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Plant-Based Meat Makers Want to Put Fake Pork on Your Fork

Impossible Foods to introduce imitation ground pork and sausage, including patty for Burger King

An Impossible Foods plant-based pork bao. PHOTO: IMPOSSIBLE FOODS

By Jacob Bunge and Heather Haddon

Updated Jan. 6, 2020 9:39 pm ET

After biting into the U.S. burger business, plant-based food makers are targeting pork.

Impossible Foods Inc. said Monday that it will introduce imitation ground pork and sausage, including a patty for a new sandwich at dozens of Burger King restaurants later this month. Rival Beyond Meat Inc. BYND +4.51% last year began supplying plant-based sausage to Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc., DNKN +0.64%  Carl’s Jr. and Tim Hortons restaurants, mainly for breakfast sandwiches.

Impossible, Beyond and other meat-alternative developers say their products spare livestock and are better for the environment than meat because they require less grain, water and fuel to produce. The companies first worked on beef because they said it is one of the most environmentally intensive meats to produce. Pork is the world’s most widely consumed meat, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. Plant-based food makers are also developing chicken and seafood alternatives. “Pork being the ubiquitous meat it is felt like the natural way to continue our mission,” David Lee, Impossible’s chief financial officer, said in an interview.

Meat-free burgers, sausages and nuggets represent a fraction of overall meat consumption. But their sales are growing much faster than those of traditional meat. Cases of plant-based proteins shipped to commercial restaurants from broadline food distributors increased by 23% in the year ending in November, according to market-research firm NPD Group. Restaurants say the products have helped boost traffic and buzz.

That growth has drawn pushback from livestock producers. Farm groups have urged regulators to block the use of words like “meat” and “pork” to describe plant-based imitations, arguing that consumers could be misled about their contents.

Impossible’s pork alternative is made from soy, coconut oil and starch by the same processes used to make the Impossible Burger that is now sold in 17,000 restaurants. Soy leghemoglobin, the protein that Impossible said helps its burgers taste meaty, is a key ingredient in the pork mimic too, Mr. Lee said. The Impossible product, labeled “pork made from plants,” could draw meat-industry opposition. “What’s impossible is to make pork from plants. This is a brazen attempt to circumvent decades of food labeling law and centuries of precedence,” said Dr. Dan Kovich, science and technology director for the National Pork Producers Council, a trade group.

Mr. Lee said Impossible’s use of the word pork aligns with U.S. food regulations. “We want meat eaters to understand this can be used just the same way as any pork product,” he said.

Burger King, which like Tim Hortons is owned by Restaurant Brands International Inc., said it would begin testing Impossible’s “pork” sausage on a breakfast sandwich at 139 restaurants in five markets later this month. The “Impossible Croissan’wich” will feature plant-based sausage on a toasted croissant with an egg and cheese. It will sell for the same price, $3.49, as that sandwich with a traditional pork patty. The restaurants will sell the sandwich in Savannah, Ga., Albuquerque, N.M., Montgomery, Ala., Lansing, Mich. and Springfield, Ill., Burger King said.

The Impossible Croissan’wich can help improve performance at breakfast, a meal that accounts for roughly 15% of its sales, said Fernando Machado, Burger King’s chief marketing officer. McDonald’s Corp. makes a bigger chunk of its sales from breakfast, and Wendy’s Co. is introducing a morning menu nationally this year. 

The plant-based products are coming to market as the global pork industry is in flux. African swine fever, a disease deadly to pigs but not dangerous to humans, has caused the death and slaughter of tens of millions of hogs in Asia, according to the USDA. “We felt the pressure of great global demand,” Mr. Lee said. He said Impossible also wants to reach the estimated 2.5 billion people world-wide who don’t eat pork due to dietary and religious restrictions.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/plant-based-meat-makers-set-sights-on-pork-11578356056