Impossible™ Burger Debuts In Over 750 Grocery Stores

• Award-winning, plant-based meat will begin rolling out tomorrow in 777 additional supermarkets in California, Nevada and the greater Chicago area

• Impossible Foods accelerates retail rollout as demand for Impossible™ Burger skyrockets among home chefs

• Food tech startup will use latest investment round to accelerate retail rollout

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — Impossible Foods’ flagship product will begin rolling out this week at 777 additional supermarkets in California, Nevada and parts of the Midwest as demand for Impossible Burger skyrockets among home chefs.

The debut at Albertsons, Jewel-Osco, Pavilions, Safeway and Vons stores represents more than a 500% increase in the number of grocery stores selling the Impossible Burger. The award-winning, plant-based meat from the leading food tech startup will soon be on shelves in about 1,000 U.S. grocery stores, including:

All Albertsons, Vons, Pavilions and Gelson’s Markets in Southern California

All Safeway stores in Northern California

All Safeway stores in Nevada 

All Jewel-Osco stores in the greater Chicago area, and portions of eastern Iowa and northwest Indiana 

All Wegmans stores along the Eastern seaboard

All Fairway Markets in the New York City region

Impossible Burger made its retail debut in September, when it immediately rocketed to the No.1 item sold on the East and West coasts, easily outselling all ground beef from cows at many grocery stores. At one grocery store in Southern California, Impossible Burger outsold the next most popular single product by more than six-fold.

Impossible Burger comes in convenient, versatile, 12-ounce packages priced between $8.99 and $9.99 at retailers. The flagship product from Impossible Foods replaces ground beef from cows in every recipe -- from lasagna to chili, on the BBQ or in the slow cooker. Shoppers may find the plant-based Impossible Burger fresh or frozen in the meat aisle, in the vegetarian section or in special promotional displays; grocery store placement varies by location.

Impossible Foods plans to accelerate its retail expansion throughout 2020 -- including the debut of Impossible Burger at nationwide retailers. The company will announce specific stores shortly before the product hits those retailers’ shelves.

“We’ve always planned on a dramatic surge in retail for 2020 -- but with more and more Americans’ eating at home under ‘shelter-in-place’ orders, we’ve received requests from retailers and consumers alike,” said Impossible Foods’ President Dennis Woodside. “Our existing retail partners have achieved record sales of Impossible Burger in recent weeks, and we are moving as quickly as possible to expand with retailers nationwide.” 

To find Impossible Burger at a store near you, visit impossiblefoods.com/grocery-locations or follow on social media. Be sure to check out Impossible Foods’ Instagram LIVE for upcoming cooking shows.

Business Update During Covid-19

Impossible Foods meets or exceeds all guidelines set forth by the world’s leading public health agencies and continuously consults with experts in the public and private sector. The company’s COVID-19 task force closely monitors the global, national and regional situation, updates workplace policies and provides real-time, transparent information to employees, suppliers, customers and all stakeholders. 

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Impossible Foods has taken aggressive measures to prioritize the health and safety of its employees and the communities it serves, including:

mandatory work-from-home policies for all workers who can conceivably telecommute, through the end of April; 

stringent restrictions on external visitors to company facilities and those of co-manufacturing partners; 

a ban on virtually all work-related travel and physical events, both domestic and international; and daily sanitizing, disinfecting and deep cleaning of all workplaces to ensure the strictest hygiene standards and utmost safety.

“Our No. 1 priority is the safety of our employees, customers and consumers,” Woodside said. “And we recognize our responsibility for the welfare of our community, including the entire San Francisco Bay Area, our global supplier and customer network, millions of customers, and billions of people who are relying on food manufacturers to produce supplies in times of need.”

Earlier this month, Impossible Foods secured approximately $500 million in its latest funding round. The industry-leading food-tech startup has raised nearly $1.3 billion since its founding in 2011. 

Impossible Foods will use the funds to continue to thrive in a volatile macroeconomic environment, including the current COVID-19 pandemic -- and to expand its retail presence and its availability in key international markets. The latest investment round will also fuel fundamental research and innovation; accelerate Impossible Foods’ manufacturing scaleup; and accelerate commercialization of next-generation products including Impossible™ Sausage Made From Plants and Impossible™ Pork Made From Plants. 

Nutritious, Delicious, Sustainable

Impossible Burger rivals ground beef from cows for taste, and it’s also nutritious and versatile in all ground meat recipes, including stews, chili, sauces, braises, minces, meatballs, meat pies or any other beefy menu item. It’s easy to cook on an outdoor BBQ grill, flat top, Instant Pot, high speed oven, steamer or sauté pan. Home chefs can use the Impossible Burger in recipes from lasagna to lo mein.

It has as much protein and bioavailable iron as a comparable serving of ground beef from cows. A 4-ounce serving of Impossible Burger has 0 mg cholesterol, 14 grams of total fat, 8g of saturated fat and 240 calories. (A conventional 4-ounce “80/20” patty from cows has 80 mg cholesterol, 23 grams of total fat, 9g of saturated fat and 290 calories.)

Impossible Burger contains no animal hormones or antibiotics, and is kosher, halal and gluten-free certified. And because it’s made from plants and bioengineered, it uses 96% less land, 87% less water and 89% fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional beef from cows.

Stay tuned for more news – including the next retail launches coming soon – by visiting impossiblefoods.com/media and on social media. 

About Impossible Foods

Based in California’s Silicon Valley, Impossible Foods makes delicious, nutritious meat and dairy products from plants — with a much smaller environmental footprint than meat from animals. The privately held food tech startup was founded in 2011 by Patrick O. Brown, M.D., Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry at Stanford University and a former Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Investors include Mirae Asset Global Investments, Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, Google Ventures, Horizons Ventures, UBS, Viking Global Investors, Temasek, Sailing Capital, and Open Philanthropy Project.

Impossible Foods was Inc. Magazine’s company of the year and one of Time Magazine’s 50 Genius companies. The flagship product, Impossible Burger, was named top plant-based burger by the New York Times and received the Food and Beverage (FABI) Award from the National Restaurant Association. 

Press kit: www.impossiblefoods.com/media

Media Contact: Rachel Soeharto (pr@impossiblefoods.com)