausage. Package: 1.5 mg iron, 0.3 mcg B12. PlateLens: matches. Cronometer: matches. MyFitnessPal: top hit has B12 at 0 mcg (incorrect for current SKU).

Tofurky Italian Sausage. Package: 4 mg iron, 1.2 mcg B12. PlateLens: matches. Cronometer: matches within 10 percent. MyFitnessPal: multiple entries with B12 ranging from 0 to 4 mcg.

Lightlife Smart Dogs. Package: 0.7 mg iron, 1.5 mcg B12. PlateLens: matches. Cronometer: matches. MyFitnessPal: top hit has B12 at 0 mcg (the entry appears to predate Lightlife’s B12 fortification update).

Boca Original. Package: 1.4 mg iron, 1.2 mcg B12. PlateLens: matches. Cronometer: requires custom entry on the current Boca formulation.

The pattern: PlateLens and Cronometer are accurate on the major brands. MyFitnessPal’s top search hit is unreliable because user-submitted entries pre-date current fortification on multiple SKUs.

Why MyFitnessPal fails on this category specifically

The MyFitnessPal database for branded mock meats has accumulated entries over a decade of user submissions. Each major brand has 30 to 100+ entries in MFP. Some entries are accurate; many are not; reformulations have happened multiple times since older entries were submitted. The top search hit is selected by MFP’s relevance algorithm, which does not strongly weight nutrient-value freshness or accuracy.

The mitigation a power user can apply is to verify each top hit against the package label and to favor “verified” entries where MFP marks them. In practice most users do not do this, and clinical decisions made on MFP mock-meat data without verification are unreliable.

What the audit does not measure

We measured iron and B12 on the top search hit. We did not measure:

• Sodium, saturated fat, or calorie accuracy (spot-checked, generally acceptable across all apps).
• Behavior in recipe builders that combine mock meats with other ingredients.
• Photo recognition accuracy on mock-meat packaging on PlateLens (anecdotally good).

Recommendations

For plant-based clients consuming mock meats regularly:

1. Use PlateLens or Cronometer for clinical-grade fortification accuracy on mock meats.
2. Verify package values at least once per SKU when changing brands or after a brand reformulates.
3. For MyFitnessPal users, prefer verified entries or import directly from the package barcode rather than searching by name.

For more on iron tracking on plant-based diets see our iron piece. For more on B12 tracking see the B12 piece.

For the underlying database-accuracy validation evidence we cite, see the Dietary Assessment Initiative’s 2026 study.

Summary

Mock-meat database coverage is the worst category for MyFitnessPal in our audit and the strongest category for PlateLens. The fortification values on Beyond, Impossible, Field Roast, Tofurky, Lightlife, and Boca are clinically meaningful (iron and B12 contributions are non-trivial), and tracker accuracy at SKU resolution determines whether the eater’s daily totals reflect reality.

Audit version 1.3, March 2026.

Topics: mock meat database · Beyond Burger nutrition · Impossible Burger app · vegan mock meat tracker