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OSI to provide additional capacity for Impossible Foods

Impossible Foods has launched a co-manufacturing collaboration with OSI Group. OSI will begin producing Impossible Foods’ Impossible Burger, adding short-term capacity to Impossible Foods’ plant in Oakland, Calif.

OSI will continue to expand production of Impossible Foods’ flagship product throughout 2019 and thereafter.

“We conducted an exhaustive due diligence process to determine how to scale our manufacturing, both in the short term and over the next several years, and we were thoroughly impressed with OSI’s commitment to quality and responsiveness,” said Senior Vice President of Product and Operations Sheetal Shah, who joined Impossible Foods in May and oversees numerous functions including manufacturing, supply chain and logistics. “OSI has already installed equipment to make the Impossible Burger, and we’ll start seeing new capacity every week.”

OSI can source, develop, produce and distribute custom food solutions worldwide. The privately held company based in Aurora, Ill., has more than 65 facilities in 17 countries.

“We look forward to lending our expertise to Impossible Foods as it embarks on one of the most ambitious startups in the food industry,” said Kevin Scott, Senior Executive Vice President, OSI North America. “At the same time, Impossible Foods will help fulfill the OSI Group’s commitment to sustainable food production -- one of the core prisms through which OSI management makes operational decisions.”

The co-manufacturing deal comes amid what Impossible Foods describes as unprecedented demand for the company’s flagship product, the plant-based Impossible Burger, which debuted at Chef David Chang’s Momofuku Nishi and other world-class restaurants in 2016.

At the International Consumer Electronics Show in January 2019, Impossible Foods launched the award-winning and “shockingly good” Impossible Burger 2.0 -- the company’s first significant product upgrade. The Impossible Burger, the first food ever featured at CES’ roster of game-changing technologies, won the show’s top prizes.

Since the launch of the 2.0 version six months ago, Impossible Foods says its sales have surged. Growth is said to have come from every sales category in which the company does business -- independent restaurants, large restaurant chains such as White Castle, Cheesecake Factory and Qdoba, and non-commercial outlets such as theme parks, museums, stadiums, and college campuses. The Impossible Burger is now on menus in about 10,000 restaurants on two continents.

In many restaurants, the Impossible Burger is claimed to be a top-selling item and a key driver of new foot traffic. In addition to an increasing number of restaurants that sell the Impossible Burger, chefs are said to be expanding the number of items made from the versatile plant-based meat, with average per-store volume increasing.

Impossible Foods plans to launch the Impossible Burger in retail outlets later this year.