Impossible Foods first shared its ambitions to expand beyond ground meat, sausage, and chicken and into steak products with The Spoon in 2019, after debuting its Burger 2.0 at that year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Brown also spoke about Impossible’s big plans with Temple back in 2020, and dug into the challenges of creating an alternative steak:
[T]he characteristics of a really good steak? I think we have to have something with a very good version of that muscle structure and texture; you have to be able to create the right mechanical properties. It’s got some connective tissue, which is sort of a non-woven fabric of protein, and then it’s got the interstitial adipose tissue. And for the adipose tissue, the things that matter? Well, its mechanical properties matter to some extent, its melting behavior matters, and its flavor chemistry matters.
Since then, competitors have created their own prototypes for steak or announced their intentions to do so. Rival company Beyond Meat has already introduced its Beyond Steak product at Jewel-Osco grocery stores and is launching a Beyond Carne Asada Steak in partnership with Taco Bell this week at select restaurants.
Brown concluded that the real test will be not what he thinks of the filet, but what consumers do.
“Stay tuned,” he said. “It’s definitely coming.”