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Impossible Foods

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Impossible Foods
TypePrivate
IndustryFood
Founded2011; 15 years ago (2011)
FounderPatrick O. Brown
HeadquartersRedwood City, California, US
Key people
Dennis Woodside (President)[1]
Peter McGuinness (CEO)[2]
WebsiteImpossibleFoods.com

Impossible Foods Inc. is a company that develops plant-based substitutes for meat products. The company's signature product, the Impossible Burger, was launched in July 2016 as a vegan alternative to a beef hamburger.

In partnership with Burger King, Impossible Whoppers were released across the United States by summer 2019. The company also makes plant-based chicken products and pork products.[3][4][5]

Company and product history

An Impossible Burger given out during a promotional event at a food truck in San Francisco in November 2016

Impossible Foods was founded by Patrick O. Brown, a biochemistry professor at Stanford, in 2011.[6][7] Impossible Foods initially also worked on plant-based products that emulated chicken, pork, fish, and dairy,[8] but decided to concentrate first on creating a substitute for the ground beef in burger patties.[9]

In July 2016, the company launched its first meat analogue product, the Impossible Burger, which is made from material derived from plants.[10] The company says that making it uses 95% less land and 74% less water, and it emits about 87% less greenhouse gas than making a ground beef burger patty from cows.[11]

On January 7, 2019, Impossible Foods introduced the Impossible Burger 2.0.[12]

In May 2019, Little Caesars began serving Impossible Foods' first plant-based sausage on pizzas in Florida, New Mexico, and Washington state. Patrick Brown said the product had involved the development of 50 prototype sausage products before Little Caesars began offering it to the public.[13] In January 2020, Impossible Foods launched Impossible Sausage (also marketed as Impossible Pork) more widely.[14]

In late 2021, the company launched Impossible Chicken.[15]

Production and ingredients

Unlike most plant-based products intended to emulate meat, the Impossible Burger contains heme. Heme is the molecule that gives blood its red color and helps carry oxygen in living organisms.[16] Heme is abundant in animal muscle tissue and is also found naturally in all living organisms.[17] Plants, particularly nitrogen-fixing plants and legumes, also contain heme.[18] The plant-based heme molecule is identical to the heme molecule found in meat.[19][20]

To produce heme protein from non-animal sources, Impossible Foods selected the leghemoglobin molecule found naturally in the roots of soy plants.[21] To make it in large quantities, the company's scientists genetically engineered a yeast and used a fermentation process very similar to the brewing process used to make some types of beer.[22]

The plant-based burger has more protein, less total fat, no cholesterol, and less food energy than a similar-sized hamburger patty made with beef.[23] It contains more sodium and more saturated fats than an unseasoned beef patty.[24]

Food safety approval

United States

In 2014, Impossible Foods declared leghemoglobin is generally recognized as safe after testing under oversight from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).[25] Impossible Foods filed updates with the FDA in 2017 and 2018.[26] In July 2018, the FDA issued a "no questions" letter, accepting the unanimous conclusion of a panel of food-safety experts that the heme protein is safe to eat.[27]

The FDA's acceptance in 2018 was limited to Impossible Burgers cooked in restaurants until soy leghemoglobin underwent safety review as a new food colorant for uncooked products.[28] In July 2019, the FDA accepted the colorant in uncooked products, allowing the sale of Impossible Burgers in grocery stores in September the same year.[29][30] In December 2019, the FDA affirmed this decision after considering an objection, finding that Impossible Foods had addressed the safety of soy leghemoglobin.[31]

In May 2021, a San Francisco federal appeals court upheld the FDA's decision. The court held that the FDA had “substantial evidence” to deem heme in Impossible Burgers safe to eat.[32]

Canada

In January 2020, Health Canada approved the Impossible Burger patty for sale, notifying the company that it had 'no objection' to the level of soy leghemoglobin in the product.[33]

Product availability

An Impossible Burger at Gott's Roadside in Napa in 2018
Impossible Whopper and packaging

In restaurants

In 2016 and 2017, Impossible Foods produced Impossible Burgers in both Redwood City, California, and at Rutgers University in New Jersey.[34] Since the production was in relatively small quantities, the burgers were not available at retail locations.[35]

The restaurant Momofuku Nishi in New York, owned by David Chang, began serving the Impossible Burger in July 2016.[36] In October 2016, the Impossible Burger became a standing menu item in selected additional restaurants in California,[37] such as Jardinière and Cockscomb in San Francisco, and Crossroads Kitchen in Los Angeles.[38] The Michelin-starred restaurant Public, operated by Brad Farmerie, began serving the Impossible Burger in January 2017.[39]

In March 2017, Impossible Foods announced it would build its first large-scale plant in Oakland, California, to produce 1 million pounds of plant-based burger meat per month.[37] In the first half of 2017, the Impossible Burger debuted on the menu of multi-unit franchises, including Bareburger in New York City,[40] Umami Burger in California,[41] and Hopdoddy in Texas.[42] In April 2018, White Castle started serving Impossible Burgers. The partnership with White Castle eventually expanded to include all 377 of its locations.[43]

By July 2018, two years after its debut in New York, the Impossible Burger was available at about 3,000 locations in the United States and Hong Kong.[44] By the end of 2018, 5,000 restaurants across all 50 states included the burger on their menus.[45]

In April 2019, Burger King began test marketing an Impossible Whopper, using the patty at locations around St. Louis.[46] Later that month, the company announced plans to roll out Impossible Whoppers nationwide before the end of the year.[47] In August, it was officially made available nationwide.[48]

Retail

Plant-based chicken nuggets made by Impossible Foods

The Impossible Burger became available in grocery stores for the first time in October 2019, at Gelson's stores, which are only in Southern California.[49]

In May 2020, Impossible Burgers were also available at Fairway Market, Wegman's, Jewel-Osco, Vons, Pavilions, Albertsons in California and Nevada, Safeway in California and Nevada, and various chains owned by Kroger.[50] In April 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the FDA started allowing restaurants to sell Impossible beef substitute to consumers, with an additional printed-out sheet satisfying label requirements.[51]

In July 2020, Impossible Burger patties became available at Trader Joe's and about 2,100 Walmart locations in the United States.[52]

Financing

Impossible Foods has raised rounds of $75 million and $108 million from investors, including Google Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Viking Global Investors, UBS,[53] Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's Horizons Ventures, and Bill Gates.[54] It was reported that Patrick Brown had turned down an offer of $300 million to buy out Impossible Foods in 2015.[9][55]

In August 2017, $75 million in additional financing was raised after reaching key objectives,[56] with Bill Gates investing additional money.[57] In April 2018, an additional $114 million was raised, led by Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and Hong Kong-based Sailing Capital, bringing the total to $372 million.[58] In May 2019, the company raised $300 million of investment.[59] The total valuation of the company raised to $2 billion.[60] On March 16, 2020, another $500 million was raised.[61]

In total, Impossible Foods has raised $1.3 billion over 12 rounds of funding.[62][63] In August 2020, the company raised another US$200 million in an internal round led by existing investor Coatue.[64]

Popularity and cultural impact

An Impossible Burger showing its signature 'bleeding' juice

Business Insider has described the Impossible Burger as "a burger that satisfies even the most ardent meat-lovers".[65] Vox has said that it "tastes pretty beefy" such that "many foodies now consider their products not only tolerable but trendy".[66]

The Impossible Burger received Kosher certification in May 2018[67] and Halal certification in December 2018.[68]

In 2019, TIME listed the Impossible Burger 2.0 as one of the 100 Best Inventions of 2019.[69] That same year, Engadget awarded the Impossible Burger the titles of 'Most Impactful Product' and 'Best of the Best' at CES 2019.[70] Further, at COP25, Impossible Foods received a UN Global Climate Action Award in the category of 'Planetary Health'.[71]

In 2020, TIME listed Impossible Pork as one of the 100 Best Inventions of 2020.[72]

LightLife, a brand of meat analogues, criticized its competitors Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods in an open letter published in The New York Times, asking that these companies reduce their use of "hyperprocessed" ingredients.[73] Impossible Foods responded by calling it a "disingenuous, desperate disinformation campaign".[74]

The Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), a nonprofit advocacy group that has received funding from the meat industry, has targeted Impossible Foods and other meat analogue producers through advertising, including a commercial during Super Bowl LIV, criticizing meat analogues for using additives. Impossible Foods quickly answered with a parody commercial highlighting that fecal bacteria has been found in ground beef.[75][76]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Impossible Foods Names Dennis Woodside As President". Restaurant News Resource. March 18, 2019. Archived from the original on March 20, 2019. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
  2. ↑ "About Impossible Foods". impossiblefoods.com. Retrieved September 3, 2022.
  3. ↑ Piper, Kelsey (May 20, 2019). "Little Caesars is the latest chain where you can try out meatless meat". Vox. Archived from the original on January 29, 2020. Retrieved January 29, 2020.
  4. ↑ "Impossible Foods Dishes Up Its First Meatless Sausage Atop Little Caesars' Pizza". Fortune. Archived from the original on January 29, 2020. Retrieved January 29, 2020.
  5. ↑ "CES 2020: 'Pork made from plants' launched by Impossible Foods". British Broadcasting Corporation. January 7, 2020. Retrieved March 7, 2025.
  6. ↑ Loizos, Connie (October 7, 2015). "Impossible Foods Raises a Whopping $108 Million For Its Plant-Based Burgers". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on October 7, 2015. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
  7. ↑ "A scientist's beef with the meat industry, with Impossible Foods' Pat Brown: Big Brains podcast | University of Chicago News". news.uchicago.edu. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
  8. ↑ "Bleeding veggie burgers hit restaurants for first time". The Memo. July 27, 2016. Archived from the original on August 17, 2016. Retrieved July 27, 2016.
  9. 1 2 Rufford, Nick (April 16, 2017). "Can the Impossible burger save the world?". The Times. Archived from the original on April 19, 2017. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
  10. ↑ Mic (July 27, 2016). "The Veggie Burger of the Future Cost $80M to Invent – And Carnivores Will Be Impressed". Archived from the original on August 16, 2016. Retrieved July 27, 2016.
  11. ↑ "Sandwich of the Week, USA Today". September 6, 2016. Archived from the original on October 2, 2016. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  12. ↑ Starostinetskaya, Anna (January 7, 2019). "Impossible Foods unveils Impossible Burger 2.0". VegNews. Archived from the original on January 8, 2019. Retrieved January 8, 2019.
  13. ↑ Wiener-Bronner, Danielle (May 20, 2019). "Little Caesars is testing out an Impossible pizza". CNN. Archived from the original on May 20, 2019. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  14. ↑ Wiener-Bronner, Danielle (January 6, 2020). "There's a pork shortage, and Impossible Foods is launching plant-based sausage". CNN. Retrieved March 7, 2025.
  15. ↑ "New menu at the chicken shop as fake meat brand launches in the UK". euronews. May 18, 2022. Retrieved March 7, 2025.
  16. ↑ "Heme and non-heme in Iron". The Nutrition Source, TH Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University. 2020. Archived from the original on October 27, 2020. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
  17. ↑ Hamza, I; Dailey, HA (2012). "One ring to rule them all: Trafficking of heme and heme synthesis intermediates in the metazoans". Biochim Biophys Acta. 1823 (9): 1617–1632. doi:10.1016/j.bbamcr.2012.04.009. PMC 3412874. PMID 22575458.
  18. ↑ "This New Veggie Burger Bleeds Like Meat". ScienceAlert. October 9, 2014. Archived from the original on August 30, 2017. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  19. ↑ "Serving up a bloody veggie burger is the trick to convincing carnivores". Inverse. September 4, 2015. Archived from the original on October 1, 2016. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  20. ↑ "Hemoglobin and myoglobin". The Medical Biochemistry Page. 2020. Archived from the original on August 30, 2017. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  21. ↑ Lindsey Hoshaw (June 21, 2016). "Silicon Valley's Bloody Plant Burger Smells, Tastes And Sizzles Like Meat". NPR. Archived from the original on January 12, 2018. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  22. ↑ "A veggie burger that 'bleeds' might convince some carnivores to eat green". Public Radio International "The World". September 23, 2016. Archived from the original on September 26, 2016. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  23. ↑ Hoshaw, Lindsey (June 21, 2016). "Silicon Valley's Bloody Plant Burger Smells, Tastes And Sizzles Like Meat". NPR. Archived from the original on July 27, 2016. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
  24. ↑ Lemonier, Gabrielle. "Great-Tasting Veggie Burgers are Here, But Are They Any Healthier?". Men's Journal. Archived from the original on April 19, 2017. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
  25. ↑ "GRAS Notification for Soybean Leghemoglobin Protein Derived from Pichia pastoris" (PDF). Food and Drug Administration. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 31, 2017. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  26. ↑ Dennis M Keefe (October 18, 2017). "FDA letter: GRAS Notice No. GRN 000737". FDA. Archived from the original on August 1, 2019. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
  27. ↑ Ariel Shapiro (July 24, 2018). "Key ingredient in 'Impossible Burger' approved by FDA". CNBC. Archived from the original on August 22, 2018. Retrieved August 22, 2018.
  28. ↑ Deena Shankar (July 31, 2019). "Impossible Burger could be sold in stores after FDA approves coloring". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 1, 2019. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
  29. ↑ Andrew Liszewski (August 1, 2019). "The FDA Has Finally Approved the Impossible Burger to Be Sold at Grocery Stores". GizModo. Archived from the original on August 1, 2019. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
  30. ↑ Lucas, Amelia (July 31, 2019). "Beyond Meat's competitor Impossible Foods plans to launch in grocery stores in September after getting FDA approval". CNBC. Retrieved March 13, 2025.
  31. ↑ Bandoim, Lana. "What The FDA's Decision About Soy Leghemoglobin Means For Impossible Burger". Forbes. Retrieved March 13, 2025.
  32. ↑ Calma, Justine (May 3, 2021). "Impossible Foods clears legal battle over the ingredient that makes its meat 'bleed'". The Verge. Retrieved March 13, 2025.
  33. ↑ Star, Peter Nowak Special to The (January 17, 2020). "Impossible Foods gets green light to launch plant-based burgers in Canada". Toronto Star. Retrieved October 3, 2025.
  34. ↑ Wang, Ucilia (March 2, 2017). "Can Impossible Foods and its plant burgers take on the meat industry?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on April 17, 2017. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
  35. ↑ "There's a secret ingredient in the plant-based meat Google wanted to buy for $200 million". Tech Insider. July 19, 2016. Archived from the original on October 2, 2016. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  36. ↑ "David Chang Adds Plant Based 'Impossible Burger' to Nishi Menu". July 26, 2016.[permanent dead link]
  37. 1 2 Robinson, Melia (March 22, 2017). "A startup selling 'bloody' plant-based burgers has a new factory that can make 4 million burgers a month". Business Insider. Archived from the original on April 30, 2017. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
  38. ↑ "The Impossible Burger's West Coast Debut and the Wild Frontier of Plant-Based Meat". Forbes. October 13, 2016. Archived from the original on August 14, 2017. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  39. ↑ "We Tried a Michelin Star Version of Silicon Valley's Plant Burger That Bleeds Like Beef". The New York Observer. February 1, 2017. Archived from the original on June 8, 2017. Retrieved July 12, 2017.
  40. ↑ Rainey, Clint (March 2, 2017). "The Vegan Burger That 'Bleeds' Goes Mainstream at Bareburger". Grubstreet. Archived from the original on July 15, 2017. Retrieved July 12, 2017.
  41. ↑ Pierson, David (May 17, 2017). "Umami says its new veggie burger tastes like meat – and bleeds like meat". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 9, 2020. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
  42. ↑ "You can now get Impossible Burger's". June 22, 2017. Archived from the original on August 15, 2017. Retrieved July 12, 2017.
  43. ↑ Devenyns, Jessi (September 13, 2018). "Impossible Burger goes to White Castle". Food Dive. Archived from the original on September 13, 2018. Retrieved September 14, 2018.
  44. ↑ "A Major Victory for the Impossible Burger, the Veggie 'Meat' that Bleeds". Wired. July 24, 2018. Archived from the original on July 24, 2018. Retrieved August 22, 2018.
  45. ↑ EDT, Janice Williams On 5/25/19 at 3:10 AM (May 25, 2019). "What is Impossible Burger and where can you get it?". Newsweek. Archived from the original on June 6, 2019. Retrieved June 6, 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  46. ↑ Lucas, Amelia (April 1, 2019). "Burger King is testing vegetarian Whopper made with Impossible Burger". CNBC. Archived from the original on December 12, 2020. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
  47. ↑ Tyko, Kelly (April 29, 2019). "Burger King plans to release plant-based Impossible Whopper nationwide by end of year". www.msn.com. Archived from the original on September 14, 2019. Retrieved April 30, 2019.
  48. ↑ Limitone, Julia (August 23, 2019). "Impossible Burger prank becomes Burger King feeding frenzy". FOXBusiness. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
  49. ↑ "Impossible Burger Becomes No. 1 Item Sold at Grocery Stores". October 2019. Archived from the original on May 6, 2020. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
  50. ↑ "Impossible Foods Accelerates Brick-and-Mortar and Online Retail Expansion With The Kroger Co".[permanent dead link]
  51. ↑ Lamb, Catherine (April 6, 2020). "Restaurants Can Now Sell Impossible Foods' "Beef" Directly to Customers". The Spoon. Archived from the original on May 26, 2020. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
  52. ↑ "Impossible Burger Now Available at 8,000 Retailers Including Walmart, Trader Joe's". July 31, 2020. Archived from the original on August 28, 2020. Retrieved August 22, 2020.
  53. ↑ "Forget Lab Beef, Impossible Foods' 100% Plant-Based Cheeseburger Is Our Future". Motherboard. October 7, 2015. Archived from the original on October 9, 2015. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
  54. ↑ Katie Fehrenbacher (October 8, 2014). "Meet Impossible Foods, another VC-backed veggie meat startup". Gigaom. Archived from the original on September 11, 2015. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
  55. ↑ Clements, Lana (July 28, 2015). "Google tries to buy vegetarian burger business". Express. Archived from the original on April 19, 2017. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
  56. ↑
  57. ↑ "Impossible Foods closes $75M funding round". www.meatpoultry.com. Archived from the original on September 27, 2017. Retrieved September 27, 2017.
  58. ↑ "Temasek co-leads $114m investment in Asia-bound Impossible Foods". Archived from the original on April 4, 2018. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  59. ↑ "Daily Crunch: Impossible Foods raises $300M". TechCrunch. May 14, 2019. Archived from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
  60. ↑ "Exclusive: Impossible Foods raises $300 million with investors..." Reuters. May 13, 2019. Archived from the original on June 2, 2019. Retrieved June 6, 2019.
  61. ↑ Anirban Sen and Joshua Franklin (March 17, 2020). "Exclusive: Impossible Foods explores credit line to tackle coronavirus fallout – sources". SRN News. Archived from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  62. ↑ "Impossible Foods". Growjo. Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  63. ↑ Shieber, Jonathan (March 16, 2020). "Impossible Foods confirms $500 million fundraising, has raised $1.3 billion in total". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on September 28, 2020. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  64. ↑ Johnson, Robert (August 14, 2020). "Impossible Foods model of Monopoly Capitalism raises another 200m". Pre IPO Swap. Pre IPO Swap. Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  65. ↑ Robinson, Melia. "There's a secret ingredient in the plant-based meat Google wants to buy". Business Insider. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
  66. ↑ Staff, Vox (April 24, 2019). "Vegan meat alternatives are on the rise". Vox. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
  67. ↑ "Impossible Burger: Now Kosher!". Orthodox Union. June 5, 2018. Archived from the original on February 16, 2019. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
  68. ↑ Versano, Carlo (December 10, 2018). "Impossible Foods Gets Halal Certification for Meatless Burger on Path to 'Serve the World'". Cheddar. Archived from the original on December 28, 2018. Retrieved December 27, 2018.
  69. ↑ "The 100 Best Inventions of 2019". Time. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
  70. ↑ "Presenting the Best of CES 2019 winners!". Engadget. January 11, 2019. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
  71. ↑ Genovese, Daniella (December 10, 2019). "Impossible Foods wins UN climate award for making plant-based meat alternatives". FOXBusiness. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
  72. ↑ "Impossible Pork: The 100 Best Inventions of 2020". Time. November 19, 2020. Retrieved March 13, 2025.
  73. ↑ "Lightlife urges Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat to clean up their labels". Food Dive. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
  74. ↑ foodnavigator-usa.com (August 26, 2020). "Impossible Foods hits back at 'disingenuous, desperate disinformation campaign' as Lightlife attacks 'hyperprocessed' ingredients". foodnavigator-usa.com. Archived from the original on September 28, 2020. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
  75. ↑ Jiang, Irene. "Impossible Foods made a parody video about poop in beef in response to a Super Bowl ad attacking plant-based 'meat'". Business Insider. Archived from the original on October 14, 2020. Retrieved October 25, 2020.
  76. ↑ Barrett, Sully (February 6, 2020). "Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods face a new 'fake meat' foe with long, controversial history". CNBC. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
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