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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Impossible Foods

Burger King’s Impossible Whopper Arrives in the San Francisco Bay Area Today

Burger King’s Impossible Whopper will arrive at more than 100 of its locations across the San Francisco Bay Area today, according to various reports. This is the first West Coast arrival of BK’s hip, meatless burger, and part of the fast food chain’s national expansion of the Impossible Whopper after initial testing in St. Louis and roll out to Miami, Columbus, GA, and Montgomery, AL.

The Impossible patties won’t have far to travel: Impossible is headquartered in the Bay Area’s Redwood City, and has a production facility in Oakland, CA. That production facility has been literally working overtime as of late as Impossible has struggled to keep up with the skyrocketing demand for plant-based burger.

Though there is a perception among smaller restaurants that large operations like Burger King and Red Robin have gobbled up all the Impossible supply, an Impossible spokesperson told us recently that that was not the case.

Impossible’s popularity is part of a global boom in plant-based meat, a category that is worth more than $684 million, with plenty of headroom to grow. Impossible says sales of its product have jumped 50 percent since it debuted its new formula this past January, and rival Beyond Meat is still riding high after one of the hottest IPOs of the decade.

For its part, with the arrival of the Impossible Whopper, the Bay Area’s hottest restaurant this week will probably be Burger King.

Want to stay on top of plant-based and alternative protein news? Subscribe to our Future Food newsletter. 

Future Food: Impossible? Beyond? Our Guide to Meatless Meat in Fast Food

This is the web version of our weekly Future Food newsletter. The newsletter has exclusive additional content, so be sure to subscribe here so you don’t miss a beat!

Quick service restaurants (QSRs) can read the tea leaves: consumers want more tasty, meatless options. The month after it put the Impossible Whopper on St. Louis store menus, Burger King reported an 18 percent increase in foot traffic. Del Taco’s introduction of the Beyond Meat tacos was one of the chain’s most successful product launches ever.

It’s a smart play for fast-food joints to embrace plant-based meat, allowing them to:

  • Attract new customers who might not otherwise opt to eat at the restaurant
  • Draw back lapsed customers who might have pivoted away from fast-food to embrace a more plant-based diet
  • Boost their brand and frame themselves as an innovator.

With all this action, it can be hard to keep track of which chains are serving which meat alternatives. Who’s got the Impossible patty? Which spots are hitching their horse to Beyond Meat? Which restaurants have yet to make a move, and is anybody rejecting meat alternatives altogether? (Cough, Arby’s, cough.)

It’s a lot to keep straight. Thankfully, we drew up a handy one-sheet outlining which QSR’s are lining up behind which meat alternatives. Check out the full piece for details, then go order a vegan combo meal.

Image: The Spoon.

Beefing up the portfolio

Big Food is going whole-hog on plant-based meat investment.

Tyson, the world’s second-largest meat processor, made headlines when they decided to invest in Beyond Meat. (It has since cut ties, but that’s a different story.) Major Canadian packaged meat company Maple Leaf Foods acquired vegan meat veterans Field Roast and Lightlife Foods and has plans to build the largest plant-based protein factory in North America. Late last year, Unilever snapped up Dutch startup the Vegetarian Butcher.

Photo: Before the Butcher.

This week that list got a little longer when the owners of Jensen Meat Company, a ground beef processor, acquired meatless meat startup Before the Butcher. It’s a textbook symbiotic relationship. Big Beef gets to diversify its portfolio and carve out a chunk of the white-hot alterna-meat market. Before the Butcher gains access to more capital and bigger production facilities, which can help the startup scale and differentiate itself in the crowded plant-based protein market.

Win, win. Expect to see quite a few more of these type of acquisitions coming around the curve. But also expect to see some consumer pushback against big meat companies coming in and sticking their noses (and pocketbooks) into the alterna-meat space.

Photo: Moving Mountains

Protein new ’round the web

Photo: Beyond Meat sausages and burgers.

In the spirit of research and summertime I grilled up a few Beyond Meat burger patties and sausage links last night. Look out for a meatless meat grilling guide coming at you soon.

Eat well,
Catherine

How One Restaurant Coped with Impossible’s Burger Shortage (and Says More Supply is Coming Soon!)

It almost feels like a back alley deal when I go to a mom-n-pop casual burger joints any more. Eyes darting back and forth across the menu, I nervously ask the server “Do you, uhh, have any Impossible Burgers?” Lately, the answer as been “no,” as Impossible struggles to keep up with demand.

And it’s not just up where I live near Seattle. Smaller restaurants across the country in places like South Bend, IN, and Asheville, NC, and even in New York City have pulled the Impossible burger from its menus because of short supply.

But if Doc’s Marina Grill on Bainbridge Island, WA is to be believed, the Impossible drought of 2019 could be coming to an end in as little as two weeks. I live down the road from Doc’s and spoke with its General Manager, Allison Smith, who confirmed that they are indeed currently sold out of the plant-based burgers but that they should be getting more soon.

Smith laid the Impossible shortage on Burger King and Red Robin (a reason echoed by another nearby restaurant), which makes sense. In April, Burger King decided to take the Impossible Whopper nationwide over the rest of this year, and Impossible Foods would obviously prioritize an order of that magnitude over the needs of a quaint restaurant in the Pacific Northwest (or South Bend or Asheville). UPDATE: Impossible told us that it was “totally inaccurate” to say Burger King is the reason for its burger shortage. From a spokesperson’s email:

Burger King sells the Impossible Whopper in about 200 restaurants. That’s less than 3% of the total number of outlets that sell the Impossible Burger.

The vast majority of our 8,000 or so customers are small business owners. We are literally working 24-7 to increase production in the plant in Oakland, which is currently running around the clock with two 12-hour shifts.

Doc’s tried to ration its supply as best they could for the past couple of months, prohibiting its staff from ordering the Impossible burger to leave more for customers. Smith said people come in specifically for the Impossible burger (this reporter among them), and while they are disappointed to realize they’re sold out, she said most have understood and actually knew about the Impossible shortage from reading the news.

Smith said that Impossible has been very communicative throughout the whole ordeal, and even sent Doc’s “sold out” stickers to place on its menu. “They let us know they were getting low and we wouldn’t get any from our purveyors,” said Smith, “I get an email a day from them on the supply.”

And based on recent communication from Impossible, Smith said that supply is ramping up. “According to [Impossible], they have increased production and are fully staffed.” Smith said that Doc’s should be getting its Impossible stock back in two weeks, and the pipeline of burgers should be steady after that. UPDATE: Impossible would not provide a specific date for resuming supply.

Now, whether or not this means every mom-n-pop restaurant will get their Impossible fix, or if indeed this re-supply is a permanent fix remains to be seen. Perhaps the re-supply is rolling out on a region-by-region basis, or maybe long-time customers will get serviced first. We reached out to Impossible for clarification and will update this post when we hear back.

In the meantime, I’ve already marked my calendar two weeks from now to take a trip back down to Doc’s to down a long-awaited Impossible burger.

Which Fast Food Restaurants Serve Plant-Based Meat (or Are Thinking About It)?

Thanks to fast-food chains, meatless meats are no longer a niche product meant for vegetarians or vegans — they’re the norm. They’re making plant-based meat more affordable and accessible, and democratizing the alternative protein revolution.

Adopting meat alternatives is also a smart business play for QSR’s. Case and point: Del Taco and Burger King have reported sales increases in the months after they introduced plant-based meat options.

As alternative meats spread like wildfire onto fast-food menus, it can be hard to keep track of which chains have embraced meat alternatives and which are still mulling it over. To help straighten things out we decided to make a handy-dandy list showing which QSR’s in the U.S. and Canada have plant-based meat on their menus, what products they’re serving (Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat, other), and even which restaurants refuse to touch the stuff with a 10-foot pole.

Click on the photo below to enlarge.

Photo: The Spoon

But this list is just a high-level overview. If you want more context into the plant-based meat strategies behind some of the most widespread fast-food restaurants, we’ve laid that out below.

Impossible Foods

Photo: the Impossible Whopper at Burger King.

Burger King: On April 1 Burger King launched a Whopper made with plant-based Impossible Foods patties in select St. Louis locations. Just a month later, the fast-food chain announced it would begin rolling out the Impossible Whopper in all of its 7,300 locations nationwide by the end of the year. First stop(s): Miami, Florida; Columbus, Georgia; and Montgomery, Alabama.

White Castle: White Castle was kind of the trendsetter of fast-food restaurants embracing plant-based meat. In April 2018 the chain first started serving the Impossible Slider for $1.99 at select locations on the East Coast before rolling it out nationwide in September of that year.

Qdoba: The Mexican food chain began testing bowls and tacos made with ground Impossible “beef” in February of 2019. As of May 2019, the plant-based options are available at all Qdoba locations.

Little Caesar’s: The new Impossible Supreme pie — featuring Impossible Foods sausage, green peppers, mushrooms and caramelized onions — is available at select Little Caesar’s in Florida, New Mexico and Washington State. The pizza chain plans to expand it to all of their stores if it proves popular.

Red Robin: As of April 2019, diners can sub an Impossible patty for any burger at all 570 Red Robin locations.

Cheesecake Factory: The Impossible Burger hopped on select Cheesecake Factory menus in August 2018.

Umami Burger: Umami Burger currently sells four different Impossible burgers.

Hard Rock Cafe: As of January of this year, patrons can get an Impossible cheeseburger at select Hard Rock Cafe locations.

Beyond Meat

Photo: Beyond Meat x Del Taco.

Del Taco: The fast-food Mexican restaurant began offering Beyond Meat’s plant-based “beef” as a protein option on their tacos, burritos, and bowls in September 2018. As of this April, it’s available at all 580 locations across the U.S.

Tim Horton’s: The Canadian fast-food chain added Beyond Meat sausages to their menus last month. Customers can add the plant-based sausage patty to three of Tim Horton’s breakfast sandwiches.

Applebee’s: The Beyond Burger is available at select Applebee’s locations in NYC.

Carl’s Jr.: Beyond Meat’s first big play into the fast-food burger space was with Carl’s Jr. The Beyond Famous Star burger debuted on Carl’s Jr. menus in January of 2019 and quickly spread to all of its 1,000+ locations. (We did a taste test, if you’re interested.)

TGI Friday’s: The fast-casual restaurant began testing Beyond Burgers on its menus in 2017, rolling them out to all 469 locations in January of 2018.

A&W: In July of 2018 Canadian fast-food chain A&W began selling the Beyond Burger. It’s currently available at all of their 925 locations in Canada.

Dunkin’: In July of 2019 Dunkin’ locations in Manhattan began selling a Beyond Breakfast Sausage Sandwich, making it the first place in the U.S. to serve Beyond’s plant-based sausage patties.

Subway: Subway will start testing a Beyond Meatball Marinara sandwich at 685 locations in the U.S. and Canada for a limited time in September 2019. Beyond developed a meatball specifically for the partnership.

KFC: The fried chicken chain will start testing Beyond Meat chicken nuggets and wings at a location in suburban Atlanta for a limited time.

To Be Determined

Photo: Chick-Fil-A

Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, Dunkin’, Papa John’s: These chains are also rumored to be in talks with Impossible Foods to develop a plant-based menu option.

Chick-fil-A: Last month Chick-fil-A announced that it was exploring new vegan entrée options, including one made with realistic plant-based meat. Exactly what type of entrée is still TBD, but according to Chick-fil-A’s executive menu director, it might be “some type of alternative meat on a sandwich.”

Taco Bell: The fast-food chain has a relatively hefty vegetarian menu but no plant-based meat options as of yet. In London Taco Bell briefly experimented with a meatless ground beef option made from pulled oats, but seems to have taken it off the menu.

Starbuck’s: Though they have plenty of alternative milk options, Starbuck’s has yet to introduce a plant-based meat option to their breakfast, lunch or snack offerings.

McDonald’s: Ah, the White Whale. Despite the fact that all its competitors seem to embracing plant-based meat, McDonald’s is hanging back. At a recent shareholder meeting the fast-food giant stated that it would introduce an alterna-meat menu item once it was sure that there was sufficient consumer demand. Over in Germany, McDonald’s serves Nestlé’s “bleeding” plant-based Incredible burger.

 

No Way

Photo: Arby’s Meat Mountain sandwich.

Arby’s: When Arby’s president Rob Lynch heard rumors that the chain was looking into a plant-based menu option featuring Impossible “meat,” he panicked — and then set the record straight. He stated categorically that Arby’s has no plans to introduce any meatless meat options to its menu, now or in the future.

Have you tried meatless meat at any fast-food chains? Let us know what you thought in the comments below!

Future Food: Plant-Based Meat Is about to Hit Troubled Waters

This is the web version of our weekly Future Food newsletter. The newsletter has exclusive additional content, so be sure to subscribe here so you don’t miss a beat!

Meat alternatives may be in the midst of their salad days, but they still have their haters.

Thus far, things have been looking rosy for plant-based meats. Beyond Meat blew all expectations with their IPO and followed that up with plans for a new production facility in Europe (next stop: world domination). Impossible Foods recently raised $300 million and has begun rolling out in Burger Kings across the nation. Even mega food corporations like Nestlé, Tyson and Unilever are jumping into the warm, inviting waters of plant-based meat innovation.

But plenty of groups are out to rock the boat.

Big Meat — that is, major industrial meat corporations and coalitions, like the National Cattleman’s Association — feel threatened by the growing popularity of plant-based meat, which is hoovering up a 10 percent chunk of their market share. To clap back, traditional meat companies have helped push bans to keep meat not made from a slaughtered animal from using labels like “burgers” or “sausages.” Europe is contemplating a similar ban.

The competition is not plant-based meat’s only detractor. Some ethically motivated consumers are also turned off by Impossible Foods’ and Beyond Meat’s recent push into fast-food restaurants, including Burger King, criticizing their alignment with corporations which can be exploitative to human workers and promote poor nutrition.

Others are concerned with the long ingredient list and heavy processing that goes into plant-based meat. Sure, options like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are better for the environment than beef — but are they better for our bodies? Not necessarily. As the shine of novelty wears of plant-based meat, companies will have to work harder to show consumers that it is indeed the healthier choice. Or at least convince them that they shouldn’t care.

Plant-based meat has been coasting on a wave of consumer excitement, ethically conscious messaging, and high-profile celebrity endorsements and investments. But soon the waters are going to start getting a little bumpier. That goes double once cell-based meat enters the game and frames itself as a cleanier, simpler meat option — without the sacrifice.

Alternative meat companies better prepare to fight.

Photo: Arby’s

We’ve got the meats

Recently, rumors have been flying that fast-food chains from Wendy’s to Arby’s are considering adding Impossible Foods’ plant-based meat to their menus (along with Subway, Dunkin’, and others).

When Arby’s President Robert Lynch heard the news, he almost had a heart attack. “The only way [it would happen] would be if I got fired for some reason,” he told Fortune, presumably between bites of a hearty Meat Mountain sandwich.

Okay, so vegetarians will have to keep bypassing Arby’s for now. But the bigger point here is how vehemently Lynch was against the very idea of adding plant-based meat to their menu.

As fellow Spoon writer Chris recently pointed out, this sort of all-in or all-out stance towards, well, anything is rampant in today’s political discourse. It seems that even the fast-food space is not immune.

Protein new ’round the web

  • Food tech investment will soon pivot away from plant-based meat and towards dairy alternatives, predicts Techcrunch. Investors better start saying “cheese.”
  • Burger King traffic has increased 18 percent since they introduced the Impossible Whopper (h/t CNBC).
  • Can plant-based proteins significantly cut down on our meat consumption until there’s a reasonable replacement for steak? The Washington Post asks if a lack of T-Bones is an insurmountable obstacle for meat alternatives.
  • Down Under, Hungry Jack’s — the Australian version of Burger King — is investing $1 million to develop a new veggie burger. But is that enough?

This Tuesday was apparently National Burger Day. Food holidays are kinda bogus (National Fluffernutter Day, anyone?), but we hope you took the opportunity to enjoy a juicy double-decker patty nonetheless. Plant-based or otherwise.

Eat well,
Catherine

Impossible Foods Practices Right Jab, Warming Up for More Attacks against Plant-Based Meat

Early last week Rachel Konrad, the Chief Communications Officer for Impossible Foods, published a fiery rebuttal against Mom’s Across America (MAA)‘s recent article that stated Impossible Burger tests 11 times higher for Glyphosate weed killer than Beyond Meat burgers. Impossible’s clap-back was impassioned, to say the least; Konrad used the words “charlatans” and “quackery,” among others.

MAA is a vocal opponent to GMOs and is against Impossible’s use of genetic engineering to make heme, the ingredient that gives the plant-based burgers their bloody taste and hue. Claims about weed killer are questionable at best, and the whole post (and Konrad’s response) is arguably something of a footnote in the grand scheme of plant-based meat. However, both highlight an important point: Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat and other alt-protein companies will have to prepare themselves for a lot more of these sort of attacks in the coming months and years.

Both companies have enjoyed relatively little pushback up until this point. They’ve been getting glowing publicity, locking down buzzy new fast food partnerships, and Beyond blew past already high expectations with their wildly successful IPO.

However, as these companies become more successful, they compete with bigger and bigger players. In the future, Impossible and Beyond will have to look out for attacks from organizations with a lot more reach and funding than MAA.

Big Beef, for one, has made it quite clear they don’t approve of companies branding plant-based products as “meat.” Organizations like the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association or the National Chicken Council have even tried to ban vegetarian burgers, sausages and the like from using the word “meat” on their labels.

In some ways, Big Meat’s reaction is unsurprising. Plant-based options for dairy and meat are projected to take over 10 percent of the $1.4 trillion global meat industry over the next decade. That’s a lot of pressure for Big Meat to live up to, and not all of those companies are going to pull a Tyson or a Cargill and invest in their own disruption.

It’s not hard to guess traditional meat companies’ lines of attack. They’ll likely frame plant-based meat as “unnatural,” “unhealthy,” and full of suspect ingredients. In short: fake news — er, meat.

So far, it seems like Impossible has come out swinging — perhaps a little too hard, at least in the case of Konrad’s Medium post. Hopefully Impossible and friends can find a sustainable way to deal with the quackery from Big Meat and their friends, because it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

Update: Burger King to Sell New Plant-Based Burgers in Sweden

Today the Washington Post announced that Burger King will start selling a new plant-based burger in Sweden starting tomorrow (Wednesday).

The piece described the new menu offering “a version of the Impossible Whopper”, which is made with the popular plant-based “bleeding” meat from Redwood City, Calif.-based startup Impossible Foods. In the U.S. Burger King began selling the popular plant-based patties in early April in St. Louis, then quickly announced it would make them available to all Burger Kings nationwide. Last week it began that expansion, with Columbus, GA, Montgomery, AL, and Miami, FL.

However, there’s a reason that Burger King’s new plant-based burger is only a version of the Impossible Whopper: heme. Yes, the same buzzed-about ingredient that makes Impossible’s burgers taste and bleed like meat is what’s standing in the way of into Europe.

Impossible’s heme is produced with genetically modified yeast. While the heme itself isn’t a genetically modified organism (GMO) per se, it’s still made through genetic modification — which means it would have to be approved for sale by the European Food Safety Authority. Even though the FDA has decreed that heme is generally recognized as safe, there’s no guarantee that European authorities would follow suit.

With Impossible out of the running, it’s not clear what the new plant-based Whopper in Sweden is made of. It might be a revamp of a classic bean burger, which the fast-food chain launched earlier this month in its Malta locations, or a garden patty, like the Morningside veggie burgers available in U.S. BK locations.

More likely it’ll be closer to Nestlé’s Incredible Burger — after all, the meat-like vegan burger, which is similar in looks to Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, is now on the menus of McDonald’s in Germany.

Instead of Europe, I’m guessing that Impossible Whopper’s global expansion will start in Asia. Impossible’s plant-based patties are already available in Hong Kong, Macau, and, as of a few months ago, Singapore. They’re not in Asian locations of Burger King yet, but clearly genetic modification isn’t as much of an issue there as it is in Europe.

Impossible Foods, however, is adamant that their choice to expand into Asia before other international regions has nothing to do with the genetic engineering issue. Rather, it’s a strategic choice in order to pack the biggest punch against the meat industry. “Asia accounts for more than 40% of the world’s total meat consumption,” a representative told us over email. Maybe an Impossible Whopper launch in Asia would help reduce that number.

If you want to keep tabs on the latest Impossible Foods news + in-depth analysis, subscribe to Future Food! It’s a weekly newsletter covering alternative protein news — from “bleeding” plant-based burgers to insects to bioreactors. Subscribe here.

[Note: A previous version of this piece incorrectly assumed that the new plant-based burger in Sweden was indeed made with the Impossible burger.]

Pizza! Pizza! Impossible Partners with Little Caesars for New Plant-Based Sausage Pie

It seems Little Caesars is the lastest fast-food restaurant to jump on the plant-based meat bandwagon. CNN Business reported this morning that the pizza chain is testing out a new pizza topped with sausage made with Impossible Foods’ plant-based meat.

Called the Impossible Supreme pizza, the pie also comes topped with mushrooms, caramelized onions, and green peppers. Impossible developed a new sausage product especially for the pizza chain, making it the first time the startup has sold anything beyond its signature “beef,” be it served in a burger or a taco bowl.

The new ‘za has cheese on it, so it’s not vegan. But like most plant-based meat products these days, it’s not meant for a vegan audience. “The Impossible Supreme pizza is designed to appeal to meat eaters,” Ed Gleich, Little Caesars Chief Innovation Officer, told CNN Business.

So far Impossible seems to be doing quite well appealing to meat eaters in the fast food realm. They’re already on the menu at White Castle and Qdoba, and are preparing to roll out the successful Impossible Whopper in all 7,300 Burger King locations around the States.

The Impossible Supreme pizza is currently available at 58 locations in Florida, New Mexico and Washington State, and Little Caesars plans to expand it to all its menus if this first run goes well.  The new pizza costs $12, which is slightly pricier than most of Little Caesars offerings (the 5 Meat Feast is only $9).

Despite the higher cost, I’m betting that test won’t take long. Just look at how quickly Burger King opted to roll out its successful Impossible Whopper nationwide. If it does happen, that will mean over 4,300 more restaurant partners for the Redwood City, Calif.-based startup.

Impossible’s rapid expansion is great news for flexitarians — especially those on a budget — but it also presents a challenge. Recently the startup has been struggling to fulfill skyrocketing demand for its plant-based meat, leading to shortages across the country. However, just last week Impossible raised $300 million which will hopefully help them ramp up production to supply their growing bastion of fast-food restaurant partners.

I’m not surprised to see Little Caesars embracing the plant-based trend. The Detroit-based chain has actually been innovating quite a bit lately. In addition to embracing plant-based meat, they also have the Pizza Portal, a self-service pickup station for customers placing mobile orders. And let’s not forget that the company has a patent for a pizza-making robot.

Maybe down the road that robot will be slinging some plant-based sausage pies.

Beyond Meat and Fresh n’ Lean Team Up to Do Meal Delivery

Right on the heels of its much-publicized IPO, Beyond Meat has announced a new retail partnership. Meal delivery service Fresh n’ Lean has announced the addition of Beyond Meat to its online menu, providing yet-another retail path for the alt-protein giant to tread.

Fresh n’ Lean specializes in healthy meals it preps and delivers to your door, sort of like a meal kit without all the work. Customers subscribe to a weekly meal plan to get ready-made meals that just need to be popped in the oven or microwave to complete. The menu, which rotates weekly, offers several different plans, from Keto to low carb to its Performance line, for which it’s partnered with several high-profile athletes. Customers can also order items a la carte.

Beyond Meat patties will be available via the service in bulk or as part of a plant-based version of the aforementioned performance line. It appears Fresh n’ Lean is betting hard on the popularity of Beyond on its menu, with company CEO Thomas Asseo saying in a press release that the company will sell 100,000 Beyond Meat patties in 2019. Good thing Beyond fixed its product shortage issue that was hampering supply and demand a little while back.

Fresh n’ Lean isn’t the first meal kit-like company Beyond has worked with. In April, Beyond announced a partnership with meal-delivery service Trifecta, who also emphasizes health and fitness in its menus.

With the plant-based meat sector poised to explode this year, alt-meat products from major players like Beyond and Impossible are becoming a common option these days on menus and in grocery store aisles. Impossible, who was just valued at $2 billion, has invaded the quick-service restaurant space and is now available at White Castle, Red Robin, Qdoba and, soon, Burger King.

Beyond, too, is in QSRs, including Carl’s Jr. and Del Taco. It’s also maintained a significant retail presence over the last couple years, with products in grocery stores like Whole Foods and Publix. While direct-to-consumer meal delivery is a relatively new area for plant-based proteins, I expect we’ll see both Beyond and Impossible making their way online to more services’ menus throughout the rest of the year.

Fresh n’ Lean’s plant-based Performance meals will launch in summer 2019.

Impossible Foods Raises Another $300M, Now Reportedly Worth $2B

Impossible Foods announced today that it has raised another $300 million for its plant-based meat, just over a week after its rival, Beyond Meat went public.

Reuters broke the news, noting that this round brings the total amount Impossible has raised to more than $750 million, though Crunchbase pegs that number at $687.5 million. Whichever is the case, Impossible is reportedly now being valued at $2 billion, while as of this writing, Beyond Meat has a market cap of nearly $4 billion.

Both Impossible and Beyond create plant-based meat that looks, tastes and feels like traditional meat. Impossible’s big fundraise today is another reminder that the plant-based meat sector is, pardon the phrase, sizzling. Restaurants around the U.S. are quickly adding either Beyond or Impossible to reach vegetarian (or flexitarian) audiences. Qdoba, Red Robin, and White Castle all offer Impossible burgers, and Burger King will launch its Impossible Whopper to all of its 7,000-plus locations by the end of this year.

This popularity, however, is putting a strain on Impossible, which is reportedly struggling to keep up with demand. Production was an issue Beyond Meat faced as well before adding a second production facility last year. Presumably, Impossible’s new cash will help it iron out manufacturing wrinkles as it continues to scale.

Impossible will need all the production plant-based muscle it can get as it expands outside of restaurants and into grocery aisles in the second half of this year. Beyond Meat already has a strong foothold at retail and you can imagine the two companies will be ratcheting up marketing and promotion to get consumer attention and dollars.

Today’s funding news also answers another question we’ve been asking here at The Spoon: What does Beyond Meat’s IPO mean for Impossible Foods? Beyond’s initial success as a public company paves the way for an Impossible IPO, but Impossible’s CFO, David Lee told Retuers for its story: “We believe in self-reliance. Being ready to go public is a priority for the company because we need to be operating at the highest level of rigor,” he continued, “but we are not in a rush, nor are we announcing an IPO filing.”

If you want to keep tabs on Impossible and all of the plant-and alternate protein news (trust us, this sector is set to explode this year), then subscribe to our Future Food newsletter!

What Does Beyond Meat’s IPO Mean for Impossible Foods?

Yesterday Beyond Meat made headlines when it became the first plant-based meat company to go public.

But this is just the beginning. Ever since we first heard rumblings about Beyond’s IPO we’ve been thinking about what this means for the plant-based meat space in general. Sure, Beyond is the first alterna-meat company to go public, but so far the future is looking rosy; Bloomberg notes that the company had the biggest IPO pop since the 2008 financial crisis. Its shares nearly tripled in price on the first day of trading and it’s still up on Day Two.

With its success, Beyond is paving the way for other alterna-meat companies to go for IPOs of their own.

It’s not hard to guess who will be next. The Redwood City, Calif.-based Impossible Foods is Beyond Meat’s most public competitor. Both companies are using high-level technology to create “meat” that’s good enough to fool even hardcore carnivores, making big plays into restaurant chains and grocery (Impossible plans to be in retail by the end of this year). Heck, their CEOs even have the same last name: Brown.

Impossible may have entered the scene later — it was founded in 2011, Beyond in 2009 — but in some ways it seems almost more prepared for an IPO. It has raised $387.5 million, almost triple Beyond’s pre-IPO $122 million. Impossible also has a bigger fast food chain presence: it’s on menus at Burger King, Qdoba, and White Castle, while Beyond has a smaller footprint at Carl’s Jr., Del Taco and A&W (only in Canada). Both Impossible and Beyond recently came out with a revamped meaty recipe 2.0, but Impossible’s won the “Best of the Best” award at CES and has been making much bigger waves in the media.

Outside the startup realm, Beyond’s success could also incentivize Tyson to accelerate its own fledgling plant-based protein program — and even nudge other large corporations like Nestlé or Unilever to start their own.

For its part, Impossible Foods was very supportive of Beyond Meat’s time in the limelight. Impossible’s CFO/COO David Lee tweeted out a nice message yesterday aligning their mission with Beyond’s, starting that “Clearly the mass market is ready for us both!”

Hint, hint.

Impossible Foods is Struggling to Meet Skyrocketing Demand — Is It In Over its Head?

Impossible Foods, makers of the super popular “bleeding” plant-based burger, has been on a hot streak lately. In January they launched a (very tasty) version 2.0 of their iconic “meat,” which is now available in four countries. They’re on the menus of major fast-casual and fast-food chains like Red Robin, Qdoba, White Castle, and, soon, Burger King. And later this year, they’ll hit grocery shelves.

But it’s not all smooth sailing. Eater reported yesterday that Impossible is having trouble making enough product to keep all their restaurant partners stocked.

The news is not exactly surprising. As we’ve noted time and again, consumers can’t get enough plant-based protein. This news from Eater shows that demand for meat alternatives seems to be outpacing the production capabilities of at least some popular vegan meat companies.

Impossible isn’t the only one grappling with the supply-and-demand problem. Beyond Meat, one of their main competitors, went through similar growing pains last year when fans complained that Beyond’s plant-based burger patties were often sold out at grocery stores. The El Segundo-based startup even had to delay its scheduled entry into the U.K. due to difficulty meeting demand.

Since then Beyond Meat has opened up a second production facility and seems to have bounced back. I haven’t heard any other internet murmurings of “out of stock” signs (comment if you have!), and the aforementioned Eater piece notes that many New York restaurants who couldn’t get their Impossible burgers are replacing them with Beyond. In fact, Beyond’s shortages seem to be behind them as the company prepares to go public later this week.

Even bigger alternative meat companies are having to add new production means. Maple Leaf Foods, which owns Field Roast and Lightlife Foods, recently announced plans to build a $310 million plant-based protein factory — the largest one in the U.S. As demand for meat alternatives continues to grow I’m betting we’ll see even larger alt-protein factories being built, especially once poultry giant Tyson fulfills its promise to enter the plant-based meat space.

In the end, this shortage isn’t a devastating blow for Impossible. It is a reality check, both to consumers and the company, that the startup darling isn’t hiccup-proof. The shortage also shows that the skyrocketing demand for plant-based protein isn’t going to slow down anytime soon.

Impossible is clearly aware of their production issues and scrambling to fix them. Eater notes that the startup is increasing staff and hours of operation at its plant in Oakland, California, and that it plans to double production by the summer.

That’s a good start. However, Impossible is planning to roll out to 7,000-plus Burger King locations soon, doubling its restaurant footprint. It’s also going to launch in retail sometime this year. With all these moves, Impossible may have to start thinking beyond (ha) just adding another production line if it plans to continue expanding at such a rapid clip.

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