OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Impossible Foods’ flagship product, the award-winning Impossible Burger, is now available in more than 1,000 restaurants nationwide.
The California startup’s first large-scale factory is now at full production. The 67,000-square-foot plant in East Oakland is now producing 500,000 pounds of plant-based meat per month -- enough to feed Impossible Burgers to 2 million people per month. Impossible Foods plans to add a second shift to double capacity this summer. To learn more about Impossible Foods’ scale-up, watch this video.
"We are proud of the dedicated and passionate team in Oakland. They achieved world-class quality on an ambitious timeline,” Impossible Foods CEO and Founder Patrick O. Brown, M.D., Ph.D., said today. “But there are still millions of restaurants and billions of people who want meat. So while achieving full capacity at our first plant is an important milestone, it’s just the beginning. We won’t stop until the global food system is truly sustainable.”
Impossible Foods launched production in Oakland in September 2017. In addition to supplying Impossible Burgers to more than 1,000 restaurants nationwide, the plant will begin shipping burgers to Asia for the company’s international debut later this year.
Impossible Foods currently employs nearly 300 people, including 50 people in Oakland. To learn more about Impossible Foods’ plant in Oakland, watch this video. The company is also actively recruiting scientists to join its world-class R&D team in Redwood City. To learn what motivates Impossible Foods’ scientists, read this blog post.
1,000 RESTAURANTS AND GROWING DAILY
Earlier this week, the Oakland favorite Shakewell became the 1,000th restaurant to begin serving the Impossible Burger. The popular Mediterranean-inspired restaurant was started by Top Chef alums Jen Biesty and Tim Nugent. True to the restaurant’s Spanish and Moroccan heritage, Shakewell serves the Impossible Burger as savory keftas and meatballs.
Versatile, nutritious and delicious, the Impossible Burger is the world's only burger that looks, handles, smells, cooks and tastes like ground beef from cows -- but is made entirely from plants, with a much smaller environmental footprint than meat from animals.
According to data supplied by restaurants, adding the Impossible Burger to a restaurant’s menu increases guest headcount by up to 13% compared to outlets in the same chain that do not have the Impossible Burger. In addition, adding the Impossible Burger to a restaurant’s menu increases gross sales by up to 30% year-over-year compared to restaurants in the same chain that do not have the burger.
The Impossible Burger is the only plant-based burger that’s featured in America’s most beloved “better burger” concepts FatBurger, Umami Burger, Hopdoddy, The Counter, Gott’s and B Spot, the Midwest burger restaurant owned by Chef Michael Symon. Click here for a list of restaurants serving the Impossible Burger.
Starting next week on opening day, the Oakland Alameda Coliseum will become the first professional sports stadium to serve the Impossible Burger. The Impossible Burger is also served on university campuses include the University of California system, Stanford University, University of Chicago and others.
Restaurateurs, universities, stadiums and other venues can order the Impossible Burger through many of their preferred distributors, including Sysco, US Foods, Chefs Warehouse and Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors. To order the Impossible Burger, ask your distributor or send an email to hello@impossiblefoods.com.
“The food business is one of the most competitive sectors in America — and the Impossible Burger is one of those rare menu items that brings new customers in the door and keeps people coming back,” said Impossible Foods Senior Vice President of Sales Stephanie Lind. “We want to help entrepreneurs increase revenue by providing a product that’s good for people and the planet.”
BIG TASTE, SMALL FOOTPRINT
In development since 2011, the Impossible Burger debuted in July 2016 at Chef David Chang’s Momofuku Nishi in Manhattan and won a 2017 Tasty Award for best food startup.
The Impossible Burger is produced without hormones, antibiotics, cholesterol or artificial flavors. It uses about 75% less water, generates about 87% fewer greenhouse gases, and requires around 95% less land than conventional ground beef from cows.
The Impossible Burger is made from simple ingredients, including water, wheat protein, potato protein and coconut oil. One special ingredient — heme — contributes to the characteristic taste of meat and catalyzes all the other flavors when meat is cooked. Impossible Foods discovered how to produce large quantities of heme through fermentation, transforming the Impossible Burger into a carnivore’s delight that’s light on the planet. Impossible Foods is also developing additional plant-based meat and dairy products.
ABOUT IMPOSSIBLE FOODS
Based in Redwood City, California, Impossible Foods makes delicious, nutritious meat and dairy products directly from plants — with a much smaller environmental footprint than meat from animals. The privately held company was founded in 2011 by Patrick O. Brown, M.D., Ph.D., formerly a biochemistry professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Stanford University. Investors include Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, Google Ventures, Horizons Ventures, UBS, Viking Global Investors, Temasek and Open Philanthropy Project.
More information:
www.impossiblefoods.com
www.twitter.com/impossiblefoods
www.facebook.com/impossiblefoods
www.instagram.com/impossible_foods
Press kit: https://impossiblefoods.app.box.com/v/presskit
Media b-roll available of Oakland plant:
https://impossiblefoods.app.box.com/v/presskit/folder/11237800502