Little Caesars will sell a pizza with the impossible herbal sausage

Little Caesars will sell a pizza stuffed with herbal sausage crumbs made by Impossible Foods for the pizza chain, the first time a national pizza chain uses a vegan meat substitute.

Little Caesars, best known for its meat-based dishes, like a bacon pizza, will test the impossible, priced at $ 12, in three markets: Fort Myers, Florida; Albuquerque, New Mexico and Yakima, Washington.

The product comes in a renewed interest for herbal products. According to Nielsen, sales in this category rose 17% last year, while other grocery products grew 2%.

Impossible Foods said its products are now sold in more than 7,000 restaurants, including Burger King, White Castle and Red Robin.

The demand for meat substitutes has led to a rapid growth of the category and Impossible is looking to increase its manufacturing capacity to avoid shortages.

Impossible stated that he had increased manpower and hours of operation at his plant in Oakland, California, and that he would be installing a second production line in July that will double its capacity . The company expects the second line to be fully staffed and accelerated in the fall.

"Impossible Foods has a highly scalable supply chain and the product comes from abundant ingredients," the company said in an email. "The company does not face any insurmountable supply chain constraints or fundamental bottlenecks, and like many successful start-ups, we face short-term scaling up challenges." from a demand far superior to the supply. "

Burger King, a division of Restaurant Brands International, conducted a regional test at 59 sites in St. Louis. The test is going "extremely well," said Impossible. The hamburger chain plans to extend the Impossible Whopper to all 7,300 American restaurants by the end of 2019.

Impossible recently raised $ 300 million during a fundraiser, but said he was in no hurry to go public.

The stock of Rival Beyond Meat has exploded since its debut on May 2nd. On Monday, the stock was down slightly to $ 88.54.

-CNBC & # 39; s Aditi Roy contributed to this report.