Impossible Foods Is Now Developing Dairy-Identical Milk from Plants

During a press conference today, food technology startup Impossible Foods unveiled its newest project: a dairy-identical “functional” milk made from plants. The new milk—which has yet to be named—is being developed to mimic its dairy-derived counterpart in terms of texture, taste, and functionality. During the conference, Impossible Foods Senior Flavor Scientist Laura Kilman demonstrated the functionality of the milk prototype when poured into hot coffee, showing that the plant-based milk did not separate the way many currently available formulations do. Impossible Foods is still in the development stage of its plant-based milk and has yet to announce how the new product will be commercialized. 

This year, Impossible Foods added $700 million to its investment capital total—which stands at $1.5 billion since the company was founded in 2011. The new capital will be used for research and development of new products, including steak, bacon, and fish, to accelerate the company’s mission of replacing all animal-derived foods by 2035. The funding will also be used for Impossible Foods’ new Impossible Investigator Project, a hiring initiative that will double the number of scientists working at the company to disrupt animal agriculture on a global scale. 

During today’s conference, Impossible Foods CEO Patrick O. Brown explained the urgency with which inefficient old technology (animal agriculture) needs to be replaced with new technology (sustainable plant-derived foods), describing Impossible Foods as “the most important scientific and engineering project in history on the inside.” Brown urged scientists and engineers currently working on other projects to consider joining the Impossible Investigator Project. “Whatever else you may be doing, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the impact you can have here with our project,” Brown said, ending the conference with, “leave your stupid job and come join us.”

After a massive expansion into the domestic retail sector in the first half of 2020, this week, the Impossible Burger also expanded to its first international retail market, debuting at 200 stores in Hong Kong and Singapore.