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Impossible Foods

January 17, 2020

Future Food: Impossible’s Plans Post-CES and Snoop D-O-Double G Sandwiches

This is the web version of our weekly Future Food newsletter. Be sure to subscribe here so you don’t miss a beat!

Anyone who follows the alternative meat space even a little knows that last week Impossible Foods unveiled its latest product — plant-based ground pork — at CES 2020.

You can read our post (including a taste test) on the event here. But during the ensuing press conference with Impossible CEO Pat Brown, several interesting tidbits about Impossible’s strategy — regarding R&D, expansion, mission, and more — came to light. Here are some of the most intriguing plant-based nuggets from the evening:

Impossible goes international
“International markets, as they grow, will be a very important part of our future,” Brown told the crowd at CES.

One market in particular: China. Brown has already stated that Asia — and China specifically — is a major area of focus for the company. And how could it not be? After all, China is the world’s largest consumer of meat and is struggling as the African Swine Fever is causing pork prices to skyrocket.

The scene is set for plant-based pork to make its move, but Impossible isn’t the only one making its move. Omnipork, based in Hong Kong, just began selling its plant-based pork on the mainland, including in several Taco Bells.

I’ve tried both Omnipork and Impossible Pork and have to say that I preferred the Impossible version; it was juicier and fattier with a bit more flavor. However, Omnipork’s alt-pork was developed specifically to the tastes of Asian consumers, which could give it an edge over Impossible when both begin selling in China.

That said, with a population of 1.4 billion and the African Swine Flu still looming, there’s ample opportunity for multiple plant-based pork options to court Chinese audiences. (Beyond Meat, time to make your move.)

The Impossible Cheesesteak [Photo: Impossible Foods/LIveNation.]

What’s next?
Last year at CES Brown told us in an interview that next up the company would develop “whole cuts of meat,” AKA steak.

I’m sure Impossible scientists are hard at work on that right now, but steak ain’t all they’re making. “If it’s a food that comes from animals today you can be sure that people on our R&D team are working on a more delicious, healthier, and vastly more sustainable plant-based alternative,” Brown said during the Impossible Pork conference this year.

He mentioned steak, fish, and, a crowd favorite, bacon. “We’ve already played around with it,” Brown said. But he added that they wouldn’t release a product until it was so good that even “the most hardcore bacon worshipper thinks it’s awesomely delicious.”

Considering that bacon presents a much harder textural challenge than ground meat, like beef and pork, that could be a while. Especially since bacon requires differing strips of meat and fat, which cook to distinct textures. But once they do achieve it — and considering their massive warchest and heavy R&D focus, I really think they will — Brown mentioned another first for the company: “the world’s first kosher bacon cheeseburger.”

Meatballs made with Impossible Pork at CES [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

Mission: Impossible?
Brown has often repeated Impossible’s lofty and very ambitious mission: to make animal agriculture as food production technology obsolete by 2035. The company is trying to do that by replacing animal meat with plant-based in flexitarians’ diets. “A sale for us only counts if it comes at the expense of the animal-based food production industry,” Brown said at the press conference last week.

There’s no question that Impossible is selling a significant amount of its plant-based meat; it’s available at over 15,000 restaurants globally, including more 7,000 Burger Kings (some of which will soon begin selling Croissan’wiches made with Impossible pork sausage). It’s also sold in retailers in eight regions.

But does Impossible’s rise actually take away from meat sales? Sure, if a flexitarian decides to buy an Impossible burger instead of a beef one, that’s one less burger consumed at that juncture.

However, meat consumption is at an all-time high and projected to rise, especially in developing nations (where, admittedly, plant-based meat is not widely available). In short: just because consumers are demanding more plant-based options doesn’t mean they are necessarily using them to replace meat. We don’t have the data on how rolling out Impossible Whoppers impacted Burger King’s beef sales, but it’s something to keep an eye on.

As the dangers of climate change loom, it’s hard not to root for solutions, like Impossible’s, that can reduce our environmental impact — especially if they taste d**n good. But the statistics are daunting. If Impossible has a prayer of achieving its goal by 2035, it’ll have to double down on production capacity and keep forging new retail & foodservice partnerships, especially in fast food.

And get to work on making bacon, stat.

Photo: Sweet Earth Foods

Protein ’round the web
– Nestlé-owned Sweet Earth Foods, maker of the plant-based Awesome burger, has announced its inaugural national restaurant partner: Ruby Tuesday.
– Select Tim Horton’s locations in the U.K. will begin selling sandwiches made with meatless sausage from company Moving Mountains (h/t VegNews).
– This, a U.K. startup that makes plant-based chicken and pork (including bacon), just raised £4.7 million ($6 million) in seed funding (via Agfunder News).
– Good Catch Foods, maker of plant-based seafood including fish-free tuna, announced its $32 million Series B.

Photo: Beyond Meat

Finally, if you live near a Dunkin’ and do not care about your arteries, you might want to try the new ‘Beyond D-O-Double-G Sandwich,’ which consists of a Beyond sausage patty, egg, and cheese served on a sliced glazed donut. Then please tell me how it tastes so I can live vicariously through you.

January 8, 2020

Burger King to Launch New Impossible Sausage Croissan’wich to Compete with Dunkin’

When it comes to breakfast, Burger King diners will soon be able to have it their way with meatless Impossible sausage.

Last night at CES, Impossible Foods unveiled its plant-based pork, its second product since it launched its meatless “bleeding” beef in 2016. (We tasted it, and it was awesome.) Amid samples of meatless banh mi and dumplings, the company dropped one more doozy of an announcement: It had also developed plant-based pork sausage, which would start selling at select Burger King locations later this month.

Impossible sausage, which is essentially a pre-seasoned, pre-formed patty of its plant-based pork, will feature in the Burger King Impossible Croissan’wich, which will also include egg and cheese (so it’s not vegan). It will hit the menus of 139 Burger Kings in Savannah, Georgia; Lansing, Michigan; Springfield, Illinois; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Montgomery, Alabama starting on January 13. Pricing was not disclosed, though it’s worth noting that the Burger King’s Impossible Whopper is priced at only $1 more than a meaty Whopper.

This move is almost a no-brainer for Burger King. The fast-food chain has benefitted from media buzz plus increased foot traffic and check size ever since it unveiled the Impossible Whopper back in August 2019. It’s no wonder that the fast-food giant wanted to expand that popularity to its breakfast menu.

It’s also a way for them to challenge Dunkin’, which rolled out its Beyond Breakfast Sandwich nationwide a full three months ahead of schedule due to high demand. As I’ve noted before, breakfast is a lucrative, relatively un-crowded space primed for plant-based products. 2019 may have been the year many fast-food restaurants introduced meatless burgers, but I think 2020 will be the year they expand the offerings to vegan sausage, eggs, etc. Impossible also has an advantage since Burger King is a national chain, while Dunkin’ is mainly on the East Coast.

Those eager to try the Impossible Croissan’wich will have to hope that Impossible won’t run into production issues, which the startup has struggled with in the past. Impossible is very aware of the risk. At CES Pat Brown admitted to the audience that “production capacity is our biggest challenge right now,” but was confident that the company wouldn’t face a shortage again.

That remains to be seen, as does the quality of the Impossible Croissan’wich. But what’s not in question is that breakfast is a hot play for the meatless market — and Impossible/BK are smart to tap into it sooner rather than later.

January 6, 2020

Impossible Foods Reveals New Plant-based Pork at CES 2020, will Sell Sausage at Burger King

Today at CES 2020 Impossible Foods, maker of the plant-based “bleeding” burger, unveiled its newest product: pork. Impossible’s plant-based pork is gluten-free and has 16 grams of protein and 13 grams of fat per 4-ounce serving. The company also announced its plant-based sausage, which will debut later this month at 139 Burger King restaurants, which already sell the Impossible Whopper, in the form of a sausage croissan’wich.

Last year at CES, Impossible Foods surprised everyone when it stole the show and won the Best of the Best CES 2019 award for its meatless burger. (We were there at the unveil, and it tasted delicious.) This year they’re hoping to top that by revealing an entirely new product. Like its ground beef, Impossible pork contains heme, a genetically engineered product that gives meat its savory flavor. However, it contains less of the molecule than its beef.

Considering that Impossible is trying to move into the Chinese market, its decision to tackle pork makes a lot of sense. Impossible’s CEO Pat Brown had previously stated that the company already had a “very good prototype of plant-based pork,” though the company has also said it’s developing fish and steak. From a practical standpoint, it’s also a much easier jump to go from ground beef to ground pork than to develop something with an entirely new texture, like chicken.

Impossible is also smart to move into ground pork while it’s still a relative white space. The biggest competitor is probably Omnipork — though not in the U.S. The Hong Kong-based company is developing plant-based pork specifically for Asian palates and doesn’t yet sell outside of the Asian continent. In terms of sausage, adding a plant-based option will help Burger King compete with Dunkin’, which began selling Beyond Meat sausage sandwiches at all of its locations late in 2019.

But I know what you’re all wondering: How did it taste? Honestly, it was awesome — a viable stand-in for ground pork. I sampled the new product in a variety of preparations: meatballs, banh mi, dan dan noodles, and nestled in a bao. It’s slightly less juicy and fatty than traditional pork, and is lacking a distinct, well, porkiness. But the texture and pale pink color are spot-on, and it’s a good neutral palate for a variety of preparations and sauces. I’ll definitely order it when it comes onto menus.

There’s no word on when the Impossible pork will head to menus, outside of the Burger King sausage launch. We also don’t know how much either product will cost. But for the lucky folks at CES this week, you can give the new plant-based pork a try; Impossible will be cooking up samples from January 7-10th in the Las Vegas Convention Center.

December 9, 2019

DoorDash, Impossible Foods Among the Fastest Growing Brands in the U.S. in 2019

Food tech companies have a major presence among the fastest growing brands in the U.S. in 2019, according to a new report from Morning Consult Brand Intelligence that ranks brands according to purchasing consideration among consumers. 

DoorDash took the number one spot for fastest growing brand in the U.S. this year, while Postmates clocked in at number three and Impossible at four. And those are just the top five. Among the top 20 fastest growing companies in the report, food and beverage companies nabbed 11 of the spots.  

According to the report, Morning Consult determines its rankings by which brands “have seen the biggest rise in purchasing consideration this year, how that is playing out across generations and which brands have seen a lift in brand identification, even if it didn’t translate to an increase in purchasing.”

Part of the reason for DoorDash’s top spot is no doubt its expansion strategy. Unlike Postmates or Grubhub and Uber Eats (the latter two also landed in the top 20), DoorDash has focused heavily on not just major metropolitan areas but also suburban areas across the country. It was the first third-party delivery service to become available in all 50 U.S. states and has over the last few years struck deals with major restaurant chains that cater to those areas. Think Chili’s, Outback Steakhouse, and Chick-fil-A. This is the second year in a row DoorDash — which to date has raised over $2 billion — has been ranked fastest growing brand in the U.S. for Morning Consult’s report.

The company was also, among food delivery companies in the report, the only brand to consistently rank at the top across generations, from Generation Z all the way up to Baby Boomers.

Even with high appeal among consumers, DoorDash faces multiple uphill battles going into 2020. The company is still getting backlash over its much-maligned former tipping policy, including recent charges brought by D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine. DoorDash is also one of a few companies that have pledged to fight California Assembly Bill 5, which reclassifies gig workers and in doing so turns the entire model by which third-party delivery services operate on its head — and further erodes the idea of these companies every becoming profitable. Appealing to consumers is a boost for DoorDash in 2019, but it’s appealing to investors that will make or break delivery companies in 2020.

November 7, 2019

Future Food: China is the Holy Grail for Meat Alternatives, Eclipse Foods Launches Ice Cream

This is the web version of our weekly Future Food newsletter. Subscribe to get the most important news about alternate and plant-based foods directly in your inbox!

Impossible Foods may be gaining territory, both geographically and market-wise, here in the U.S. But when it comes to the future regions, the startup has its gaze set on Asia — specifically, China.

You can read the full explanation of why Impossible is eyeing China in our post, but it boils down to three main reasons:

  • China has the largest population in the world
  • China produces the most meat in the world
  • China consumes the most meat in the world, and its hunger for protein is growing

In short, China is the holy grail for any alternative meat company. That’s especially true with the recent African Swine Fever outbreak, which threatens to massively deplete pig populations and drive up pork prices.

Photo: Impossible Foods

Which plant-based meat company will get to world’s most populated country first? Impossible is certainly in the running, as is Beyond Meat. And Asian plant-based meat company Omnipork, which has the advantage of selling a product developed specifically for Asian palates, has said it will start selling in China by the end of this year.

Big Food could also make a move. China-based WH Group, the largest pork company in the world, owns Smithfield. In August Smithfield announced it would be launching a “plant-based protein portfolio.” If WH Group decides to sell a new alt-meat line in China, either under the Smithfield brand or another one, the company’s massive supply chain and retail partnerships could help it quickly scale up across the country.

Then again, it could be time for China to embrace a lower-tech meat alternative. With all these newfangled, bleeding, uber-realistic faux meat options out there, it’s easy to forget that China has actually been making its own meat alternatives for centuries to adhere to Buddhist diets.

Ten years from now, we’ll likely see a mixture of all of the above in China. The country’s appetite for protein is immense and it’ll take multiple plant-based meat players to feed. Let’s just hope that if and when Impossible does land in China, they’re prepared for the inevitable demand.

Eclipse Foods x Oddfellows. Photo: ©Heidi’s Bridge

Eclipse Foods is (soft) serving up plant-based ice cream

If you want to know what’s cool right now in the food world, a good place to look is ice cream. A few months ago Berkeley, CA-based Perfect Day launched their flora-based dairy with an initial line of ‘screams (which were delicious, btw). Now, Eclipse Foods, a plant-based dairy company based literally down the road from Perfect Day, is following in their footsteps.

This weekend Eclipse Foods is debuting its proprietary plant-based dairy recipe in limited-edition flavors at high-end ice cream shops on opposite coasts: Humphrey Slocombe in San Francisco and Oddfellows in New York (thanks for the tip, Grubhub).

Unlike Perfect Day, which ferments actual dairy proteins using genetically modified microbes, Eclipse’s dairy is made from a combination of everyday plant-based ingredients that the founders claim do a much better job imitating dairy than plain old oat or almond milk. Their product is also free from nuts, coconut, soy, and other allergens.

I had the chance to try soft serve made with Eclipse Foods’ dairy during the Good Food Conference this year and thought it was overall quite good. While the flavor was almost there — it was a bit too salty and lacked the pure neutral fattiness of dairy — the texture was spot on. The soft serve was smooth and super creamy, without the iciness that often comes with plant-based ice cream.

The flavor issue might be irrelevant for now, since I’m not sure exactly how much people will actually taste Eclipse’s dairy base underneath the bold flavors of Oddfellow’s Miso Cherry and Humphrey Slocombe’s Mexican Hot Chocolate.

Given this initial partnership, Eclipse seems to be following the Impossible sales model, starting out with high-end B2B partnerships. Impossible debuted at David Chang’s lauded Momofuku restaurant, which instantly rocketed the product to fame. Eclipse is launching with two similarly trendy brands, ones known to attract droves of Instagram-ing hipsters who can start some buzz around the new brand.

This launch will be a test to see if Eclipse can follow Impossible in other ways. Can it reinvent the plant-based dairy space like Impossible reinvented plant-based meat? Or will it just be the flavor of the month?

Photo: Nestlé

Protein ’round the web

  • Nestlé is partnering with food and biochemical company Corbion to develop microalgae ingredients for use in plant-based foods.
  • Starting this week, Chicago-based Giordano’s is offering plant-based sausage from Impossible Foods as an add-on topping fo all of its orders nationwide.
  • Speaking of Impossible, taqueria chain Dos Toros is offering Impossible beef in all 21 of its NYC and Chicago locations.
  • Mooala, maker of dairy-free milks and creamers, announced it has closed a $8.3 million Series A funding round.

That’s it from me this week.

Eat well,
Catherine

November 6, 2019

What’s Next for Impossible Foods? Maybe Pork, Definitely China

Impossible Foods is gearing up to enter China, and it looks like they might launch in that country not with their signature “bleeding” beef but instead with a plant-based pork product.

In a Bloomberg TV interview at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai today, Impossible CEO Pat Brown told cameras that the company has “a very good prototype” of plant-based pork. “It’s really just a matter of commercializing and scaling that,” he added.

We already knew that Impossible was developing alternatives to pork and fish. At CES last year (we’re returning for FoodTech Live, join us!) Pat Brown told me that they were also tackling whole cuts of meat, like steak.

Brown also told Bloomberg that Impossible was eyeing an expansion into China, which he said has “always been the most important country for our mission.” It’s easy to see why. China accounts for over one fourth of the world’s meat consumption and is also the largest producer of pork globally.

Nonetheless, the most populated country in the world is primed to embrace plant-based meat. The Chinese government is aiming to reduce its meat consumption by 50 percent by 2030, and Allied Market Research reports that the Asia-Pacific region is the fastest-growing market for meat alternatives. There’s also added motivation thanks to the recent outbreak of the African Swine Flu, which could cut the country’s pig population in half by the end of this year.

Brown told Bloomberg that Impossible is way too small to fill the supply-demand gap created by the African Swine Flu. However, he noted that outbreaks like these illustrate the problems with food security associated with meat, and could help turn people towards more sustainable plant-based alternatives.

Indeed, once Impossible does enter the Chinese market, it would make sense they do so with a pork alternative, since pork is far and away the most consumed meat in China. But Impossible wouldn’t be the only one bringing plant-based pork to Asian audiences. Omnipork, made by Hong Kong-based Right Treat, makes a ground pork alternative developed specifically to appeal to Asian palates. Omnipork isn’t yet available in China but when I spoke to CEO David Yeung earlier this year he said they were aiming to launch in that country later this year.

Of course, with China’s massive hunger for pork there’s plenty of room for more than one player in the market. Especially if future food-safety scares nudge more Chinese consumers to look to plant-based alternatives to feed their hunger for pork.

The bigger point is that once it gets to China, Impossible Foods will have access to a brand new massive market. One that’s primed and ready to hop on the plant-based meat train. If Impossible can hook Chinese consumers — and with the popularity of the Impossible Whopper, the startup has shown that it knows how to stir up consumer demand — it could have a significant ripple effect on the global industrialized meat industry.

Want to keep tabs on the white-hot alternative protein space? Make sure to subscribe to our weekly Future Food newsletter!

October 29, 2019

Report: Impossible Whopper Boosts Burger King Sales, Will Popeyes Embrace Plant-Based Meat?

Yesterday Restaurant Brands International (RBI), owner of fast-food chains Burger King, Popeyes, and Tim Horton’s, announced its Q3 2019 Earnings Results.

The report showed that Burger King’s sales increased roughly 15 percent globally for the quarter. In the U.S., the launch of the Impossible Whopper drove 5% comparable sales growth, which Jose Cil, CEO of RBI, noted was the “strongest level since 2015.”

This isn’t exactly surprising. Impossible Whopper sales reportedly boosted traffic by over 18 percent to the BK in St. Louis which first tested the plant-based burger. Reports show, that the alt-meat burger is also leading to higher ticket sales and attracting more millennials and lapsed visitors (like The Spoon’s Chris Albrecht) to the fast-food giant. The RBI Earnings Results seems to indicate that this boost in traffic/ticket amount has continued as the Impossible Whopper rolled out to all Burger Kings nationwide.

Not all was rosy in the report, though. Tim Horton’s had what Cil called “a challenging quarter,” reporting only 0.1 percent growth compared to 2.8 percent growth in the same quarter a year earlier. This comes at the same time that the Canadian fast-food chain nixed Beyond Meat products from its menu, except in Ontario and British Columbia, just months after adding the plant-based meat to 4,000 of its restaurants.

These two facts might have nothing to do with each other. However, the report shows a rapid downturn for Tim Horton’s after the chain had a surprisingly strong Q2, in which its success was attributed, at least in part, to its adoption of Beyond Meat patties. Tim Horton’s rolled out the plant-based meat nationwide in July (that is, during Q3), so maybe consumers across Canada didn’t flock to the Beyond Meat offerings in the same way they did in the initial test markets?

Interestingly, Popeyes had one of its best quarters in nearly two decades, thanks to the viral popularity of its chicken sandwich. Next up, RBI might well continue its history of experimenting with alternative protein and launch a plant-based chicken sandwich. But it better hurry if it doesn’t want KFC or Chick-fil-A to beat it to the punch.

October 25, 2019

DoorDash’s New Carousel Shows Off All the Impossible Foods Offerings in Your Area

As of yesterday, DoorDash has created a custom carousel featuring restaurants that offer Impossible Foods menu items.

When consumers click on the Impossible filter on the DoorDash site, they’re taken to a separate page which shows only establishments offering delivery of the plant-based meat within their area. So far, the feature is available in 23 cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.

I’m currently visiting a friend in New York, so I decided to give the Impossible filter a spin for myself. After putting in her address and clicking on the ‘See All’ Impossible button, I was taken to a new page listing 7 restaurants which sold Impossible items. These ranged from fast-food, like Burger King and White Castle, to more high-end local restaurants.

This Impossible filter is DoorDash’s first carousel featuring a specific plant-based meat brand. It’s clearly a bid by the food delivery company to capitalize on an item with a growing delivery presence. According to a press release sent to The Spoon, DoorDash customer searches for ‘Impossible burger’ have tripled since January of this year alone.

Why the Impossible burger and not, say, the Beyond burger? I’m guessing because Impossible just has a bigger restaurant footprint right now, what with its partnerships with fast-food chains like Burger King. In fact, DoorDash isn’t the only one to see a spike in orders for the bleeding plant-based burger. Back in July of this year Grubhub released a report showing that orders for the Impossible burger rose 82 percent in 2019.

The Impossible filter comes at a time when DoorDash needs to do whatever it can to stand out in the cutthroat food delivery space. DoorDash stole the title for the number one U.S. food delivery company from Grubhub in June of this year, and currently holds 35 percent of the market share. In order to hang onto that lead, the company is smart to experiment with ways to expand their offerings and attract more consumers. From ghost kitchens to filters featuring popular plant-based burgers, DoorDash has shown that they’re not afraid to experiment to keep their hold on the food delivery crown.

If you live in one of the aforementioned participating cities, you can order menu items featured in the Impossible carousel with $0 delivery fees from now until November 7th.

September 19, 2019

Impossible Burger Debuts at Gelson’s Markets Tomorrow in Southern California (Will it Be Impossible to Get?)

Impossible Foods will debut its long-awaited Impossible Burger at retail tomorrow in Southern California. The company announced today that its plant-based meat will be available at all 27 Gelson’s locations across Los Angeles, San Diego, Ventura County and Santa Barbara.

We had known that Impossible was hosting a retail launch event at the Century City mall tomorrow that involved grandmas. Given that there’s a Gelson’s in the Century City mall, we also deduced that the grocer would play a part in the launch. Now we have confirmation, and honestly, the launch is wider than we had anticipated.

Additionally, we also know that Impossible will be selling a 12 oz. package for $8.99 at retail. For comparison, Beyond Meat sells its plant-based ground meat package in a 16 oz. package for roughly $10.

Impossible has enjoyed a series of home runs this year, from being the breakout star at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show to releasing its burger 2.0, to launching the wildly successful Impossible Whopper at Burger King. But this move into retail is a real test for the company. It has to play catch up with Beyond Meat, which has firmly entrenched itself at grocery stores for the past couple of years.

What we’ll have to look for now is how much the Impossible brand means to consumers. Will shoppers’ experience at restaurants like BK translate into sales in the grocery aisle? Almost as important, will there be enough product for everyone who wants it to buy it? Impossible experienced a huge production shortfall earlier this year and actually had to stop shipping its burgers to restaurants while it worked overtime to correct the situation.

Impossible has evidently learned their lesson, as Gelson’s is limiting people to 10 packs of Impossible Burger each.

September 16, 2019

Looks Like L.A. is Where Impossible Foods will Launch in Retail

If you bet that Impossible Foods would be doing its retail launch in L.A., congratulations! You’re probably right.

The Spoon came across a Facebook post from Impossible Foods today advertising an event called Impossible Grandma’s House. The free event will be held on Friday September 20 from 11am-6pm at the Cabana at Westfield Century City in Los Angeles. “Come celebrate (and taste) Impossible Foods’ launch in grocery stores! Grandmas unite under one roof to #CookImpossible and share their culinary wisdom,” reads the invite.

This event also gives us a probable candidate for first grocery store to sell Impossible: Gelson’s is located in the same Westfield Century City complex as the Grandma event.

Details are pretty scant about the event itself. Is it just a PR event with free Impossible Foods grub? Will people migrate over to Gelson’s for the first Impossible retail sale? Are grandmas actually involved?

It’s the grandma bit that trips me up. Why is Impossible, a startup that’s all about leveraging technology to reinvent meat with plants, whose bright branding and hashtag-heavy PR strategy is clearly geared towards the millennial crowd, focusing so heavily on grandmas for their retail launch?

I think I get what Impossible is going for here. The company is trying to show that its plant-based meat is so versatile and delicious that even traditionalists can easily use it in their favorite family recipes. However, I think the strategy rings untrue, especially since the launch event is at a trendy, glitzy shopping mall and not, say, a community restaurant or local market.

As I pointed out in the latest issue of Future Food, it doesn’t really matter where Impossible Foods decides to do its retail launch. Eventually it’ll probably be as ubiquitous on grocery shelves as Beyond Meat — provided Impossible doesn’t come up against anything drastic like a food safety scare or another production shortage.

The bigger questions will be what products Impossible decides to roll out in retail in order to compete with competitors Beyond Meat and bigger players like Hormel, Kellogg, and, as of just two days ago, Trader Joe’s — and how they stack up, taste-wise. Impossible may have built up a recognizable brand through its many restaurant partnerships, especially fast-food ones like Burger King, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to success in the crowded retail aisle.

We’ll be doing deep dives into the Impossible retail launch and rollout on our Future Food newsletter! Make sure to subscribe.

September 15, 2019

The Food Tech Show: Impossible’s First Retail Product is Almost Here And We’re Pretty Excited About It

We’ve been head’s down preparing for the fifth Smart Kitchen Summit (in just three weeks!), but The Spoon crew took some time this week to talk about some of the latest news in Food Tech.

Here are some of the stories we discussed:

  • The Caper smart grocery cart
  • The new bill in California that would require gig economy workers to be treated as employees and the potential impact on food delivery
  • Impossible’s first retail product, which looks like it will be a pound of “ground beef”
  • A look at this year’s class of Startup Showcase finalists for the Smart Kitchen Summit

If you want to see the startups we talk about or hang out with the Spoon crew, make sure to go to the Smart Kitchen Summit and get your tickets before they’re gone! Use discount code PODCAST for 25% off of tickets at www.smartkitchensummit.com.

As always, you can listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download the episode directly to your device or just simply hit play below.

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September 10, 2019

Impossible Foods Teases Location for Retail Launch, Reveals First Product

Mark your calendars folks. On September 20th, consumers in one lucky city will be able to purchase Impossible product from the grocery store for the very first time.

We’ve known for a while that Impossible would launch in retail sometime this month. But in a tweet yesterday, the Redwood City, Calif. based startup teased us with a few more details.

Can you guess the first city you can find us on shelves? We’ll give you one hint…#CookImpossiblehttps://t.co/HEW2vWFTWe pic.twitter.com/1hU2504QbU

— Impossible Foods (@ImpossibleFoods) September 9, 2019

This tweet tells us exactly one and a half pieces of information.

Firstly, Impossible’s first retail product will likely be packaged ground “meat,” similar to Beyond Beef. We predicted this might be the case since the startup has been emphasizing the versatility of its product ever since it launched the new Version 2.0 of its recipe at CES this January.

Honestly, it’s a smart move. Refrigerated grocery shelves are becoming crowded with pre-formed plant-based burgers from Lightlife, Beyond, and more. And over the past month alone major players like Kroger, Smithfield and Kellogg (through MorningStar) have all announced plans to launch refrigerated alterna-burgers of their own. By entering retail with a fresh ground meat product Impossible is essentially narrowing its competition down just to Beyond Beef and Hormel.

We haven’t tried Hormel’s ground protein yet but our team is pretty smitten with Beyond Beef. However, Beyond’s ground beef has only been on retail shelves for a few months, so Impossible won’t be too far behind when it enters the category with a product of its own. Plus, Impossible has been busy building up its brand through partnerships with major fast-food chains like Burger King.

Impossible’s tweet also gave us a hint which city it will launch in: one that smells like “palm trees.” Judging from that cryptic hint, it’s likely either L.A. or Miami. (Sadly, it looks like my hometown of Seattle is out. Damn you, evergreens!)

If I was a betting gal, I’d put my money on L.A. The City of Angels loves anything new and trendy, especially if it comes in Instagram-friendly technicolor packaging. L.A. also has the advantage of being much closer to Impossible’s Oakland production facility.

Then again, it’s too soon to count Miami out of the race. As my colleague Chris pointed out, Miami — or really, Florida — serves as a testbed for a lot of new retail technology. Ford is testing self-driving cars to deliver groceries in Miami, Kroger is building its next robotic warehouse in Groveland, Florida, Walmart offers its InHome service in Vero Beach, and robotic grocery fulfillment company Takeoff works with the Sedano’s supermarket chain throughout the Sunshine State. Plus, Miami was one of the first cities to get Burger King’s Impossible Whopper after its successful pilot in St. Louis, Missouri and Florida was one of the first three states to serve Little Caesar’s Impossible Supreme pizza.

There’s still a lot of question marks surrounding Impossible’s launch. We don’t know which stores or how many of them will carry the product or what it will cost. I guess we’ll have to wait 9 days to find out.

Want to stay updated on Impossible’s retail rollout and other plant-based protein news? Subscribe to our Future Food newsletter!

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