Page 13 - Food&Drink Jan-Feb 2022 magazine

expansion into Australia is critical for helping transform the local agricultural system to more sustainable plant- based production.
QImpossible Foods has been at the forefront of plant- based protein alternatives for a decade – what have been the biggest changes you’ve witnessed?
We’ve certainly seen a variety of plant-based products starting to take the approach pioneered by Impossible Foods, which is to make plant-based products that aim to deliver the same taste as meat from animals. The plant-based products of the past offered alternatives that may have been tasty in their own right but weren’t attempting to compete against the incumbent industry directly.
Impossible Foods took a unique approach to developing a meat made from plant-based ingredients that is just as delicious, nutritious, affordable and craveable as conventional animal meat. We use modern science and technology to transform plant protein directly into delicious and nutritious meat that consumers love because this is the only way we will achieve our mission: to transform the global food system so that it can scale to feed the growing global population. It’s well understood that the current animal-based
“The long-term mission of Impossible Foods is to make delicious plant-based versions of all meat, fish and dairy products currently consumed, and launch these in every market and channel in the world.”
food system cannot scale to meet the growing global demand for meat from animals. To fulfill global demand for nutritious meat, we need to find a sustainable alternative.
This awareness has obviously spread, and we’re seeing more and more companies enter the space. This has generated a lot of investment around ingredients innovation, supply chains, and scaling manufacturing, which is all really encouraging and a good thing for the industry as a whole.
Q
nutrition, affordability,
and availability while being much more sustainable.
Q
What do you see is driving
rolling out in quick service restaurants before retail?
We typically launch in food service outlets because the menu item has been developed by an experienced chef or culinary team so it guarantees that the first taste for the consumer is likely to be a really positive one. There’s also an ‘endorsement’ of sorts inherent in launching on a menu or with a brand that the consumer is familiar with, and that is known for their meaty dishes.
Chicken
Nuggets,
Impossible
Pork and
Impossible Meatballs.
We plan to bring all of
these products to each of
our markets globally, so there’s plenty more to come there.
The long-term mission of Impossible Foods is to make delicious plant-based versions of all meat, fish and dairy products currently consumed, and launch these in every market and channel in the world. We have a number of products in development, and we’ll launch those when we feel they’re ready to compete in the marketplace.
We’re also continually looking at improving our existing products across taste, nutrition, affordability and sustainability. This includes looking at new ingredients, new manufacturing processes and more. Stay tuned! ✷
consumer behaviour when adopting plant-based options
– so moving from curiosity to habitual regular purchasing?
It all comes down to taste. Consumers may try something once for novelty, but if the product doesn’t taste good, they aren’t going to buy it again. Impossible Beef has
an extremely high rate of repeat purchase because it’s meaningfully competing against conventional meat
not just on taste, but all
of the other factors that matter to consumers:
At this phase of our company growth, we think QSR is an important channel because it makes our products available to a wide variety of consumers, both geographically and in affordability.
Q
We have a number of products already on the market in other geographies, including Impossible Sausage, Impossible
What’s the strategy behind
What is next for
Impossible Foods?
PLANT-BASED PROTEIN
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www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au | January-February 2022 | Food&Drink business | 13