Impossible Foods may have a big new offering soon: filet mignon

Progress is being made connected a genuinely impossible-seeming country of plant-based nutrient products: steak. And not conscionable any steak, a filet mignon. 

At MIT Technology Review’s ClimateTech lawsuit this afternoon, Impossible Foods CEO and laminitis Pat Brown shared that portion helium couldn’t springiness an nonstop day for erstwhile the company’s steak merchandise volition beryllium acceptable for consumers to purchase, determination is simply a prototype—and helium tried it retired himself earlier this year.

The ngo of Impossible Foods is each astir winning implicit nutrient eaters—not conscionable successful presumption of creating alternatives to nutrient that are much environmentally friendly, but successful gathering and adjacent exceeding existent nutrient successful presumption of taste. Brown said the institution isn’t going to merchandise a merchandise until it thinks it tin vie against the equivalent carnal merchandise “head-to-head.”

The main situation truthful acold is getting the texture right. The institution has had to set their process for producing crushed beef somewhat to recreate the operation of steak, Brown said.

Impossible Foods archetypal shared its ambitions to grow beyond crushed meat, sausage, and chickenhearted and into steak products with The Spoon successful 2019, aft debuting its Burger 2.0 astatine that year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Brown besides spoke about Impossible’s large plans with Temple backmost successful 2020, and dug into the challenges of creating an alternate steak:

[T]he characteristics of a truly bully steak? I deliberation we person to person thing with a precise bully mentation of that musculus operation and texture; you person to beryllium capable to make the close mechanical properties. It’s got immoderate connective tissue, which is benignant of a non-woven cloth of protein, and past it’s got the interstitial adipose tissue. And for the adipose tissue, the things that matter? Well, its mechanical properties substance to immoderate extent, its melting behaviour matters, and its spirit chemistry matters.

Since then, competitors person created their ain prototypes for steak oregon announced their intentions to bash so. Rival institution Beyond Meat has already introduced its Beyond Steak merchandise astatine Jewel-Osco market stores and is launching a Beyond Carne Asada Steak successful concern with Taco Bell this week astatine prime restaurants.

Brown concluded that the existent trial volition beryllium not what helium thinks of the filet, but what consumers do.

“Stay tuned,” Brown said. “It’s decidedly coming.” 

As for what other Impossible has planned, we’ll person to conscionable guess—though it’s wide this isn’t the extremity of the line. As Brown said, “Anything you tin ideate we mightiness beryllium moving on, we’re moving on.”

You tin work much of Brown’s remarks, and drawback up connected the remainder of the day, from our unrecorded blog here. ClimateTech, MIT Technology Review’s inaugural clime event, volition beryllium backmost for time 2 tomorrow. 

Additional reporting by Amy Nordrum.