Impossible Foods is accelerating its retail expansion this week with the rollout of its flagship product at more than 1,700 grocery stores nationwide owned by The Kroger Co., America’s largest grocery retailer.
In addition to grocery shelves at Kroger-affiliated brick-and-mortar stores, Impossible Burger is also available starting today for online ordering through Kroger.com for Kroger Curbside Pickup and Delivery.
The rollout of Impossible Burger at Kroger represents a 18-fold increase in Impossible Foods’ retail footprint so far in 2020. The company’s award-winning, plant-based meat is now on shelves in about 2,700 U.S. grocery stores and through select online ordering systems, including:
- Kroger-owned stores in 28 states under multiple brands including: Baker’s, City Market, Copps, Dillons, Fred Meyer, Gerbes, King Soopers, Kroger, Mariano’s, Metro Market, Pay Less Super Market, Pick ‘n Save, QFC, Ralphs and Smith’s, plus Kroger.com for Curbside Pickup and Delivery
- All Albertsons-owned stores in California and Nevada: Albertsons, Pavilions, Safeway and Vons
- All Jewel-Osco stores in the greater Chicago area and portions of eastern Iowa and northwest Indiana
- All Wegmans stores along the Eastern seaboard
- All Gelson’s Markets in Southern California
- All Fairway Markets in the New York City region
Impossible Burger made its retail debut in September 2019, when it immediately rocketed to the No.1 item sold on the East and West coasts, easily outselling all ground beef from cows at many grocery stores. At one grocery store in Southern California, Impossible Burger outsold the next most popular single product by more than six-fold.
Named top plant-based burger by the New York Times, Impossible Burger comes in convenient, versatile, 12-ounce packages. Shoppers may find the plant-based Impossible Burger fresh or frozen in the meat aisle, in the vegetarian section, or in special promotional displays; grocery store placement varies by location.
“The launch of Impossible Burger at Kroger grocery stores nationwide signals our intention to make Impossible Burger available everywhere America shops — at brick-and-mortar retailers and their increasingly popular online ordering and delivery services,” said Impossible Foods’ President Dennis Woodside. “Our existing retail partners have achieved record sales of Impossible Burger in recent weeks. We expect our retail footprint to expand more than 50-fold in 2020, and we are moving as quickly as possible to expand with additional outlets and in more retail channels.”
“Kroger’s new partnership with Impossible Foods is one more way we are providing our customers with convenient access to popular fresh plant-based meats,” said Joe Grieshaber, Kroger’s senior vice president of merchandising. “Plant-based food remains one of the fastest-growing categories at Kroger. We’re excited to continue growing our selection, especially as more customers than ever are purchasing meat products made from plants.”
Delicious, nutritious, ubiquitous
Impossible Burger rivals ground beef from cows for likeability, and it’s easy to use in all ground meat recipes, including stews, chili, sauces, braises, minces, meatballs, meat pies or any other beefy menu item. It’s easy to cook on an outdoor BBQ grill, flat top, Instant Pot, high speed oven, steamer or sauté pan. Home chefs can use the Impossible Burger in recipes from lasagna to lo mein.
Impossible Burger has as much protein and iron as a comparable serving of ground beef from cows. A 4-ounce serving of Impossible Burger has 0 mg cholesterol, 14 grams of total fat, 8g of saturated fat and 240 calories. (A conventional 4-ounce “80/20” patty from cows has 80 mg cholesterol, 23 grams of total fat, 9g of saturated fat and 290 calories.)
Impossible Burger contains no animal hormones or antibiotics, and is kosher, halal, and gluten-free certified. And because it’s made from plants and bioengineered, it uses 96% less land, 87% less water and 89% fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional beef from cows.
In addition to more than 2,700 grocery stores nationwide, Impossible Foods continues to supply thousands of restaurants — from large chains to mainstreet diners. Impossible Burger is available at Burger King, Qdoba, White Castle, Red Robin, Cheesecake Factory, Hard Rock Cafe and thousands of other restaurants.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Impossible Foods has launched collaborations with restaurants nationwide to sell Impossible Burger inventory directly to consumers. Last month, the e-commerce grocery startup Cheetah began selling Impossible Burger with “contactless” pickups throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
Celebrity sizzle — in your kitchen
With retail demand for Impossible Burger at record levels, Impossible Foods also announced today that it’s taking pre-orders for Impossible™: The Cookbook (Chronicle Books, $29.99) on Amazon.com.
Impossible™: The Cookbook highlights the convenience and versatility of Impossible Burger — and it shows how simply switching to plant-based meat can transform the global food system. Home chefs can also log into Impossible Foods’ Impact Calculator to learn exactly how much land, water and emissions they’ve saved by using Impossible Burger instead of ground beef from cows.
Impossible Foods’ first official cookbook dedicates an entire chapter to burgers and focuses on savory and delicious comfort food. Home chefs of all levels can experiment with recipes such as Churrasco Skewers with Chimichurri, Thai Laab with Fresh Herbs, Turkish-Spiced Sandwiches with Garlic Sauce, Szechuan Mapo Tofu and more. The cookbook features 40 recipes from some of the pioneering chefs and personalities who introduced the product to the world, including:
- Traci Des Jardins (Arguello, The Commissary, School Night, Public House; San Francisco)
- Tal Ronnen (Crossroads Kitchen, Los Angeles)
- Michael Symon (B Spot Burgers, Cleveland)
- Chris Cosentino (Cockscomb, San Francisco)
- Brad Farmerie (Saxon + Parole, New York City)
- May Chow (Little Bao, Hong Kong)
The cookbook also showcases recipes and insights from experts in the culinary and beverage worlds such as Tanya Holland (Brown Sugar Kitchen, Oakland), Kwame Onwuachi (Kith and Kin, Washington D.C.), and Eric Wareheim (Las Jaras Wines, Sebastopol).
For each Impossible™: The Cookbook sold on Amazon in 2020, $3 will be donated to No Kid Hungry. No Kid Hungry is working to ensure that children nationwide get the food they need during school closures and all year long.
On May 14, Impossible Foods will host its premier “Impossible Cook-A-Thon” virtual event – hosted by Eric Wareheim and Chef Traci Des Jardins – to raise awareness and donations for No Kid Hungry’s efforts around its COVID-19 response and recovery. Tune in live on May 14 from 9 am to 5 pm PST / 12 pm to 8 pm EST on Impossible Foods’ Facebook.
Feeding Americans amid the pandemic
In addition to No Kid Hungry and the Cook-A-Thon, Impossible Foods is working with food banks to help feed other Americans hard hit by COVID-19. America’s food banks are experiencing record demand as unemployment surges and food insecurity mounts.
As a result, Impossible Foods has expanded its 2-year-old donations program, which serves at-risk citizens — from the homeless to students and families who would ordinarily rely on free or subsidized meals at schools but who cannot get food that way during the school closures from COVID-19. Since the start of the pandemic, Impossible Foods has donated more than 100,000 pounds of product to food banks located close to the sites where Impossible Burger is produced.
Since the start of the pandemic, Impossible Foods has taken aggressive measures to prioritize the health and safety of its employees and the communities it serves, including:
- mandatory work-from-home policies for all workers who can conceivably telecommute;
- stringent restrictions on external visitors to company facilities and those of co-manufacturing partners;
- a ban on virtually all work-related travel and events, both domestic and international;
- and daily sanitizing, disinfecting and deep cleaning of all workplaces to ensure the strictest hygiene standards and utmost safety.
“Our No. 1 priority is the safety of our employees, customers and consumers,” said Impossible Foods’ Vice President of Communication Jessica Appelgren, who oversees the company’s “social good” efforts. “At the same time, we recognize our responsibility for the welfare of our community, including the entire San Francisco Bay Area, our global supplier and customer network, millions of customers, and billions of people who are relying on food manufacturers to produce supplies in times of need.”
