Impossible™ Sausage Made From Plants Makes Its International Debut in Asia

• The first all-new product from Impossible Foods since the launch of the Impossible™ Burger is now available in Hong Kong — the first market outside the United States for Impossible Sausage Made From Plants

• Impossible Sausage is now exclusively available at all Starbucks locations in Hong Kong; the award-winning product will launch in additional restaurants later this month

• A sustainable upgrade over pork from pigs, the versatile patty debuted in the United States earlier this year and within weeks became available at more than 22,000 restaurants -- one of the most successful plant-based food rollouts

Hong Kong — Starting today, Impossible Foods is rolling out Impossible Sausage Made From Plants in Hong Kong, the first international market for the award-winning, plant-based patty. 

Impossible Sausage is the company’s first all-new product since the 2016 debut of Impossible Burger. California-based Impossible Foods launched Impossible Sausage to much fanfare at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Within six months, the savory patties have become available at more than 22,000 locations throughout the United States -- easily one of the most successful plant-based food launches in modern history. 

Starting today, Hong Kongers can buy Starbucks’ Maize Impossible™ Sandwich at any restaurant across the city. The sandwich is made with maize bread and filled with Impossible Sausage, egg, cheese, onions, roasted pumpkin and salad vegetables.

Impossible Sausage will debut later this month at additional restaurants, including Fini's, Franks Italian American, Triple O’s and URBAN. Stay tuned for more information on the rollout. 

“Unprecedented demand for Impossible Sausage is a clear signal to incumbent industry: Consumers are accelerating the shift to a plant-based food system,” said Impossible Foods’ Founder and CEO Dr. Patrick O. Brown. “This is particularly true in Asia, where pork dominates the meat market yet represents catastrophic threats to public health and the natural environment.” 

First Little Piggy to Market 

Hong Kong was Impossible Foods’ first international market; the Silicon Valley-based food tech startup “swept Hong Kong off its feet” with the launch of Impossible Burger in 2018. The product debuted at some of the city’s most beloved restaurants, including Little Bao, Happy Paradise, and Beef & Liberty, then quickly rolled out to hundreds of additional restaurants.

Impossible Foods selected Hong Kong for the international launch of Impossible Sausage because the region is a one of the world's top culinary hotspots -- home of the most discerning foodies and chefs, and a global bellwether for cultural and food trends. Impossible Foods’ goal is to eliminate the need for animal agriculture worldwide, particularly in Asia, where meat consumption represents 44% of the world’s demand. 

China consumes 28% of the world’s meat. Chinese consumers are expected to eat about 76 million tonnes of pork, beef and poultry in 2020. Demand for meat is growing faster in Asia than anywhere else on the planet -- and satiating the continent’s insatiable demand has disastrous consequences for the environment. 

Best of the Wurst

Winner of the 2020 Food and Beverage Award, Impossible Sausage is a pre-seasoned, pre-cooked savory patty. A versatile item for pick up, dine-in service or drive-through, Impossible Sausage outperforms conventional sausage from pigs for nutrition and sustainability. 

Compared to the leading US brand of pork sausage, Impossible Sausage has the same amount of protein, 60% more iron, 45% fewer calories, 60% less total fat, 50% less saturated fat and 0 mg cholesterol. Impossible Sausage contains no antibiotics. 

Impossible Sausage Made from Plants is versatile and convenient. The 1.6-ounce (45g) patties are pre-seasoned with traditional breakfast seasoning and arrive fully cooked in 10-pound boxes. The juicy, savory plant-based patties that pair perfectly with traditional breakfast accompaniments and steal the show as a center-of-the-plate delicacy. 

For sales details, email hello@impossiblefoods.com.

Pigs: an Unnecessary, Dangerous, Prehistoric Way to Make Pork

Raising animals for food makes up the vast majority of the land footprint of humanity. All the buildings, roads and paved surfaces in the world occupy less than 2% of Earth’s land surface, while more than 45% of the land surface of Earth is currently in use as land for grazing or growing feed crops for livestock. 

Populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians have, on average, declined in size by 60 percent in just over 40 years. Animal agriculture is a primary driver of the accelerating collapse in diverse wildlife populations and ecosystems on land and in oceans, rivers and lakes.

While cows and chicken are America’s favorite protein sources, pigs are the most widely eaten animal in the world, accounting for about 38% of meat production worldwide. 

According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, the world is home to about 1.44 billion pigs; with an average weight of about 112 kg, total farmed pig biomass totals 175 billion kg. That’s nearly twice as much as the total biomass of all wild terrestrial vertebrates.

In order to satisfy humanity’s voracious demand for pork -- from dumplings to breakfast patties — 47 pigs are killed on average every second of every day, based on FAO data. 

Don't Compromise: Eat Plants Instead of Animal-derived Meat

Using pigs as a protein production technology comes with a high environmental cost -- on both a global and local scale: Industrial pork production releases excessive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus into the environment, and the high doses of copper and zinc fed to pigs to promote growth accumulate in the soil. Feces and waste often spread to surrounding neighborhoods, polluting air and water with toxic waste particles.

In addition to the environmental toll, human’s reliance on animals for food has been a public health disaster for at least a century. Consuming animals has been the root cause of a disproportionate number of viruses and pandemics -- including the 1918 “Spanish flu” (from swine viruses), SARS, MERS and the majority of human cases of influenza A (from live or dead infected poultry) -- and, most recently, COVID-19.

Eating animals imparts risk of zoonotic outbreaks, by bringing wild animals in close proximity to humans (via markets or via deforestation) and by creating ‘reservoirs’ for pathogens in the form of domesticated livestock. 

The mission of Impossible Foods is to eliminate the need for animals in the food system. Transitioning away from eating animal products is one of the best ways to reduce the likelihood of future animal to human pandemics.

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. 

Media kit: (www.impossiblefoods.com/media)

Media Contact: Esther Cohn (pr-hk@impossiblefoods.com)

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