The Impossible Burger Begins to Ramp Up Production

The Impossible Burger Begins to Ramp Up Production

Written by Matthew Lichtash

Impossible Foods, the company behind the plant-based burger with a fraction of the land, water, and climate impact of a beef burger, made news last month in announcing its intent to ramp up production. Impossible Foods currently runs a 10,000-square foot operation in Silicon Valley and a 1,500-square foot space in New Jersey. Later in 2017, the company expects to open a 67,000-square foot factory capable of churning out four million burgers per month (a 250-fold increase over its current production capacity).

Because the strikingly life-like Impossible Burger generates nearly 87 percent less greenhouse gas emissions per pound than a conventional beef burger, the new factory will avoid over 100,000 metric tons of carbon pollution per year compared to the same amount of production sourced from beef - equivalent to taking over 20,000 cars off the road annually.

Impossible Foods currently sells its burger alternative in 11 restaurants across the U.S., but by the end of 2017, the company hopes to supply 1,000 restaurants, including a newly-signed deal to serve the Impossible Burger at the San Francisco Giants baseball stadium. As the product continues to catch on with consumers, its potential benefits to human health and to the environment are quite significant.

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