California-based Impossible Foods' veggie burger has been certified as kosher by the world's largest kashrut certification agency, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, enabling observant Jews to enjoy cheeseburgers for the first time.
The award-winning Impossible Burger is now recognized as a kosher pareve food, meaning it contains neither meat nor dairy elements.
"Getting kosher certification is an important milestone," said Impossible Foods CEO and founder Dr. Patrick O. Brown.
"We want the Impossible Burger to be ubiquitous, and that means it must be affordable and accessible to everyone – including people who have food restrictions for religious reasons."
Impossible Foods also expects to be certified as halal – meeting Muslim dietary laws – later this year.
Earlier this year, a rabbinical field representative toured Impossible Foods' 67,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Oakland, California, which produces 500,000 pounds of plant-based "meat" per month. The rabbi confirmed that all ingredients, processes, and equipment used to make the Impossible Burger are compliant with the laws of kashrut.
The Impossible Burger contains no animal ingredients whatsoever. Its ingredients include water, wheat protein, potato protein and coconut oil. The manufacturing of an Impossible Burger requires about 75% less water and 95% less land, and generates about 87% fewer greenhouse gases, than a conventional burger using ground beef from cows.
The veggie burgers also contain the molecule heme, which Impossible Foods scientists discovered gives meat its characteristic flavor when cooked. The molecule is especially abundant in animals but is found in virtually all living things, including plants and bacteria. The company genetically engineers and ferments yeast to produce a heme protein naturally found in plants, soy leghemoglobin. The heme in the Impossible Burger is identical to the essential heme humans have been consuming for hundreds of thousands of years in meat.
"I'm really excited to be able to announce that the Impossible Burger is now kosher. And because our meat is purely plant-based, for the first time we can all enjoy a delicious – and strictly kosher – cheeseburger," said Impossible Foods' Chief Science Officer Dr. David Lipman.
In development since 2011, the Impossible Burger debuted in July 2016 at Chef David Chang's Momofuku Nishi in Manhattan. It is the only plant-based burger to win a 2017 Tasty Award and a 2018 Fabi Award from the National Restaurant Association.
The Impossible Burger is now served in more than 1,600 restaurants across the United States and in Hong Kong. With demand still outstripping supply, Impossible Foods is now hiring for a second shift at its Oakland facility and plans to double capacity this summer.
