Impossible Foods

Impossible Foods
Private
Industry Food
Founded 2011 (2011)
Founder Patrick O. Brown
Headquarters Redwood City, California, US
Website ImpossibleFoods.com
An Impossible Burger given out during a promotional event at a food truck in San Francisco in November 2016

Impossible Foods Inc. is a company that develops plant-based substitutes for meat and dairy products. Headquartered in Redwood City, California,[1] the company aims to give people the taste and nutritional benefits of meat without the negative health and environmental impacts associated with livestock products.[2] The company researches animal products at the molecular level, then selects specific proteins and nutrients from plants to recreate the experience of meats and dairy products.[2]

Its signature product, the Impossible Burger, was launched in July 2016.

Company and product history

In 2009, Stanford biochemistry professor Patrick O. Brown decided to devote an 18-month sabbatical to eliminating industrial animal agriculture, which he determined at the time to be the world’s largest environmental problem.[3] With other academics, Brown coorganized a conference in 2010 in Washington DC to raise awareness.[4] But the National Research Council workshop called "The Role of Animal Agriculture in a Sustainable 21st Century Global Food System” had minimal impact; soon after, he decided the best way to reduce animal agriculture was to offer a competing product in the free market.[3]

Brown started the company in 2011.[5] In July 2016, Impossible Foods launched its meat analogue product, the Impossible Burger, which is made from material derived from plants.[6] The company says that making it uses 95% less land and 74% less water, and it emits about 87% less greenhouse gas than making a ground beef burger patty from cows.[7] The plant-based burger has more protein, less total fat, no cholesterol and fewer calories than a similar-sized hamburger patty made with beef.[8] It contains more sodium and more saturated fats than an unseasoned beef patty.[9]

Technology

Impossible Foods' scientists discovered that a molecule called heme is a key factor in how meat behaves.[10] Heme is the molecule that gives blood its red color and helps carry oxygen in living organisms.[11] Heme is abundant in animal muscle tissue but is found naturally in all living organisms.[12] Plants, particularly nitrogen-fixing plants and legumes, also contain heme.[13] The heme molecule in plant-based heme is identical to the heme molecule found in meat.[14][15]

To produce heme protein from non-animal sources, Impossible Foods selected the leghemoglobin molecule found naturally in the roots of soy plants.[16] To make plant-based heme in large quantities, Impossible Foods' scientists then genetically engineered a yeast and used a fermentation process very similar to the brewing process used to make some types of beer.[17]

In 2014, Impossible Foods obtained a Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) designation for the leghemoglobin in the company's flagship product.[18] In addition, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a “no questions” letter in July 2018, accepting the unanimous conclusion of a panel of food-safety experts that the protein that carries the heme is safe to eat.[19]

The company said that its scientists created a chemical library of proteins and fats derived from plants, and experimented with them as additional ingredients to mimic the texture of meat.[20] To replicate the fat in hamburgers made from cows, Impossible Foods used flecks of coconut fat, which were mixed with ground textured wheat and potato protein. The potato protein provided a firm exterior when the "meat" is seared.[21] The coconut oil stayed solid until heated, when it melted in a similar manner to beef fat.[22]

Production and availability

Impossible Burger served at Brix Restaurant in Napa, California

In 2016 and 2017, Impossible Foods produced Impossible Burgers in relatively small quantities in Redwood City, California and at Rutgers, New Jersey[23] and were not available in retail locations.[24] Impossible Foods also worked on plant-based products that emulate chicken, pork, fish and dairy[25] but initially decided to concentrate on the ground beef used in burgers.[26]

The restaurant Momofuku Nishi in New York, owned by David Chang, began serving the Impossible Burger in July 2016.[27] In October 2016, the Impossible Burger became a standing menu item in selected additional restaurants in California[28] such as Jardinière and Cockscomb in San Francisco, and Crossroads Kitchen in Los Angeles.[29] The Michelin-starred restaurant PUBLIC, operated by Brad Farmerie, began serving the Impossible Burger in January 2017.[30]

In March 2017, Impossible Foods announced it would build its first large-scale plant in Oakland, California to produce one million pounds of plant based burger meat a month.[28] In the first half of 2017, the Impossible Burger debuted on the menu of multi-unit franchises including Bareburger in New York City,[31] Umami Burger in California[32] and Hopdoddy in Texas.[33]

White Castle started serving Impossible Burgers in April 2018. The partnership later expanded to include all 377 of its locations.[34] By July 2018, two years after its initial launch in New York, the Impossible Burger was available in about 3,000 restaurants in the United States and Hong Kong.[35]

Financing

Impossible Foods has raised rounds of $75 million and $108 million from investors including Google Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Viking Global Investors, UBS,[36] Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's Horizons Ventures and Bill Gates.[37] It was reported that Brown had turned down an offer of $300 million to buy out Impossible Foods in 2015.[26][38]

In August 2017, $75 million in additional financing was raised after reaching key objectives,[39][40] with Bill Gates investing additional money.[41]

In April 2018, an additional $114 million was raised, led by Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and Hong Kong-based Sailing Capital, bringing the total to $372 million, nearly $400 million.[42]

See Also

References

  1. ↑ "Impossible Foods". Crunch Base. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Impossible Foods". Impossible Foods. Retrieved 2015-07-29.
  3. 1 2 "The Biography of a Plant-Based Burger: One man's mission to make meat obsolete". 2016-09-06.
  4. ↑ "The Role of Animal Agriculture in a Sustainable 21 st Century Global Food System: A Scoping Workshop" (PDF). dels.nas.edu.
  5. ↑ Loizos, Connie. "Impossible Foods Raises a Whopping $108 Million For Its Plant-Based Burgers". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
  6. ↑ Mic. "The Veggie Burger of the Future Cost $80M to Invent — And Carnivores Will Be Impressed".
  7. ↑ "Sandwich of the Week, USA Today". 2016-09-06.
  8. ↑ Hoshaw, Lindsey (June 21, 2016). "Silicon Valley's Bloody Plant Burger Smells, Tastes And Sizzles Like Meat". NPR. Retrieved 2016-07-28.
  9. ↑ Lemonier, Gabrielle. "Great-Tasting Veggie Burgers are Here, But Are They Any Healthier?". Men's Journal. Retrieved 2017-04-18.
  10. ↑ "The Justice". 2016-09-29.
  11. ↑ "The majority of oxygen in the body is transported by hemoglobin, which is found inside red blood cells".
  12. ↑ Hamza, I; Dailey, HA. "One ring to rule them all: Trafficking of heme and heme synthesis intermediates in the metazoans". Biochim Biophys Acta. 1823: 1617–32. doi:10.1016/j.bbamcr.2012.04.009. PMC 3412874. PMID 22575458.
  13. ↑ "This New Veggie Burger Bleeds Like Meat".
  14. ↑ "Serving up a bloody veggie burger is the trick to convincing carnivores". Inverse.
  15. ↑ "Myoglobin".
  16. ↑ "Silicon Valley's Bloody Plant Burger Smells, Tastes And Sizzles Like Meat".
  17. ↑ "A veggie burger that 'bleeds' might convince some carnivores to eat green". Public Radio International "The World". 2016-09-23.
  18. ↑ "GRAS Notification for Soybean Leghemoglobin Protein Derived from Pichia pastoris" (PDF).
  19. ↑ "Key ingredient in 'Impossible Burger' approved by FDA". CNBC. 2018-07-24.
  20. ↑ Fellet, Melissae (13 October 2015). "A Fresh Take on Fake Meat". ACS Central Science. 1 (7): 347–349. doi:10.1021/acscentsci.5b00307.
  21. ↑ "Welcome to the Era of Plant-Based Meat". Food&Wine. 2016-04-16.
  22. ↑ "All about the Impossible Burger". 2016-09-12.
  23. ↑ Wang, Ucilia (2017-03-02). "Can Impossible Foods and its plant burgers take on the meat industry?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-04-18.
  24. ↑ "There's a secret ingredient in the plant-based meat Google wanted to buy for $200 million". Tech Insider. 2016-07-19.
  25. ↑ "Bleeding veggie burgers hit restaurants for first time". The Memo. 2016-07-27.
  26. 1 2 Rufford, Nick (2017-04-16). "Can the Impossible burger save the world?". The Times. Retrieved 2017-04-18. (Subscription required (help)).
  27. ↑ "David Chang Adds Plant Based 'Impossible Burger' to Nishi Menu". 2016-07-26.
  28. 1 2 Robinson, Melia (2017-03-22). "A startup selling 'bloody' plant-based burgers has a new factory that can make 4 million burgers a month". Business Insider. Retrieved 2017-04-18.
  29. ↑ "The Impossible Burger's West Coast Debut and the Wild Frontier of Plant-Based Meat". Forbes. 2016-10-13.
  30. ↑ "We Tried a Michelin Star Version of Silicon Valley's Plant Burger That Bleeds Like Beef". 1 February 2017.
  31. ↑ Rainey, Clint. "The Vegan Burger That 'Bleeds' Goes Mainstream at Bareburger".
  32. ↑ Pierson, David. "Umami says its new veggie burger tastes like meat — and bleeds like meat". latimes.com.
  33. ↑ "You can now get Impossible Burger's".
  34. ↑ Devenyns, Jessi (13 September 2018). "Impossible Burger goes to White Castle". Food Dive. Industry Dive. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
  35. ↑ "A Major Victory for the Impossible Burger, the Veggie 'Meat' that Bleeds". Wired. 2018-07-24.
  36. ↑ "Forget Lab Beef, Impossible Foods' 100% Plant-Based Cheeseburger Is Our Future". Motherboard. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
  37. ↑ Katie Fehrenbacher (2014-10-08). "Meet Impossible Foods, another VC-backed veggie meat startup". Gigaom. Retrieved 2015-07-29.
  38. ↑ Clements, Lana (2015-07-28). "Google tries to buy vegetarian burger business". Express. Retrieved 2017-04-18.
  39. ↑ "Impossible Foods Closes a $75 Million Investment After Achieving Key Milestones".
  40. ↑ "Plant-Based Impossible Foods Raises Another $75 Million: Bill Gates Invests Again".
  41. ↑ "Impossible Foods closes $75M funding round". www.meatpoultry.com.
  42. ↑ "Temasek co-leads $114m investment in Asia-bound Impossible Foods".
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