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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Impossible Foods

Restaurant Chains Embrace JUST Egg, Vegan Chorizo as Hunger for Plant-Based Protein Grows

Animal-free meat and dairy alternatives have been on quite a roll this week. First Beyond Meat announced it would be in all locations of Del Taco. Two days later, Impossible shot back with the news that its plant-based meat would be available at all Qdobas nationwide.

Now several more national chains are embracing plant-based alternatives with open arms. JUST Inc. (formerly Hampton Creek) announced that its vegan JUST Egg product will be available at the restaurant chain Silver Diner and the upmarket burger chain Bareburger, both of which are chiefly in the Mid-Atlantic area.

JUST Egg is available on two Bareburger menu items. In the “Wake-Up Call,” an eggless patty is served with a Beyond Meat quarter pounder, cheese, and mayo, while the “Get On Up” is essentially a breakfast burrito. The JUST menu items will be available at all 34 U.S. Bareburger locations by the end of May. The diner chain Silver Diner will offer a “JUST Egg Benedict” starting today all 15 of its locations.

JUST Egg is already available at a number of grocery stores and restaurants, including the vegan chain Veggie Grill. They’ve been edging into more sales channels in the U.S. and internationally, though so far it seems they’ve been targeting retailers. These two partnerships show that the company is also laser-focused on getting JUST into as many restaurant menus — and onto as many flexitarian plates — as possible.

Blaze Pizza with its new vegan chorizo.

It might not have a buzzed-about startup name attached to it, but this week fast-casual pizza chain Blaze also rolled out new plant-based options on its menus. The national chain, which has over 300 locations, now offers a vegan spicy chorizo developed in-house by Blaze’s executive chef. While the restaurant has meat and dairy on its menus, its dough is vegan and customers can opt for Daiya plant-based cheese.

The vegan chorizo is available at no extra cost. This is pretty rare: most plant-based alternatives come with an upcharge of at least a few bucks, which is a barrier to capturing the flexitarian market. Though thanks to economies of scale, growing meat alternative companies like Beyond and Impossible will hopefully able to reach price parity with meat pretty soon.

Fast-food and fast-casual restaurants are becoming quite the innovation space for plant-based alternatives. In addition to all the above news,  Burger King recently announced a pilot program to make Impossible Whoppers in the St. Louis area. Impossible’s “bleeding” burgers are also at White Castles and Red Robins, and Beyond Meat is available at Carl’s Jr. and the Canadian A&W chain.

Restaurant chains would be dumb not to put meat and dairy alternatives on their menus. According to the NPD Group, demand for plant-based protein in foodservice grew by 20 percent in 2018. And I don’t see that trend slowing down anytime soon. Down the road, I’m betting it will be unheard of for a fast-casual or QSR restaurant to not have plant-based burgers, scrambled eggs, etc. In fact, it might not be that far from now.

Impossible Foods Makes Next Big Fast Food Move with Burger King

At Burger King, having it “your way” could soon mean making that whopper 100 percent meat-free.

Starting today, the fast food chain will offer a Whopper made with plant-based “bleeding” patties from Impossible Foods (h/t New York Times). Called the Impossible Whopper, the burger is now available at 59 stores in the St. Louis, Missouri area. If all goes well, the meatless Whopper will eventually be on the menu in all 7,200 Burger King locations in the country. According to CNET, the Impossible version will cost one dollar more than a typical Whopper, making it roughly $5.20 per burger.

Being on the menu of all Burger King’s in the U.S. would be a huge step into the mainstream for Impossible Foods — and meat-like meatless burgers in general. Impossible is already in roughly 6,000 restaurants globally including roughly 380 White Castles and 570 Red Robins. Rolling out to all of Burger King’s locations would double their presence. Beyond Meat, which makes a similar meaty plant-based patty, is on the menus at over 1,000 Carl’s Jr.’s and over 500 Del Taco’s.

Partnering with a place like Burger King means that not only is Impossible growing quickly and going mainstream, but so is the demand for plant-based meat in general. According to the NPD Group, shipments of plant-based protein to foodservice operations increased by 20 percent in 2018 alone.

For Impossible though, the Burger King partnership could help them get more name recognition before they head to retail in 2019. That is, if they can continue to successfully scale up their miracle ingredient, heme, which gives the burgers their trademark “bloody” look and taste, and which Impossible makes through genetically engineered yeast.

Will Impossible’s Massive Restaurant Rollouts Help it Beat Beyond Meat in the Grocery Aisle?

Today fast-casual burger chain Red Robin announced it will be offering plant-based Impossible burgers at all 570 of its U.S. locations starting April 1.

In and of itself, this isn’t huge news. Impossible is already in over 5,000 restaurant locations, ranging from high-end spots like Momofuku to the White Castle fast-food chain. But in light of the Redwood City-based startup’s impending move to retail shelves, it begs the question: will Impossible’s hefty restaurant presence translate to brand recognition in the grocery aisle?

Impossible’s key retail competitor is Beyond Meat, whose plant-based burger patties have been a mainstay in grocery stores since they launched in Whole Foods in 2013. Beyond Meat is in even more restaurant locations than Impossible: almost 11,000 in total. Just this week Del Taco, with whom Beyond had been doing a pilot program, decided to offer the plant-based meat as a taco option in all of their 594 U.S. stores. And back in January Beyond slid onto the menu at over 1,000 locations of the fast-food join Carl’s Jr.

At the end of the day, I don’t think any of Impossible’s recent restaurant expansions will give it a leg up on Beyond in the grocery aisle. Instead, the real differentiators will be selection, taste, and pricing.

Beyond has the upper hand when it comes to variety: in addition to their patties, they also offer plant-based sausages, crumbles, chicken strips, and will soon come out with a ground beef-like product as well as breakfast patties. Impossible hasn’t officially stated what meaty product it will launch at retail, but it’ll likely either be patties or a ground beef replacement.

Taste-wise, both Beyond and Impossible have unveiled 2.0 versions of their signature meatless burgers in 2019. We liked Beyond’s, but Impossible’s blew us away when we sampled it at CES.

The biggest question mark is pricing. Since Impossible and Beyond are both pretty darn good, I imagine many shoppers (myself included) will reach for the option that’s easier on their wallet. Impossible also hasn’t released any pricing information yet, but if they’re smart, they’ll undercut Beyond — which, at $5.99 for two patties, isn’t super cheap.

Taking a macro view, there’s plenty of room for multiple meat-like meat alternatives to be successful in the grocery aisle. The demand is plant-based meats is certainly there: a new study from Dupont Nutrition and Health indicates a growing consumer interest towards meat alternatives, with more than half of Americans increasing their plant-based food intake.

At CES this year Impossible Foods’ CEO Pat Brown also downplayed the competition between meat alternative companies. “If other people are making great [plant-based] products — and this is not B.S. — we love it,” he said.

Of course, competition is competition. People likely won’t be tossing both Beyond and Impossible burgers into their grocery carts. But if plant-based meat sales continue to soar — and I bet they will — I think that more high-end meat alternatives in the grocery aisles will equate to more sales for all involved.

Questlove Partners with Impossible Foods to Launch Plant-Based Cheesesteak

Questlove, legendary drummer and frontman for The Roots and bandleader for The Tonight Show, took to Instagram today to announce a new, non-musical project: a sandwich.

Dubbed “Questlove’s Cheesesteak,” the sandwich is a vegetarian version of a Philly Cheesesteak made with Impossible’s plant-based meat 2.0. Livekindly reports that the sandwich will not be 100 percent vegan, as it will have dairy cheese.

It will be available starting March 28th at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park during all home Philadelphia Phillies baseball games. Over the next few months, it’ll roll out on menus of 40 Live Nation-owned event spaces across the U.S., including concert and sporting venues. This comes a year after Live Nation put the Impossible Burger on the menu at 35 of its music venues.

This isn’t Questlove’s first foray into the food world. He wrote a James Beard-nominated culinary nonfiction book, Something to Food About: Exploring Creativity with Innovative Chefs, and has been on a number of food-focused TV shows.

Though not a vegetarian, the musician wrote on Instagram that he fell in love with Impossible Foods several years ago. In fact, he invested in the plant-based meat startup in 2017. He’s also from Philadelphia, so, as he puts it, “i gotta know #Cheesesteaks right?”

Both Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat have been accumulating quite a roster of celebrity endorsers and partners. My colleague Chris recently wrote about Beyond’s posse of high-profile athletes and musicians that have partnered with or endorsed the company. In addition to Questlove, Impossible also has investments from “Harold and Kumar” actor Kal Penn, and has been endorsed by celebs like Miley Cyrus and Chrissy Teigen.

These celebrity supporters could help both companies continue to gain influence with vegans and flexitarians alike. In the case of Beyond Meat, it could also help the company’s impending IPO pop — which might in turn make it easier Impossible and other plant-based meats to go public down the road.

As a vegetarian, I know how hard it can be to find a decent meat-free meal option at a sports arena or concert hall that’s not just french fries. That’s why this Questlove-Impossible sandwich is a win-win: Impossible gets to target the captive audience (literally) at huge venues, and LiveNation gets to add a vegetarian option to its menus and look cool. As an investor in Impossible, Questlove has an obvious motive to help the startup sell more of their meat 2.0.

If you get a chance to sink your teeth into Questlove’s Cheesesteak, drop us a line and let us know how it is!

Impossible Foods Will Roll Out Its “Bleeding” Plant-Based Meat in Singapore

Earlier this morning plant-based foods startup Impossible Foods put out a juicy teaser, hinting at an impending news drop. We immediately set to speculating: Was it a concrete date for the company’s retail launch? News about new fast-food partnerships? Was the plant-based steak finally on its way?

Turns out, the news was nothing that groundbreaking. Impossible announced via Twitter that it is rolling out its plant-based burgers in Singapore. Which we already kind of knew, since Impossible CEO Pat Brown dropped the news last month after the company unveiled its new recipe at CES.

Impossible’s patties are already available in Hong Kong and Macau, so the expansion to Singapore isn’t a stretch. Especially considering that Singapore company Temasek has invested in Impossible.

The Impossible News isn’t dropping any jaws, but it does highlight how Asia — specifically Hong Kong and Singapore — is becoming a stronghold of plant-based protein innovation. Vegan meat company Omnipork has a presence in all three cities, and JUST’s eggless scramble is also available in Hong Kong. Beyond Meat is also in Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore, and the company has plans to roll out in Taiwan and Korea.

According to the tweet, Impossible will head to Singapore next week. There’s no word yet on which restaurants will serve its plant-based products, but it speaks to the growing global demand for meat alternatives — plant-based and cell-based — in Asia, the world’s largest meat producer. We’ll see if Singapore is as meaty an opportunity as Impossible is making it out to be.

Video: Why Impossible Foods Thinks They Can Make Better Meat Than a Cow

On the first night of CES, we hit up the Impossible Foods press conference to try their new and improved burger 2.0. The verdict: juicy, savory, and delicious.

But before the actual taste test began, the Impossible team set the stage with a short panel featuring CEO Dr. Pat Brown, Chief Science Officer David Lipman, and Mary Sue Milliken, owner and chef of Border Grill, who hosted the unveiling and cooked all the delicious food.

Check out the full conversation below to learn why Dr. Brown thinks that food is “the most fundamental and ancient human technology,” one that he and his team is constantly working to improve it. “Unlike the cow, we are going to be getting better every single day from now until forever.” Next up: steak. 

The Full Impossible Burger 2.0 Press Conference at CES 2019

Beyond Meat Debuts Their Own Burger 2.0 with New Protein Formula

This week at CES Impossible Foods unveiled their “burger 2.0” amid lots of fanfare and mini-sliders.

They’re actually the second plant-based company this week to debut a new and improved version of their product. On January 2nd, Beyond Meat announced the release of their own “Beyond Burger 2.0″ (albeit with much less pomp). The new iteration still has pea protein (the primary ingredient of the original burger), and also adds mung bean and rice proteins into the mix. It’s apparently lower in saturated fat and has a better, more meat-like texture than the Burger 1.0.

As far as I can tell, this is the first big product revamp by Beyond since they launched their burger back in 2016. I haven’t tried it yet, but I have tried the Impossible burger 2.0 and have to say, it’s a high taste bar for Beyond to beat.

But in the end, it doesn’t really matter: plant-based meat companies’ biggest competition isn’t each other, it’s the industrial meat industry. “If other people are making great products… we love it,” Ethan Brown told The Spoon in an interview. “They’re not our competition — they’re on the same mission we’re on.”

The announcement came two days after Beyond Meat announced its partnership with fast food chain Carl’s Jr. In addition to Carl’s Jr., their new “burger 2.0” will also be available at all A&W locations in Canada (who have been serving Beyond burgers since July 2018).

Video: Impossible Foods CEO Pat Brown says They’ll Tackle Steak Next

Last night, Impossible Foods unveiled their new Burger 2.0 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The newest iteration of the alt-meat is made of soy and potato protein (not pea protein, as I guessed!), is gluten-free, and has fewer calories and fat than the first version.

After tasting our way through sliders, tacos, empanadas, and even tartare made of the new ground “beef,” we got to sit down with Impossible Foods founder and CEO, Dr. Pat Brown, to ask him a few questions about the topic that’s on everyone’s mind during CES: the future. Specifically, the future of plant-based meat.

“R&D has been going at a blazing pace since Day One,” said Brown. Which means as soon as they locked down the formula for Version 1.0 of Impossible’s patties and started selling them in 2016, they were already working on version 2.0 (and yes, now they’re working on 3.0).

While they plan to keep iterating on their flagship ground beef product, Brown explained that they’re also starting to work on what he called “whole cuts of beef,” including steak. “[Steak] has huge symbolic value,” said Brown. “If we can make an awesomely delicious world-class steak . . . that will be very disruptive not just to the beef industry, but to other sectors of the meat industry.”

Watch the video below to hear more about Impossible’s plans to tackle the $3 trillion industrial meat industry, and why they’re not worried about plant-based competition.

Impossible CEO Pat Brown talks Impossible 2.0 and the future of meat

If you’re in Vegas for CES, be sure to hit up their food truck outside the Convention Center and taste the burger 2.0!

Impossible Foods Unveils New Gluten-Free Burger Recipe at CES

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is known as a time when companies debut cutting-edge technology like drones, robots, and… burgers?

Tonight plant-based meat company Impossible Foods unveiled new recipe for their popular “bleeding” vegan burgers. According to the release from Impossible, the new iteration will be gluten-free, have zero cholesterol, and contain as much iron and protein as conventional beef from cows. This marks the first time the Redwood City, CA-based startup has revamped their burger recipe since the patties debuted in 2016.

The new-and-improved burgers will launch tomorrow (January 8th) in an array of high-end restaurants, and Impossible stated over email that they will “likely” be available in grocery stores in 2019 (as long as Impossible gets FDA approval to sell its burgers in retail). So far, there’s no word when the new recipe will roll out to the over 5,000-odd locations — including all White Castles — which currently have Impossible burgers on their menu.

Impossible’s patties already contained no cholesterol and have comparable protein to ground beef — so essentially, the main difference is that the new patty is gluten-free. Which is actually kind of a big deal. “Wheat protein” is the first ingredient listed on the Impossible Foods website, followed by coconut oil, potato protein, and heme (which is what makes the burgers “bleed”). That means that the original Impossible patty was strictly off-limits for anyone with a gluten allergy, or who was just trying to cut down on gluten for health/dietary reasons.

Nixing the wheat protein certainly opens up potential new consumers for Impossible, but only if they can still deliver on taste without their primary ingredient. Which leads me to wonder: what exactly is the new burger made of? Impossible didn’t reveal the ingredients in their new burger, so we don’t know what they’re using to replace wheat. My guess is pea protein, the go-to protein choice of most alternative-meats including Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods’ biggest plant-based competitor. (Beyond Meat’s products are already gluten-free.) That could make it especially tricky for Impossible to differentiate itself when it heads onto retail shelves to compete directly with Beyond in 2019.

[Ed note: At the opening Impossible Foods revealed that the main ingredients in their new burgers are soy and potato protein, not pea protein as I’d guessed.]

Taking a step back, it’s interesting that Impossible Foods decided to make this announcement at CES, amid a sea of more “traditional” technologies like touchscreens and VR helmets. But when you think about it, plant-based meat is indeed a technology: one that’s changing the way we eat protein. In fact, it’s a technology that has the potential to improve our planet a lot quicker than something like self-driving cars. I for one hope we see more innovative food companies repping at events like CES in the future.

For now, CES attendees can try free samples of Impossible’s new burgers from a food truck outside the Las Vegas Convention Center from January 8-11. Stop by and let us know what you think!

With the Growth of “Bleeding” Burgers, How are the Tofurky’s of the World Faring?

Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods forever changed the plant-based meat industry when they rolled onto the scene with vegan burgers that looked, cooked, and tasted like the real thing. A veggie burger used to mean a patty made of black beans, quinoa, and a few vegetables. It was usually reserved for vegetarians and vegans, and many carnivores didn’t see a reason to go near it.

But now there’s a new consumer group in town: the flexitarian. Flexitarians are working to cut down on their meat consumption, and, for a growing number, that means turning to plant-based meats to replace the real thing. That’s exactly who Beyond and Impossible are targeting. Their meat-like burgers (and, in Beyond’s case, chicken strips and sausage) are specifically meant to appeal to consumers who don’t want a black bean burger but something as close to a beef burger as you can get without the cow.

Recently I got curious: If meat-like meat alternatives are all the rage and catalyzing huge growth in the plant-based meat category, how are the OG, less “sexy” veggie burgers and soy-sausages faring? The Boca burgers? The Tofurkys? The Field Roast sausages?

According to Erin Ransom, Director of Marketing for Tofurky, these early vegan food companies are doing quite well for themselves right now. She explained that the growing popularity of plant-based foods, spurred by media darlings like Beyond and Impossible, has translated to increased demand for the veteran vegan meat companies, too.

Dan Curtin, President of Greenleaf Foods, which includes vegan meat companies Lightlife and Field Roast, also acknowledges the impact that Beyond and Impossible have had on the plant-based meat category. “What [they’ve] done is bring attention to this category and help support it,” he told me over the phone.

Photo: Field Roast sausages.

On one hand, that growth is great for the plant-based meat industry. It means that vegan proteins are more widely accessible (and appealing) to people across the country, not just in urban areas. On the other, that uptick in demand translates to pressure on the manufacturers to increase production. Tofurky, for example, is having difficulty filling their orders. They’re not alone: companies like Beyond Meat have also been experiencing difficulty keeping their products on shelves. “It’s a unique conundrum,” said Ransom.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t ways for plant-based meat companies to fulfill demand. But, as Ransom told me, it probably won’t be a single solution. Existing players will build more production facilities. Supply chains will become more sophisticated, and technology more efficient. Investment will (continue to) pour into the space. More small startups will enter the market. So will Big Food, including industrial meat companies, who can help amp up production capacity for plant-based meats and also ensure good product placement on retail shelves.

Though they may be grateful for the influence of Beyond/Impossible, that doesn’t mean veteran vegan meat companies will try to copy their meat-like products exactly. “We’re not chasing the ‘bleeding anomaly’ [of the Impossible burger],” Ransom told me.

But the effects are clear. Tofurky is working to ensure their newer products, from shredded “chicken” to vegan ham, have the same taste, texture, and mouthfeel as animal protein. Earlier this year Boca Burgers reformulated and rebranded their classic veggie patty, making their burgers bigger and “meatier” to appeal to flexitarians. Lightlife’s website claims its products are “meat without the Middleman.” They may not be trying to make a bleeding burger, but they are definitely trying to make a meat-like burger.

One thing I wonder is how vegetarians and vegans feel about all this. If they don’t want to eat meat in the first place, will they want to eat plant-based meat that is trying to act like meat? Or are companies like Field Roast and Boca alienating their original consumers as they reformulate to appeal more to flexitarians?

As of now, most of these vegan meat veterans still offer classic products like black bean and quinoa burgers. But if flexitarianism continues to grow (and I don’t see why it wouldn’t) vegan meat companies will likely continue to shift their image to become meat companies. The meat just happens to be made out of plants.

Will Alterna-Meats Stupefy Smart Ovens?

One of the benefits of using a connected oven like the June is the fact that the built-in HD camera automatically recognizes the food you’re cooking. Throw in a salmon and the June recognizes it, and helps you cook it perfectly. Even if it doesn’t automatically recognize a food, the touchscreen UI is clear enough that it’s easy to navigate homescreen > seafood > salmon in just a few taps.

But when I was making Beyond Burgers the other night, and the June thought they were regular beef burgers, it occurred to me that the coming wave of alternative, plant-based proteins is going to make things more complicated for the June, and any other appliance that either recognizes your food and/or has pre-set cook functions.

Beyond and Impossible burgers look and even “bleed” like beef burgers, which will bring up a couple of issues for smart cooking appliances. First, the device will have to develop new means for detecting what is placed in it. A fake meat patty will look a lot like a traditional one, yet different from other plant-based patties (like a black bean burger) — how important will it be to automatically tell them apart?

Second, not all “veggie” burgers are made the same. There is a “Veggie Burger” setting on the June, but that is more of an old-school Boca burger. I reached out to June to ask about how it will incorporate items like Beyond and Impossible, and this is what a company rep emailed me back with:

“We do think that Beyond Burger and Impossible Burger will have their own Cook-Programs in the future because of their different composition of protein (Beyond Burger being made of a mixture of pea protein while Impossible Burger is a mixture of wheat protein, potato protein and heme).”

And that’s just burgers! Just about all of the animal proteins we eat now will have a plant-based analog soon enough. Just has its mung bean-based “eggs.” Seattle Food Tech has its wheat-based “chicken nuggets.” And Good Catch is creating plant-based fish.

The June has already made moves to become more of an iPhone-like platform with the recent addition of the dedicated Whole Foods button on its touchscreen to automatically cook items from that grocer. If June creates separate settings for Beyond and Impossible, how far down that rabbit hole will it and other appliance makers go? At what point in popularity does fake salmon need to get before June puts resources into a specialized cook program? And how many brands, each with their own cook program and accompanying on-screen instructions, will June have to include?

Yes, there is probably no greater measure of my privilege than me fretting over how many buttons I’ll need to tap when cooking my plant-based burger in my expensive connected oven. But this isn’t entirely just a thought experiment either. Sales of plant-based foods boomed last year, hitting $3.3 billion, and plant-based meat alternatives are only getting better and cheaper. Any appliance company that makes guided cooking apps, cookware or appliances will have to keep one eye on the market and adapt now to an increasingly diverse plant-based food future.

Impossible Foods’ Plant-Based Burgers Will Be in Stores Next Year

Impossible Foods announced today that it will start selling their popular plant-based burgers in retail stores in 2019.

The Redwood, CA-based company has been expanding rapidly over the past year. It raised $114 million in April of this year, bringing its total war chest to over $387 million (according to Crunchbase). Their “bleeding” burgers are available in roughly 5,000 restaurants around the globe, including all 377 locations of the fast-food chain White Castle and select Air New Zealand flights. In September of 2017 the company cut the ribbon on an Oakland production facility which can make 500,000 pounds of the plant-based “meat” per month.

Now the startup is making its long-anticipated entry into the retail space — and their strategy to start out in restaurants seems to have paid off. While competitor Beyond Burgers, which has been available in retail since 2016, is struggling to keep up with demand, Impossible’s comparatively slower rollout has given them ample time to scale up production while building brand awareness.

On a separate note, it will be interesting to see what the price point for Impossible’s retail burgers. Beyond Meat typically retail for around $5.99 for two patties, which is roughly twice the price of beef per ounce. While Impossible debuted at an expensive $18 at Momofuku Nishi, their decision to offer sliders for $1.99 at White Castle shows that they’re trying to appeal to all price points.

By moving into retail, Impossible Foods is becoming an even more direct competitor for Beyond Meat. However, Beyond’s products are available in over 30,000 locations — comparatively, Impossible’s footprint is much smaller. But even if they do scale up to sit side-by-side on the grocery store shelf, demand for plant-based protein is so high that it might not take a bite out of Beyond’s sales. If 2019 is indeed the year we move beyond (ha!) meat, there’s plenty of room for all.