Well, that was fast. Impossible’s plant-based sausage, which debuted at CES in January of this year and recently rolled out nationally at Burger King and Starbucks, is now available to restaurants across the country, the company announced today.
Impossible is kicking off this expansion by debuting its sausage at 30 of the top diner-style restaurants around the country today. The list of diners was determined in conjunction with Yelp, and helps illustrate that any restaurant, not just the high-end or big brand names, can put Impossible sausage on its menu.
Impossible’s plant-based sausage comes in a 1.6-ounce pre-seasoned patty and arrives fully cooked. According to today’s press announcement, Impossible’s sausage has the same amount of protein, 60 more iron, 45 percent fewer calories, 60 less total fat, 50 percent less saturated fat and 0 mg of cholesterol than traditional meat-based sausage.
The rapid expansion of its sausage comes in stark contrast to the slow rollout of Impossible’s initial plant-based beef burger. The original Impossible burger debuted in 2016 and by the end of that year was still only in four restaurants. Along the way, Impossible ran into production issues before becoming widely available at restaurants, grocers and most recently, a direct to consumer site.
During a virtual press conference to announce the news today, I asked what the timeline was for consumer sales of Impossible sausage. Impossible Founder and CEO Pat Brown said that there is no announced date, but “before long you can count on it appearing in grocery stores.” Additionally, the company said that the consumer sausage would arrive far faster than the three years it took to get Impossible burgers directly to consumers.
Sales of plant-based meat have taken off during this pandemic, and recent moves from both Impossible and its main rival, Beyond Meat, have capitalized on this plant-based boom. As noted, Impossible recently launched a direct to consumer site to sell its burgers. And Beyond, which has its own sausage patty already at retail, launched a bulk package of its burgers that narrowed its price gap with animal based burgers.
With states slowing down or halting re-openings, who knows when we will be able to fully go back into restaurants, but when we do, Impossible sausage might just be on the menu at your favorite local diner.
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