Mark your calendars, Impossible burger acolytes. The plant-based meat company will officially launch a product in retail this September.
That little tidbit was buried in a press release from the Redwood, Calif.-based company announcing that it had gained FDA approval for “use of a key ingredient as a color additive.”
That’s all fine and dandy, but the really juicy news didn’t come until halfway through the release. “Impossible Foods plans to launch the award-winning Impossible Burger in select retail outlets in September,” it noted.
We’ve known for a while that Impossible planned to make its retail debut this fall. Now we know exactly when — give or take 30 days. All of which means we have at most two months before we can buy an Impossible product of some sort alongside other plant-based meat offerings from Beyond, Tofurky, Meatless Farms, and others. No wonder Impossible has begun partnering with external food manufacturers to amp up production, especially in the wake of their recent product shortage.
There are still a lot of question marks around Impossible’s impending retail launch. We don’t know exactly which product they will launch with: maybe their iconic burger, or possibly a ground beef substitute? We also don’t know which retail partners will first start serving Impossible, or how much their products will cost.
What we do know is that the plant-based meat section in grocery stores is becoming more and more crowded. However, I don’t think Impossible will have an issue standing out. Lately Impossible has been building brand recognition by forging restaurant partnerships with everyone from White Castle to Red Robin to Burger King. That recognition will certainly help them pop in a grocery aisle that’s becoming more and more crowded with plant-based meat options, including others that claim to cook and “bleed” like real meat.
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