Impossible Foods is ramping up the plant-based breakfast battle with a new breakfast sandwich at Burger King

• Impossible Foods just announced a new plant-based pork substitute and a sausage product that will appear in a Burger King breakfast sandwich launching at the end of January.
• The announcements represent the meat alternative company's first major new product launches since it debuted the original Impossible Burger back in 2016.
• The company hasn't revealed when the ground pork alternative will actually launch, but has said it will likely appear in restaurants before making its way to grocery stores.
• The sausage will appear on a new breakfast sandwich launching in Burger King restaurants in a few test markets at the end of January.
• The new Burger King menu item gives Impossible ammunition to compete with rival Beyond Meat, which has meatless breakfast alternatives available in chains such as Dunkin' and Carl's Jr.
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Impossible Foods just announced its first new products since debuting its popular plant-based "beef" burger in 2016 - Impossible Sausage and Impossible Pork, the former of which will be launching in a breakfast sandwich available at select Burger King locations this month. The launch represents the startup's next major step forward as it competes with rival Beyond Meat to dominate the market for plant-based meat alternatives.

Impossible Foods will be testing its first sausage product at 139 Burger King restaurants at the end of the month. located in Savannah, Georgia; Lansing, Michigan; Springfield, Illinois; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Montgomery, Alabama. Those restaurants will be getting the Impossible Croissan'wich, a sandwich that consists of egg, cheese, and Impossible Sausage on a toasted croissant.

The Impossible Burger can already be found at several popular fast food chains such as White Castle, which sells Impossible Sliders, and Burger King, which has Impossible Whoppers on the menu. But the launch of a sausage product at Burger King gives Impossible Foods even more ammunition to compete with rival Beyond Meat, which similarly can be found at a growing number of fast food chains, and which already provides the meat alternatives for breakfast sandwiches at chains like Dunkin' and Carl's Jr.

In addition to the new breakfast sandwich, Impossible Foods is also launching Impossible Pork: a plant-based ground pork alternative that the company says can be used in any recipe that calls for ground pork. The company has not said when Impossible Pork will launch, but Rachel Konrad, chief communications officer of Impossible Foods, said it's likely to appear in restaurants before grocery stores, as with the Impossible Burger before it.

Why pork?

Like the Impossible Burger, the company's pork product is made using heme - the protein that gives the plant-based patties their signature "bleeding" look that simulates the texture and appearance of red meat. The Food and Drug Administration approved heme for use in food products sold in grocery stores in August, a victory for Impossible Foods that came after the FDA initially said that the data the company had provided about its burgers wasn't enough to "establish the safety" of heme.

The heme in Impossible Pork isn't the same as that found in the burger. Rachel Konrad, chief communications officer at Impossible Foods, told Business Insider that the company tweaked its heme formula to better replicate the consistency of pork rather than red meat.

Impossible Foods decided to make a pork alternative its next major product for two key reasons: there's a huge market for it since it's the most widely eaten meat in the world, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Plus, offering a plant-based alternative to pork could help cut back on the environmental impacts stemming from the pig farming industry, the company says. High-density pig production can release excessive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus into the environment, the FAO says.

Impossible Foods is showing its new plant-based meat options at CES, the annual tech trade show that occurs each January in Las Vegas. The news comes after the company teased a major announcement just ahead of the conference. While this is the first time the company is officially unveiling its new pork alternatives, Impossible Foods CEO Pat Brown told Business Insider in May that it had been working in this direction.

As for what's next for Impossible Foods, Konrad said the company's research and development team is working on the Impossible Burger 3.0, as well as steaks, and hinted that the company could consider expanding into poultry and fish in the future as well.