Impossible Foods FAQs

Thanks for your interest! Were privately held by a small number of investors, and recently closed a round of financing, so right now, therearen'topportunities to invest.

We havent announced any plans to become publicly traded, but you can be the first to get all Impossible updates by joining our mailing list. Just click the bright blue bar at the bottom of our homepage to sign up.

Here for the headlines? Every 4oz serving of the Impossible Burger contains:

19g of protein-- the same as ground beef

0mg cholesterol (14g total fat)

25% the recommended daily value of iron

No antibiotics or animal hormones

Looking for just the facts? The nutrition facts panel for our current recipe is below.Keep in mind, this nutrition facts panel is just for Impossible-- not the buns, sauces, seasonings, and other tasty add-ons that chefs serve with it.

Looking for the ingredient list? You can find it here.

Wedon'tmess around when it comes to allergies, and encourage consumers with food allergies or sensitivities to review our ingredient list prior to consuming the Impossible Burger. Heres an overview: the Impossible Burger contains soy. It also contains coconut oil (the FDA classifies coconuts as tree nuts for food labelling purposes, but refined coconut oil is not considered an allergen). Our product does not contain dairy, eggs, fish, peanuts, shellfish, or wheat, and its safe for those with alpha-gal syndrome.

The Impossible Burger also contains potato protein. If you have an allergy to either raw or cooked potatoes, you should not consume the Impossible Burger.

Please apply the same level of caution that you would with any food and check with the restaurant about cross-contamination risks. And as always, please reach out to us with questions. For more information about allergens, check out this blog from Dr. Sue Klapholz, M.D., Ph.D., Vice President of Nutrition and Health, Impossible Foods.

Genetic engineering is an essential part of our mission and our product. Weve always embraced the responsible, constructive use of genetic engineering to solve critical environmental, health, safety and food security problems, and have long advocated for responsible use of this technology in the food system. We wouldnt be able to make a product that rivals or surpasses beef on flavor, texture, nutrition, sustainability, versatility and accessibility without it.

We use two key genetically engineered ingredients: heme (soy leghemoglobin) -- the magic molecule that makes meat taste like meat -- and soy protein.

To make heme : We take the DNA for soy leghomoglobin, insert it into yeast, and ferment the yeast. By making our heme using genetic engineering, we avoid growing and digging up soy plants to harvest heme (from the root nodules), which would promote erosion and release carbon stored in the soil. The method weve adopted enables us to produce heme sustainably at high volume and make meat from plants for millions of people that is delicious, nutritious and vastly more sustainable than meat from animals.

We also source genetically engineered soy protein from farms in Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois that meet the highest standards for health, safety, and sustainability. You can read more on our blog here.

The Impossible Burger is plant-based, and contains no animal products or byproducts.

Want to know what it does contain? View the ingredients here.

The Impossible Burger is not organic. We rigorously vet our suppliers to ensure were making the safest and most sustainable choices for our consumers and the environment, regardless of labels.We also send samples of our finished product to an accredited, independent laboratory to screen for glyphosate, AMPA, and over 300 other pesticides. All samples have come back negative. Learn more about how and why we screen for pesticides here.

We launched the Impossible Burger in 2016, but we didnt stop there. Since then, weve been learning how to make it even better. In January 2019, we introduced our new recipe. The new Impossible Burger is tastier, juicier and more nutritious -- featuring 30% less sodium and 40% less saturated fat than our original recipe and just as much protein as ground beef from cows. 100% more delicious and more versatile than ever. Read more about our recipe innovation here. We've said a fond farewell to the original recipe, and as of April 2019, all our restaurant partners should be exclusively serving our new recipe. As always, if you have any questions about what a restaurant is serving, you should ask them directly.

If youre curious about the original recipe, the ingredient list and nutrition facts panel are below.Water, Textured Wheat Protein, Coconut Oil, Potato Protein, Natural Flavors, 2% or less of: Leghemoglobin (Soy), Yeast Extract, Salt, Konjac Gum, Xanthan Gum, Soy Protein Isolate, Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Thiamin (Vitamin B1), Zinc, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Vitamin B12.Contains: Soy, Wheat

nutrition facts

Ready to live in the here and now? Heres the ingredients and for our current recipe.

Weve made our retail debut at Gelsons Markets (Southern California),Wegmans (Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia), and select locations of Fairway Market in NYC. Check out our Locator to find the store nearest you.

If were not in your neighborhood yet, hang tight. Well be announcing more retail partners in the coming months. If you havent already, join our mailing list (its the bright blue sign-up bar at the bottom of our homepage ) to make sure youre first to know when we announce our next store locations.

For now, feed your craving at a restaurant near you.

You can find the Impossible in over 15,000 restaurants in the United States, Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore. More and more restaurants are serving the Impossible Burger every day -- from theme parks to food trucks to fine dining.

Check out our Locator to find the Impossible near you! Join our mailing list using the bright blue sign up form at the bottom of our homepage to receive updates as we add more places to the map.

Want a taste? See how Stella's cooks it up.

The Impossible Burger is made from proteins, flavors, fats, and binders, like almost every burgeryou'veeaten in your life. The show stopping difference? Our ingredients are derived from plants.

Soy and potato protein give it a meaty bite

Heme gives it a craveable taste

Coconut and sunflower oils make it sizzle on the griddle

Methylcellulose and food starch hold it together so you can make it into meatballs, kebab, sausage patties-- the possibilities are endless

Want the details? Heres the ingredient list:Water, Soy Protein Concentrate, Coconut Oil, Sunflower Oil, Natural Flavors, 2% or less of: Potato Protein, Methylcellulose, Yeast Extract, Cultured Dextrose, Food Starch Modified, Soy Leghemoglobin, Salt, Soy Protein Isolate, Mixed Tocopherols (Vitamin E), Zinc Gluconate, Thiamine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B1), Sodium Ascorbate (Vitamin C), Niacin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Vitamin B12.Contains: Soy Looking for nutrition facts? You can find them here.

Our goal is to bring the Impossible Burger to kitchens everywhere, but just like the perfect home-cooked meal, its going to take some time. Well be announcing more retail partners in more regions in the coming months. Make sure to join our mailing list using the bright blue sign-up bar at the bottom of our homepage so youdon'tmiss any announcements about where were popping up next.

If you live in Southern California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, or Virginia, we might already be in your neighborhood. Use our store locator to find out.

To our fans everywhere else-- we hear you, we havent forgotten you, and were working hard to come to your store shelves soon.

Cant wait for a taste? Find a restaurant near you that's serving the Impossible Burger right now.

Soy leghemoglobin is short for legume hemoglobin -- the hemoglobin found in soy, a leguminous plant. Leghemoglobin is a protein found in plants that carries heme, an iron-containing molecule that is essential for life. Heme is found in every living being -- both plants and animals. (Heme in animals is carried by "hemoglobin" and myoglobin among other proteins.)

Although heme has been consumed every day for hundreds of thousands of years, Impossible Foods discovered that its what makes meat taste like meat. We make the Impossible Burger using heme from soy plants, which is identical to heme from animals and gives Impossible its uniquely meaty flavor.

Find out how we make heme here.

The current Impossible Burger recipe (a.k.a. Impossible Burger 2.0) contains no gluten ingredients.

You may have heard that our original recipe contained wheat protein. Thats correct, but we stopped producing and distributing it earlier this year. As of April 2019, all our restaurant partners should exclusively be serving the new recipe.

View the ingredient list for our new recipe here.

Please apply the same level of caution that you would with any food and check with the restaurant about cross-contamination risks. And as always, feel free to reach out to us with questions.

Looking for information about other allergens? You can find it here.

Were trying to make a better world for the next generation, so were not surprised that the next generation wants to join the mission! Every summer we welcome a group of interns from universities around the world to Impossible Foods HQ in Redwood City, CA for 12 weeks of learning, contributing, and good old-fashioned getting their feet wet.

Our next internship recruitment period will be in Spring 2020 for internships during Summer 2020. Check back on our careers page next Spring to apply and get more details on specific roles.

See what our inaugural class of interns from 2018 had to say about their experience below.

Want to supply the Impossible to your restaurant partners? Any distributor in the United States can order the Impossible Burger through Dot Foods.

Use this form on our website to get in touch, and well follow up with everything you need to place your first order.

Our distribution needs in Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore are currently met. If youre hoping to distribute in a country were not sold in yet (everywhere except the United States, Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore), hang tight -- were working to bring Impossible to countries all over the world.

Back in our research days, we used to harvest leghemoglobin directly from the roots of soy plants. But we soon realized that in order to make enough plant-based heme to feed the world (and to avoid digging up soy plants to harvest the root nodules, which would promote erosion and release carbon stored in the soil) we would need to make it using fermentation.

The heme in the Impossible Burger is made using a yeast engineered with the gene for soy leghemoglobin. First, we grow yeast via fermentation. Then, we isolate the soy leghemoglobin (containing heme) from the yeast and add it to the Impossible Burger, where it combines with other micronutrients to create delicious, meaty flavor. This process allows us to make heme at scale with the lowest achievable environmental impact.

Learn more about how we make heme and get a peek behind the scenes in the video below.

We love it when students like you focus on Impossible for school projects! Unfortunately, were not able to respond to each student project request individually, but were happy to point you in the right direction.

If you need executive bios, photos, or news releases, check out our Media Kit. Youre welcome to use all the materials there in your project. Please credit Impossible Foods-- otherwise no further permissions from us are needed.

Below are answers to some of the most common questions we receive from students, along with links to resources and news articles where you can take a deeper dive.

How did Impossible Foods come to be?

In 2009, Stanford University professor, Dr. Patrick O. Brown, decided to alter the course of his career to address the urgent problem of climate change. In particular, he wanted to make the global food system sustainable by making meat directly from plants. In 2011, Pat founded Impossible Foods and brought together a team of top scientists to analyze meat at the molecular level and determine precisely why meat smells, handles, cooks and tastes the way it does. We debuted our first product, Impossible Burger, in 2016. Learn more about our mission in Pats words here, or listen to him tell the story here.

How do you measure your impact?

We publish an annual Impact Report that details our progress towards our mission. Check out our 2019 Impact Report here (and you can access reports from 2018 and 2017, too). You can also take a look at a summary of our most recent Environmental Life Cycle Analysis to learn more about where our sustainability stats come from.

How is Impossible made?

The Impossible Burger is made by mixing carefully selected ingredients, derived from plants or by fermentation, to create something unique and delicious. Our key ingredient is heme, the molecule that makes meat taste like meat. We make ours by taking the DNA from soy plants and inserting it into a genetically engineered yeast, then fermenting the yeast to produce heme. Learn more heme from our scientists in this video.

Whats a challengeyou'veencountered, and how have you overcome it?

Every day we face challenges head-on and keep blasting ahead! One was figuring out how to scale fast enough to meet skyrocketing demand for our product. When we experienced a product shortage, we accelerated hiring, optimized production for efficiency, and even took volunteers from our corporate office to go work in our factory. We also launched a new manufacturing partnership to help us meet demand as it continues to grow for many years to come.

How did you get to where you are today?

One step at a time! We started with just one restaurant in 2016, and built our reputation with chefs and consumers. In 2017, we became part of a nationwide distribution network, in 2018 we launched in our first market outside the US, and in 2019 we released our new, best-ever recipe and entered our first grocery stores. Read more about our journey here.

What do you look for in employees?

Our CFO David Lee recently told Forbes that diversity is one of the secrets to our success. The team at Impossible Foods is so diverse that theres not a precise blueprint for what were looking for. Every year we welcome a group of college interns to our offices over the summer to get a taste of what its like to work here. Sound like something you might be up for? Learn more about our internship program here. You can also see a list of our open positions here.

If youre specifically interested in learning more about our scientists, get to know a few of them here.

What does the future hold for Impossible Foods?

Were working hard to expand to more locations around the world, and to arrive on more grocery store shelves in the US. And the futurewon'tjust be burgers-- weve started working on fish, steak, and lots of other foods, too.

We have a sneaking suspicion youcan'twait to cook and chow down on your Impossible Burger once you get it home, but if you need to save it for later, weve got you covered.

You can store the Impossible Burger just like any other fresh meat-- it poses no unique food safety risks.

The package will have a sticker with a best by date (added by the store). For best quality and freshness, we recommend keeping it in your refrigerator and finishing it off before that date. Like any other perishable food, though, afteryou'veopened the package, the freshness starts to diminish. After the package has been opened, we recommend finishing it within three days, or by the best by date on the sticker-- whichever comes first. Wedon'trecommend re-freezing once its been thawed.

One of the best parts about cooking the Impossible Burger at home is that you already know how to do it. Just substitute it into any recipe that calls for ground beef. Mix it with spices like ground beef. Form it into patties like ground beef. Brown it in a pan like ground beef. Need we go on?

Heres how we like to make a classic Impossible Burger:

Use one package to form three 4oz patties or four 3oz patties.

Pre-heat your well-oiled pan to MEDIUM-HIGH or your grill to HIGH.

Cook for 2-3 minutes per side.

Our favorite part comes next: you add your toppings and dig in. For extra credit, snap some pics, share them on social media with #CookImpossible, and tag us. We might stop by your comments to show you some love.

Want inspiration? See our favorite recipes here.

The Impossible Burger is for everyone-- including those with religious dietary restrictions: we're Halal and Kosher certified. Because Impossible can be served with many add-ons and toppings, and is prepared a little differently by every chef, youll need to check with the restaurant youre dining with to find out if they offer a fully Halal or Kosher preparation.

HalalThe Impossible Burger is Halal certified by the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA). Check out the video below to see the big celebration we held at Royal Halal in NYC when we became Halal certified in 2018. KosherThe Impossible Burger is kosher certified by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (OU). Did you know our Chief Science Officer comes from a family of kosher butchers in New York? Find out more in the video below.

Impossible Foods mission is to make our global food system truly sustainable. Meat has been a delicious, central part of our diet since we lived in caves. But using animals to make meat is a prehistoric and destructive technology: animal agriculture occupies almost half the land on earth, consumes a quarter of our freshwater, and destroys our ecosystems. So we found a way to make meat using plants, so that we can keep eating all the meat we want -- for as long as we want -- and save the best planet in the known universe.

Compared to meat from animals, Impossible Burger production uses 96% less land, 87% less water, and produces 89% fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Learn more about sustainability on our mission page.Were doing our part, too. Our Oakland production facility is currently on track to meet US Green Building Council Zero Waste standards, targeting 2020 certification. Weve worked with our suppliers to encourage them to use reusable, right-size packaging that minimizes waste. And we literally put our mission where our mouth is: all meals served to our employees at work are plant-based.

Find out how were making a difference in our 2019 Impact Report.

When you purchase the Impossible Burger at the store, you might notice that the back of the package has a circular symbol that says bioengineered.

This symbol is in accordance with the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Law, passed by Congress in July of 2016. It established a national mandatory standard for disclosing foods that are or may be bioengineered. The Impossible Burger contains two bioengineered ingredients: soy leghemoglobin and soy protein.

If this is the first timeyou'veseen this symbol, youre not alone: compliance with this law is voluntary until January 1, 2022. But were all about transparency, and we like to be ahead of the curve, so weve chosen to comply early. Youll likely start to see this symbol on many other foods in the next few years.

Learn more about how and why we use bioengineered ingredients.

Impossible Foods was founded in 2011 by Patrick O. Brown, M.D., Ph.D. to end the use of animals to make food. Instead, we aim to make meat, dairy, and fish directly from plants.

We started with a simple question: What makes meat taste like meat? Our team spent years trying to understand everything people love about meat -- from its sizzle and smell to its taste and nutrition. We searched the plant world for specific ingredients that would recreate those experiences but be better for both people and the planet. In 2016, we launched our first product, the Impossible Burger -- meat made from plants, for people who love meat. Today, its served in over 15,000 restaurants around the world, and more people join the mission every day.

Want to hear Pat tell the story? Listen below.

Nachos. Spaghetti and meatballs. Patty melts. Larb. Are you hungry yet?

You can use the Impossible Burger to make anything that calls for ground beef, but if you need some suggestions, were here to bring your inner gourmet chef to life.

Visit our Recipe hub to get cooking.

Our major source of protein is soy protein concentrate, which is a good source of fiber, as well as folate, copper, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, potassium, phosphorus, and iron, but most importantly, its the only commonly consumed plant protein thats comparable in quality to animal protein.

Protein quality is typically defined in terms of protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS), which is a measure of its essential amino acid composition and digestibility. Higher PDCAAS means higher quality, with 1.00 being the highest score possible. Soy protein concentrate (the ingredient that contributes most of the protein in the Impossible Burger), has a published PDCAAS of 0.95. For reference, conventional ground beef from cows has a published PDCAAS of 0.92.

Soy proteins high PDCAAS means you get plenty of nutritional bang for your buck with the Impossible Burger-- a 4oz. serving has 31% of the daily value (DV) for protein.

Comparing the DVs for different proteins is a better way of comparing two products than grams of protein alone. Two foods may have the same amount of protein per serving, but very different DVs because of differences in their PDCAAS.

Review our nutrition fact panel here.

Learn more about soy and why its in our burger.

Yes! Visit our careers page to see if anything suits your skills and interests. Once you apply and hit submit, our team will review your application and get back to you with next steps.

Don't see an opportunity that looks right for you right now? Not to worry -- check back in a few weeks. We're changing and growing every day.

Curious what it's like to work here? Find out more about who we are.

Yes, we make meat (from plants). But at our core, were a food technology company, and science is in our DNA. We have a diverse team of physicians, physicists, biochemists, and food developers who help us do the Impossible every day -- including our Founder and CEO Pat O. Brown, M.D., Ph.D.Our approach? We use science to understand what makes meat, dairy and fish taste, smell and feel the way they do, and sensory tests to understand what people love most. This means looking at proteins, textures, and flavors at a molecular level and finding plant ingredients that behave the same way. One of our first key discoveries was that heme -- a molecule found in all plants and animals -- is the magic ingredient that makes meat taste like meat. Our Research & Development team works hard every day to make new, delicious discoveries.

After all, animals aren't getting better at making meat. And were getting better at it every day.

Currently, the Impossible Burger is available in the United States, Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore-- and we have a lot of ground to cover. Our mission is to feed the entire world with delicious meat, dairy, and fish made from plants. Join our mailing list in the bright blue sign-up form at the bottom of our homepage to stay tuned as the Impossible expands to more countries around the world.

Use our locator to see if were available wherever you are.

We arrived in style in Singapore earlier this year. Check out the highlights below.

We just launched in grocery stores! If youre a retailer who wants to sell Impossible, use this form to send us your contact info.

Nothing is more important to us than your health and safety. Impossible Foods fully complies with all U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations and has gone above and beyond strict compliance, providing extensive test data to the FDA. The FDA reviewed our data and gave us a no-questions letter validating the safety of our soy leghemoglobin. This required rigorous testing, including a stringent rat feeding study -- which found no adverse effects even at consumption levels extraordinarily higher than a human would ever consume. Curious about our decision to conduct animal testing? Read this letter from our CEO.

The heme in the Impossible Burger is identical to the heme humans have been consuming for hundreds of thousands of years -- in meat from animals and other foods. We have a team of world-class researchers who are committed to making the best meat, dairy, and fish on the planet.

Still hungry for info? Read more about heme and health here.

We launched the Impossible Burger -- ground meat, made from plants -- in 2016. But were not stopping there. Our goal is to make all the meat, dairy, and fish we love -- directly from plants.

Dont just take our word for it. See what Chef Michael Symon thinks.

Looking for info on what you can make with it at home? Click here.

The truth is that almost everything we eat (from applesauce to yogurt) is a combination of nature and science; its all a process, often including blending, mixing, fermentation or baking. The Impossible Burger is processed by mixing carefully selected ingredients, derived from plants or by fermentation, to create something unique and delicious.

Impossible Foods mission is to use the key components of meat-- protein, fat, and flavor--more efficiently and sustainably than a cow can. We make heme, the molecule that gives meat its craveable flavor, via fermentation of genetically engineered yeast. Then we combine it with our primary ingredients: water, soy protein concentrate, coconut oil, and sunflower oil. The remaining ingredients are vitamins, minerals, binders and flavors. Mix it all together, package it up, andyou'vegot an Impossible Burger.

Curious about how science and tech fit into food? Read more here.

Learn how and why we use genetically modified ingredients.

Impossible is available to foodservice operators in the US, Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore. Want to join the mission? Use this page on our website to get in touch with us. Well follow up with everything you need to place your first order.

Already serving the Impossible? Check out our Foodservice Hub for culinary tips, staff training resources, and tools to help boost your business! And make sure you get on our map if you havent already.

Not in the US, Hong Kong, Macau, or Singapore? Were working to make our way to every corner of the globe, but all good things take time! Send us your contact info so we can follow up when were in your part of the world.

One 4oz serving of the Impossible Burger contains 19g of protein-- 31% of the daily value! For reference, a comparable serving of 80/20 ground beef from cows also contains 19g of protein. Our major source of protein is from soy.

Its not just about quantity. The protein in the Impossible Burger is high-quality, too.

Get the facts on soy and why its in our burger.

Whether youre trying to feed a family of four or a football team, priority #1 is making sure theres enough to go around. Well let you in on a little secret: the Impossible Burger shrinks less than conventional ground beef. This means you should be able to use just one 12oz. ( pound) package in any recipe that calls for 16oz. (1lb) of ground beef and get approximately the same yield youre used to.

If youre used to browning ground beef in a pan and needing to drain moisture or fat, youll quickly notice that its not necessary with the Impossible Burger.

Still worried about portion sizes? Check out our Recipe hub for recipes that are perfectly portioned for our 12oz. package.

Writing a story about Impossible Foods? Use our media kit to access our archive of press releases, images, b-roll, and other assets.