Air New Zealand Adds Impossible Burger to In-Flight Menu

The Impossible Burger made its New Zealand debut this week on the in-flight menu of popular airline Air New Zealand—representing the first time the plant-based patty has been available on-board an aircraft. The burger is served with two Impossible Burger patties topped with lettuce, tomato, and a non-vegan tomatillo crema, in business class on flights from Los Angeles to Auckland. “We’re confident vegetarians, flexitarians, and dedicated meat-lovers alike will enjoy the delicious taste of the Impossible Burger,” Niki Chave, Air New Zealand in-flight customer experience manager, told local media outlet New Zealand Herald. The Impossible Burger debuted in 2016 at select upscale restaurants in the United States and has since—with the help of a new state-of-the-art production facility in California—expanded its reach to nearly 2,500 points of distribution in the United States. “It’s getting better all of the time, and the cow isn’t,” Impossible Foods CEO Patrick O. Brown said of innovative plant-based products. “Every time we sell 2,000 burgers, that’s one less cow.” Competing brand Beyond Meat’s vegan Beyond Burger will enter the Canadian market next week by way of 925 locations of fast-food chain A&W Canada and will debut in the United Kingdom next month at 350 outlets of supermarket Tesco.