Impossible Foods Accelerates International Growth as Flagship Product Debuts in Asian Grocery Stores

• Impossible Foods’ flagship product goes on sale this week in about 200 grocery stores in Hong Kong and Singapore  

• Consumers can get ImpossibleTM Beef Made from Plants in nearly 100 outlets of PARKnSHOP in Hong Kong, and in Singapore nearly 100 outlets of FairPrice and online retailer RedMart 

• In the United States, Impossible Foods has expanded its retail footprint more than 70X in the past six months as millions of Americans pick Impossible’s award-winning, plant-based meat instead of ground beef from cows

Hong Kong — Impossible Foods is making its award-winning, plant-based meat available to home chefs in Asia in nearly 200 grocery stores across Hong Kong and Singapore -- the first time Impossible Beef Made From Plants has been available for home chefs outside of the United States.

Starting this week, Impossible Beef ($HK88.90 SRP for 340g retail pack) will roll out at nearly 100 PARKnSHOP banner stores across Hong Kong, including PARKnSHOP, FUSION, TASTE, food le parc and GREAT FOOD HALL. It’s also available for delivery through parknshop.com. 

In Singapore, Impossible Beef priced at SG$16.90 (SRP) will start rolling out this week at nearly 100 NTUC FairPrice stores, including FairPrice supermarkets, FairPrice Finest and FairPrice Xtra hypermarkets. In addition, Singapore’s biggest online grocer, RedMart, is selling Impossible Beef for home delivery. 

TASTING IS BELIEVING

Named top plant-based burger by the New York Times and a favorite of Cook’s Illustrated, Impossible Beef (known as Impossible™  Burger in North America) rivals ground beef from cows for taste. It is kosher, halal and gluten-free certified. It’s nutritious and versatile in all ground beef recipes, including stews, chili, sauces, braises, minces, meatballs, meat pies or any other beefy menu item. 

Impossible Beef debuted in Asia’s top restaurants two years ago, when fans lined up to try the Silicon Valley phenomenon dubbed a “triumph of food engineering.” Impossible Beef is now served in the Hong Kong and Singapore restaurants of world-class chefs such as May Chow, Uwe Opencensky, Gordon Ramsay, Ricky Leung, Adam Penney and Andrei Soen. 

“The world’s most respected chefs consistently tell us that the Impossible Burger blows them away. And we can’t wait for Hong Kong and Singapore’s home chefs to experience the same magic in their own kitchens -- whether using Impossible Beef in their traditional family favorites or inventing new recipes that go viral,” said Impossible Foods’ CEO and Founder Dr. Patrick O. Brown.

Science, Sustainability, Sizzle

Impossible Beef is the flagship product from Impossible Foods, Inc. Magazine’s company of the year and one of Time Magazine’s 50 Genius companies. The company’s mission is to halt biodiversity collapse and reverse global warming by eliminating the need for animal agriculture, which has led our planet to the brink of environmental collapse.

The California-based startup makes delicious, wholesome, plant-based foods that deliver all the pleasures and nutritional benefits that consumers demand. A 4-ounce serving of Impossible Beef contains 19 g of protein and is a source of iron -- and it has 0 mg cholesterol, 14 g of total fat, 8 g of saturated fat and 240 calories. (A conventional 4-ounce “80/20” patty from cows has 80 mg cholesterol, 23 g of total fat, 9 g of saturated fat and 290 calories.)

Impossible Beef uses 96% less land, 87% less water and 89% fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional beef from cows. Fans can learn exactly how much land, water and emissions they’ve saved by using Impossible Beef instead of ground beef from cows at Impossible Foods’ Impact Calculator.

Silicon Valley Sensation

Impossible’s flagship product made its worldwide grocery store debut in 2019, when it immediately rocketed to the No. 1 item sold at some of America’s favorite grocery stores, outselling all ground beef from cows at many outlets. At one supermarket in Southern California, Impossible Burger outsold all brands of ground beef from cows -- and it outsold the next most popular single product by 6X.

Impossible Foods is one of America’s fastest-growing brands and the leading driver of growth in the overall plant-based food category. Nine out of 10 people who buy Impossible Burger regularly eat animal-derived foods. 

According to the US analytics company Numerator, the vast majority of Impossible Foods' sales come at the direct expense of animal-derived meat: 72 cents per dollar comes from consumers who are shifting their purchases to Impossible Burger from other categories of animal-derived meats -- proof that Impossible Burger is displacing Old Meat.

Recipe Renaissance 

Impossible Beef has quickly become a favorite item among diners, who can order it on menus in approximately 700 restaurants across Hong Kong and Macau -- up 150% since January 2020. It’s available at about 550 restaurants in Singapore -- up 120% since January 2020. Sales of Impossible Beef increased by more than sixfold in Asia last year.

But COVID-19 dramatically altered the shopping and cooking habits of consumers worldwide, with more residents dining at home. Home chefs in Singapore and Hong Kong have flooded social media with photos and recipes of dishes, inspiring friends and relatives and driving up demand in brick-and-mortar and grocery stores.

Impossible Foods joined the recipe-sharing frenzy, launching its first cookbook this year. Following its initial release, the cookbook was named a #1 Best Seller in Amazon's Burger & Sandwich Recipes category, as well as #1 New Release in Amazon’s Sustainable Living and Vegan Cooking categories. Impossible™: The Cookbook (Chronicle Books) is now available for sale in Asia, through online sellers such as Kinokuniya, Amazon.sg, Amazon.com, and Book Depository.

Impossible™: The Cookbook highlights the convenience and versatility of Impossible Beef -- and it shows how simply switching to plant-based meat can transform the global food system. In addition, the book includes recipes for savory starters such as Vietnamese Imperial Rolls, Pan-Fried Chive Dumplings and Jamaican Patties with Calypso Sauce -- as well as center-of-the-plate mains such as Thai Laab with Fresh Herbs, Turkish-Spiced Sandwiches with Garlic Sauce and Szechuan Mapo Tofu. The cookbook includes an entire chapter dedicated to burgers and a complete section on beverage pairings. 

The cookbook features 40 recipes from some of the pioneering chefs and personalities who introduced the product to the world, including May Chow (Little Bao, Hong Kong), Andrei Soen (Park Bench Deli, Singapore), Ricky Leung (EMPRESS, Singapore), and Que Vinh Dang (NHAU, Hong Kong). 

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 Coatue, Bill Gates, Google Ventures, Horizons Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Mirae Asset Global Investments, Open Philanthropy Project, Sailing Capital, Temasek, UBS, and Viking Global Investors.

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@impossiblefoods.com)

pr-hk@impossiblefoods.com 

pr-sg@impossiblefoods.com