Burger King's Impossible Vegan Whopper Goes to San Francisco

As expected, the expansion began.

Burger King & # 39; s impossible vegetarian Whopper debuted Monday in more than 100 stores in the San Francisco Bay Area. Before today, those who wanted to eat the fast food chain version of the grilled hamburger at the plant had to travel to Miami, Columbus or Montgomery.

Impossible Whopper is manufactured by Impossible Foods, known for its vegan burger that tastes like real beef. Founded in 2011, the company was first to use a key ingredient called heme, a blood-like compound that is found in all living things and that can reproduce the taste, color and aroma of meat. Other ingredients include herbal products like soy, potato protein and coconut oil. Manufacturing companies similar meat products without meat include Beyond Meat, New Wave Foods and even Nestle.

Burger King's goal is to Offers Impossible Whopper Herbal Protein Nationwide from here the end of the year.

The partnership between the two companies makes sense, said Pat Brown, CEO of Impossible Foods, in an interview. The fact that Burger King reaches a huge reach with more than 17,000 sites in more than 100 countries should help it achieve its goal of "replacing animals in the food system by 2035".

"Everywhere in the world, every meat product is sold, we want to have better products," said Brown. "A sizable fraction of overall meat sales are in fast-food restaurants."

Impossible Burgers are now sold in more than 9,000 restaurants and chains in the United States, including Umami Burger, Red Robin and White Castle. And she launched her first meatless sausage product at some Little Caesars stores in May. The company plans to start selling its ground "beef" directly to consumers in grocery stores by the end of the year.

Impossible Foods has first focused on burgers because they are one of the most popular meat products. Brown said half the beef sold in the United States is ground beef. But that does not mean that the company does not explore other products of animal origin.

"It was a natural choice for us to start with ground beef, but this is by no means our goal," Brown said. "We are continuing our R & D efforts to create a much wider product range."

The proof of that? Impossible Food currently employs 110 scientists in its laboratories located at the headquarters of Redwood City, California. Brown said that this number would increase by about 50% over the next 12 to 18 months.

Originally released June 10, at 3 o'clock in the morning.
Update, 11:11 am: Adds additional information.