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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Impossible

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!

Impossible Foods Applies to Sell “Bleeding” Burgers in the EU

Impossible is gearing up to start selling across the pond. Bloomberg broke the news yesterday that the plant-based meat startup had filed with the EU to gain regulatory approval for their products — specifically soy hemoglobin, the molecule that gives Impossible’s meat its “bleeding” flavor and appearance.

We reached out to Impossible, who confirmed that it has indeed filed paperwork with the European Food Safety Authority, the EU agency that provides independent scientific advice regarding the food chain.

“Impossible Foods’ intention is to sell plant-based meat in every single region of the world,” the PR rep told me. “As always, the company will meet or exceed all food-safety regulations in every single region of the world, including Europe.”

Impossible might have a trickier time gaining EU regulatory approval than other areas of the world. Europe is far stricter on genetically modified foods than the U.S. While technically heme isn’t genetically modified — it’s the output of genetically modified yeast — it could still throw up some red flags for the European Food Safety Authority.

Even if it does again approval, Impossible will have to distinguish itself from very crowded plant-based meat space in Europe. Retail shelves already sport plenty of alt-meat options from giants like Quorn and Unilever’s Vegetarian Butcher. Nestlé also sells its plant-based burger in McDonald’s Germany. And let’s not forget that Beyond, Impossible’s chief competitor, currently sells in several countries in the EU and is opening a new manufacturing facility in the Netherlands.

Since Impossible’s plant-based meat technically is free from GMO’s, I’m guessing that eventually the company will get regulatory approval to sell in the EU. The bigger question is whether the market will be so saturated by then that Impossible won’t be able to create as much brand recognition as it has in other parts of the world.

McDonald’s Is Launching a Beyond Burger in Canada

McDonald’s announced today it will conduct a 12-week test in Canada of its new plant-based burger made with Beyond Meat.

Dubbed the “P.L.T” — Plant, Lettuce, Tomato — the meatless burger will debut in 28 restaurants in Southwestern Ontario on September 30, according to a press release.

It seems McDonald’s is also taking pains to recreate the chain’s signature taste. The chain didn’t specify how exactly it has done that with the Beyond patty, just that the P.L.T. has been “crafted exclusively by McDonald’s” to “deliver the iconic taste” of the brand. The sandwich will be available for $6.49 CAD (a little under $5 USD).

The P.L.T. also looks to be an entirely new menu offering. In other words, McDonald’s isn’t trying to create a plant-based version of its most famous item, the Big Mac, the way Burger King has done with the Impossible Whopper.

What McDonald’s is clearly trying to do is thoroughly test the market for plant-based meat before committing to any widespread release of a plant-based product. In May, the chain said it was monitoring plant-based meat options but had no plans to share at that time. However, the chain now has a plant-based burger from Nestle on menus in both Germany and Israel.

The release of the P.L.T. in Canada brings McDonald’s plant-based strategy a little closer to home, and gives us a hint of what might show up on menus in the U.S. before the end of the year. While nothing is officially confirmed for the States yet, the new P.L.T. in Canada suggests McDonald’s will soon join Carl’s Jr., A&W, Del Taco, and other QSRs on Team Beyond in the race for plant-based burger dominance.

Future Food: Impossible’s Retail Launch, Is 3D Printing the Future of Plant-Based Meat?

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

Ladies and gentlemen, mark your calendars. At the time of writing, Impossible Foods is heading into retail in 7 days, 23 hours, 43 minutes and 16 seconds. 15 seconds. 14 seconds.

Obviously we’re excited. We’ve been big fans of Impossible’s “bleeding” burgers for a while now and have been anticipating the retail launch ever since the company first teased the news back in November of last year.

Now, thanks to a tweet from Impossible Foods earlier this week, we know a little more about what to expect.

  1. We know their first product will be a 12-ounce ground beef-like product, similar to Beyond Beef.
  2. We know it will debut in a city that “smells like palm trees.”

My first question is, what do palm trees smell like?? My second question is, is the tweet referring to Miami or LA? My money is on LA because of its trend-setting cred and abundance of celebrities, but my colleague Chris Albrecht is placing his bet on Miami because of its reputation as a center for testing out retail innovation.

Really though, it doesn’t matter where Impossible first launches in retail. Unless there’s some sort of catastrophe it’ll eventually roll out in grocery stores around the country. What’s more interesting is what product Impossible has chosen to launch with: a 12-ounce package of ground plant-based meat.

Honestly, I think this move makes a lot of sense. By launching with fresh ground “meat,” Impossible has to jostle with far fewer competitors to stand out in the refrigerated grocery aisle, which is becoming crowded with plant-based burgers. As of now its only really going up against Beyond Beef (which, admittedly, is pretty delicious) and Hormel, who just debuted a vegan ground meat product last week.

Starting with a ground product is also an opportunity for Impossible to show off its versatility. Thus far, the vast majority of Impossible’s restaurant partners have served the alterna-meat in burger form (the notable exceptions being Qdoba and Little Ceasars). This first product is Impossible’s way of saying “Don’t pigeonhole us!”

The flip side of that strategy is that as of now, the vast majority of consumers associate Impossible with burgers. They might not think to look for a ground Impossible product in retail, or they might not want to do the work of forming the patties themselves.

Then again, I doubt they’ll have to wait too long before Impossible follows up with a pre-formed burger product. Though it’ll certainly be longer than 7 days, 23 hours, 42 minutes and 49 seconds.

Photo: Novameat

3D printing money

When I first heard about startups 3D printing plant-based meat, I thought it was a cool, futuristic-sounding technology that would likely never be affordable or practical enough to actually scale up.

It seems I might have been a little too hasty. In the past week two companies which 3D print meat alternatives have snagged funding: first Novameat announced an undisclosed amount of funding at the Good Food Conference last week, then Redefine Meat followed up yesterday when news broke that it had raised a $6 million seed round.

The two startups have a similar go-to-market strategy. Both companies are planning to sell/rent their machine and corresponding plant protein pods to third parties — Novameat to high-end restaurants and Redefine Meat to large meat companies looking to diversify their offerings. And they’re both based in Europe! Novameat in Spain and Redefine Meat in Israel.

Clearly there’s something to this whole 3D printing plant-based meat thing — or at least investors think so.

(photo: Chris Albrecht).

Much ado about processed food

This week WIRED writer Matt Simon published a fascinating dive into why people are making such a fuss about the processing it takes to make plant-based meats.

In the piece he notes that yes, buzzed-about plant-based products like Impossible and Beyond are highly processed. But so are a lot of other staple things we eat, like yogurt, beer and bread.

I think you can also flip the processing question on its head. Plant-based meats are alternatives to meat sourced from animals. And isn’t animal meat one of the most processed foods of all? Animals themselves process plants into muscle, then are butchered to become hamburgers, steaks, or what have you. Comparatively, growing some heme through genetically engineered yeast or pushing pea protein through an extruder to mimic the texture of chicken seems relatively low-key.

In short, processing does not always equal bad. Especially when the choice is between a plant-based burger and industrially farmed meat.

Photo: JUST

Protein ’round the web

That’s it from me! I’ll be off next week exploring the Alaskan wilderness so one of my lovely Spoon colleagues will be taking the Future Food reigns in my stead.

Eat well,
Catherine

Hormel Joins the Meatless Meat Movement With New Portfolio of Plant-based Products

Add one more to the list of major CPGs looking to capitalize on the public’s insatiable appetite for plant-based meat. This week, Hormel Foods, who owns brands like Skippy and Applegate, announced the launch of its Happy Little Plants product line. This is Hormel’s first project under what the company’s new plant-based foods division called Cultivated Foods.

The new portfolio’s flagship product is a ground protein offering the Happy Little Plants’ website says you can cook “just like you would with ground beef or ground turkey.” The product contains 20 grams of non-GMO soy protein and is gluten-free.

Right now, Happy Little Plants products are available at select Hy-Vee stores in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and Wisconson. Further expansion is in the works, though Hormel didn’t name specific cities or timeframes.

Like most big CPGs bringing plant-based meat alternatives to market right now, Hormel is emphasizing the meat-like qualities of its meatless product. In a bid to appeal to more flexitarians — those wanting to curb meat consumption without going full vegan or vegetarian — food companies are currently creating alternatives to meat that cook, look, taste, and feel like the real thing. In other words, they’re trying to live up to the industry standard set by Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat.

Hormel is one of a growing list of CPGs launching such products. Tyson announced its Raised & Rooted brand of plant-based meat alternatives this past June. Nestle is selling meatless meat patties to QSR chains in Europe and Israel. And just yesterday, Kelloggs-owned MorningStar Farms announced its own new line of more meat-like, plant-based products called Incogmeato.

These companies have long histories in the food industry, but as The Spoon’s Catherine Lamb pointed out when reporting on the MorningStar news, that could be more hindrance than help. As evidenced by events like Beyond selling out of its meatless chicken wings in less than five hours, consumers are flocking to trendy upstart brands in the alt-meat space who can tout health and environmental benefits and don’t have a history of selling SPAM in grocery store aisles. Like Kellogg, Tyson, and others, Hormel is one more company that will have to find a way to leap the divide between its legacy products and consumer demand for new and different ways to do meatless meat.

Qdoba CEO: We Chose Impossible Foods for “Its Unique Flavor and Texture”

The world of fast-food burritos has experienced a real shake-up lately, thanks to one thing: plant-based meat.

Now if you’re hitting up the drive-thru at least two popular Mexican food chains, you can opt to replace the beef in your tacos/burritos/bowls with meatless meat. This April, Del Taco rolled out Beyond Meat to all of its menus. Just a month later, Qdoba began serving Impossible’s plant-based beef in all of its 730+ locations nationwide.

The meatless meat lines have been drawn, with Del Taco on one side with Beyond Meat and Qdoba on the other with Impossible. During an email interview with The Spoon, Qdoba’s CEO Keith Guilbault told me that the chain decided to go with Impossible over other plant-based meat suppliers because their “protein stood out for its unique texture and flavor.”

Jill Adams, Qdoba’s VP of Marketing, echoed the sentiment over the phone last month. “We landed on Impossible because it delivers on flavor,” she said. “There’s also high consumer awareness around the product.”

Because of this awareness, she told me that Qdoba had seen a wave of new customers come in specifically to try the Impossible products. In fact, according to Adams, when Qdoba tested Impossible menu items in Eastern Michigan this February they saw transactions grow 4 percent. “There was an immediate uptick,” she said.

The post-Impossible spike isn’t exactly surprising. Immediately after adding Beyond Meat “beef” to their menus, Del Taco reported an increase in both check size and overall food traffic. In fact, many QSR’s report an uptick in traffic and sales immediately after adding a plant-based meat option to their menus.

Whether that uptick will turn into a steady increase remains to be seen. However, for now Del Taco and Qdoba seem to have carved out their own corners. As of now, they don’t have any competition from other Mexican food QSR’s: Taco Bell has a new vegetarian menu but is steering clear of fake meat, whereas Chipotle recently announced that it wouldn’t serve Impossible or Beyond since they were too processed.

Qdoba and Del Taco’s menus are relatively similar, which means that the brand of plant-based meat (or lack thereof) they use could become a significant factor when people decide where they want to stop for fast-food burritos — especially as more and more diners become familiar with meatless meat. But for now, the simple fact that Qdoba and Del Taco both offer plant-based meat could be enough to lure in new customers; vegetarian, flexitarian and otherwise.

Arby’s Fires Up its Beefy Base, Says It Will Shun Plant-Based Meat

Sorry to all those flexitarians who had thought maybe they would finally get the chance to eat at Arby’s. Contrary to some earlier reports, Arby’s will not be serving the Impossible burger and will remain dedicated to having the meats.

The non-controversy flared up this week when two vegetarian–based news publications wrote that Arby’s had been in talks about creating a sandwich using Impossible’s plant-based burger. They both cited a story from The Information earlier this month, but evidently seeing the news in a veggie publication was enough to make Arby’s president, Rob Lynch, see heme-based red. In an article published by Fortune today, Lynch recounted his reaction after seeing that potential change in direction:

Lynch recalled his momentary panic after reading the misreport. “Please, please, please say it isn’t so!” he quickly queried colleagues, who reassured their boss no one was exploring plant-based options.

Both the initial reports and Lynch’s reaction are totally predictable.

Arby’s talking with Impossible would make total sense as there is an ever-growing list of QSRs adopting plant-based meat alternatives, including Burger King, Carl’s Jr., White Castle, Del Taco, Qdoba and more. They all see sales of plant-based meat booming and are moving quickly to cash in. In fact, Burger King went from testing the Impossible Whopper to deciding to roll it out to all locations nationwide in less than a month.

And, sadly, in this modern political age, it wasn’t surprising at all to see how Lynch responded. This is, after all, the same restaurant chain that created a special vegetarian menu by serving the same sandwiches, just without the meat (good one, bro). Lynch was just leaning into what’s driving the company and reaffirming Arby’s meat marriage. This notion that you can only be one thing, and anything else is a betrayal, is rampant in today’s public discourse.

It’s silly. And dumb. And ultimately doesn’t matter. Vegetarians and flexitarians will have plenty of other fast food options to spend their money, and Arby’s will always have its meats.

Future Food: The Confusion around Cultured and Plant-Based Meat

This is the web version of our weekly Future Food newsletter. In it we cover the alternative protein landscape, from plant-based meat to cellular agriculture to insects. Subscribe here!

Plant-based meat companies are leveraging technology to create a product so good it makes eating meat from an animal unnecessary. Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat are both doing an excellent job of it so far, and will continue creating new iterations that taste even closer and closer to the real thing.

But where does cell-based meat — still likely a few years from our plates — fit into the equation? If plant-based meat tastes so good people will willingly choose it over the real thing, do we even need to bother making meat in a lab?

This week I tackled that question and zoomed out to take a broad picture of the alternative meat ecosystem, now and in 10 years. Spoiler: Yes, I think that cultured meat has a place in our future diets and is worth pursuing. See if I can convince you.

Photo: New Harvest.

*Is* plant-based meat actually healthy?

My boss Michael Wolf posted that piece on Linkedin got some interesting responses including one from Sean Butler, the Managing Director of LIDD Supply Chain Intelligence and former SVP of Retail at the meal kit startup Chef’d. He said:

I think that consumers may come to see the current crop of plant-based [meat] as “chemical-based” in the future, creating a strong opening for cellular meat, which can be billed as a (relatively) natural and sustainable alternative. Time will tell!

I’d always assumed consumers actually felt the opposite way. After all, plant-based meat is chiefly made up of recognizable ingredients, like soy and pea protein, whereas cell-based meat is more of a mystery — at least for those of us without a cell biology degree.

But just because we know the basic ingredients in plant-based meat doesn’t mean it’s necessarily more healthy. Many meat alternatives are quite high in fat (in order to mimic the juiciness of real meat), and are heavily processed to nail the texture. Despite this, plant-based meat companies like Beyond and Impossible typically market their products as healthy alternatives — which is one of the reasons why flexitarians are flocking to them in droves.

In the rapidly evolving world of alternative protein, it can be confusing for consumers to delineate healthy and non-healthy, natural and non-natural, meat and non-meat.

Mission (actually) Impossible

I got in a bit of a news kerfuffle this week. Spurred by a piece in the Washington Post, I wrote a story about how Burger King will start selling the Impossible Whopper in Sweden.

As it turns out… that’s not the case. A food tech-connected source in Sweden reached out to let us know that the new plant-based burger to be sold in BK is not, in fact, from Impossible and has nothing to do with the famous “bleeding” burger. A rep at Impossible later confirmed.

There’s one good reason that Impossible isn’t available in Europe yet, even while their competitor Beyond Meat is: heme. Impossible produces heme through genetic engineering. While we’re cool with that in the States, the EU is very hesitant about what sort of genetically engineered foods it allows to be sold. That’s one reason why I was surprised to hear that Impossible was moving into Sweden so quickly.

So which plant-based burger can Swedes expect to order from their local BK? According to an email from Iwo Zakowski, the General Manager of Burger King Sweden and Denmark, the new Unbelievable Whopper will be made with a plant-based burger composed of soy and wheat protein. He didn’t give the name of the producer but clarified that it wouldn’t be Nestlé’s Incredible Burger, which is on menus in McDonald’s Germany.

If you happen to be in Sweden and are able to take a taste, let us know what you think, wouldja?

Sausage party

It may not be in Sweden, but Impossible made some other expansion moves in the U.S. this week. They’re now at Little Caesar’s, whose new Impossible Supreme pie is topped with sausage made of Impossible’s “bleeding” plant-based meat.

Interestingly, this marks the first time the company has developed a unique, non-beef product for a restaurant partnership. Which makes me think that we’ll soon see a wave of new plant-based sausage products coming to market. Beyond’s already there, as are some veterans in the alterna-meat space like Field Roast and Lightlife. Now Impossible has followed suit. Maybe next they’ll roll out some plant-based breakfast sausage patties, or bratwursts for the grill?

Ocean Hugger Foods’ new plant-based eel sushi.

Protein new ’round the web

  • Ocean Hugger Foods, who make a vegan raw fish substitute from tomatoes, unveiled a new plant-based “eel” sushi at this weekend’s National Restaurant Association Show.
  • Livekindly: In the U.K., supermarket chain Aldi is expanding its line of private label plant-based products with “sausage” rolls and “chicken” burgers.
  • Nation’s Restaurant News: Pret A Manger is buying British competitor Eat and turning all of its locations into Veggie Prets, which only serve (you guessed it) vegan and vegetarian food.
  • malaymail: In Singapore, food delivery giant Deliveroo will offer dishes from eight restaurant brands made from Impossible Foods’ plant-based meat.

Eat well,
Catherine

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!

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.

Want to keep up with all plant-based protein news? Subscribe to Future Food, our weekly newsletter offering stories and analysis on the alternate protein landscape.

A Real Whopper! Burger King to Roll Out Impossible Burgers Nationwide

Well, that was quick. Less than a month after testing out the Impossible Whopper in St. Louis, Burger King said today that it will expand the availability of Impossible’s plant-based burger to all of its 7,300 locations by the end of this year.

The BK Lounge becomes the latest in an already impressive list of 5,000 restaurants to go in on Impossible. Other chains using Impossible’s heme-based burger “meat” include Qdoba, Red Robin, and White Castle. For all of these chains, adding a plant-based burger that looks, tastes, feels and even “bleeds” like the real thing opens up new customers bases in the growing market of vegetarians and flexitarians.

For those following the fake meat industry, the Burger King/Impossible announcement comes right before plant-based burger rival, Beyond Meat, is set to go public this week. The two companies have been in a bit of a tit-for-tat news battle throughout this month. While Impossible grabbed headlines for the BK test and now rollout, Del Taco announced it would serve Beyond Meat at all its locations nationwide and Beyond expanded overseas into Belgium and the Netherlands.

Will the BK deal help make Impossible the “king” of plant-based burgers? From the looks of it, we have a Game of Thrones-level battle brewing ahead as the competition between the two fake bleeding burger giants will only intensify over the course of this year. Both companies debuted new burger recipes this year. As noted earlier, Beyond is going public this week, which could raise $184 million for the company to expand its restaurant initiatives more aggressively. But Impossible is also taking the fight to the grocery aisle this year, where Beyond has focused much of its efforts and is well established.

If you’re into Impossible and Beyond burgers, you should definitely subscribe to our new Future Food newsletter, which covers and breaks down all the news in the emerging plant-based food world.

Qdoba Expanding Impossible “Meat” Nationwide

Qdoba announced yesterday that it is broadening its use of Impossible’s plant-based “meat” to all of its locations across the U.S. The Mexican food chain had been running tests of Impossible in Michigan, and is the latest high-profile brand to expand its use of alternative proteins as restaurants revamp their menus to keep up with growing demand for plant-based products.

Impossible is famous for its heme-based burger patties that “bleed,” though the Qdoba offering will be ground and used in bowls and tacos. Starting April 23, Impossible will be available at Qdoba locations in Brooklyn, Denver and Los Angeles. All of the more than 730 Qdoba’s will have the Impossible option by May 28.

Restaurants are fast becoming hip to consumer desire for plant-based protein. The Qdoba news comes just days after Del Taco announced the addition of Beyond Meat to the menus of its 580 locations across the country. Earlier this month, Burger King announced a pilot program with Impossible in Missouri. Impossible “meat” can also be found at White Castles and Red Robins, while Beyond Meat is at Carl’s Jr. and the Canadian A&W chain.

But restaurants are just one front in the battle between the alterna-meat biggies. Impossible also said it is going into grocery stores this year, where Beyond Meat already enjoys a sizeable foothold.

All of this positioning at various retail outlets comes as Beyond Meat prepares its IPO. Should that public debut go well, it will have enough money to scale up and expand further into restaurants and deeper into grocery stores. A good IPO for Beyond will also help pave the way for Impossible, which has raised $387.5 million, to go public as well.

Even with all this activity, there’s plenty of, err, meat on the restaurant bones left. Expect more news like Qdoba’s (and Del Taco, and Burger King…) to continue apace throughout the coming months.