Founder and Stanford University Professor Dr. Patrick O. Brown decided to switch 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 producing meat and dairy products from plants. The company plans to expand globally and commercialize additional meat, fish and dairy products.

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Heme is an iron-containing molecule found in every living organism —both plants and animals. The Impossible Burger gets its heme from the protein soy leghemoglobin, which is naturally found in soy roots. Impossible Foods produces soy leghemoglobin through genetic engineering and fermentation.

 

As of January 2019, Impossible’s new recipe contains no gluten, 0mg cholesterol and is kosher and halal-certified. It has no animal hormones or antibiotics.

 

Its first large-scale food manufacturing site is in nearby Oakland, California, and can produce about 2 million pounds of plant based meat per month. Impossible Foods is planning additional commercial-scale production facilities.