Impossible Foods Hits Back At Plant-Based Meat Misinformation with Online ‘Health Hub’

Plant-based meat pioneer Impossible Foods has launched a Health Hub to battle misinformation about the industry, and has attained a new health certification for its Lite Beef.

In recent months, Peter McGuinness has been very vocal about one thing: the climate argument for plant-based food just doesn’t fly with consumers right now.

The Impossible Foods CEO said that to Reuters, to Bloomberg, and to Fast Company. These comments came amid a backdrop of faltering sales for meat analogues – dollar sales were down by 12% in 2023 – the closure of several brands in the space, and heightened misinformation by meat lobby groups.

These events led fellow Californian company Beyond Meat, one of Impossible Foods’s chief rivals, to lean all into health – it revamped its products and recipes to be more nutritionally sound, shook up the packaging to put health attributes front and centre, and backed it with a marketing campaign and cookbook. It now poses itself as a “health company”.

Impossible Foods, for its own part, refreshed its brand identity and product packaging earlier this year too, bringing taste and health descriptors to the fore. These efforts underscore the shifting needs of the American consumer: the flavour and nutrition of food, alongside price, are now the biggest drivers of consumption.

The number of Americans who think plant-based meat is better for their health is the same as those who don’t, and for six in 10 people, health is the biggest motivator for them to eat more vegan meat.

Now, Impossible Foods is doubling down against criticisms levelled by the meat industry and its interest groups – that plant-based meat is ultra-processed and therefore bad for you – with a new Health Hub.

Diving deep into myth-busting

“We have to meet our consumers where they are, and health is one of the top reasons why they choose plant-based,” McGuinness said in a statement. “It’s important that we as an industry are educating consumers on the many benefits of plant-based meat and how it can fit into everyday life.”

The Health Hub, housed on its website, is designed to better educate consumers about the nutritional benefits of plant-based meat via a centralised virtual resource.

It features detailed nutritional information about every ingredient used in its products, alongside side-by-side comparisons with conventional beef, chicken and sausages, and deep-dives from Impossible Foods’s health and nutrition team on subjects like soy and fibre.

The company explains how, for example, cultured dextrose stops food from spoiling and is also found in dairy products and pork sausages, why it chooses to use coconut and sunflower oils, what its signature heme ingredient does, and how methylcellulose – commonly used in ice creams, sauces, baked goods, etc. – holds its meats together.

Addressing the ultra-processed question, Impossible Foods provides some important context. “Almost everything we eat is processed in some way,” it points out. “For example: blending, mixing, cooking, or baking are all “processes” that change a food from its raw, natural state. Our products are made by mixing carefully selected ingredients derived from plants or by fermentation, to create something unique and delicious.”

The Health Hub also features a section dedicated to debunking myths about plant-based products. This includes claims like “you should only eat foods with ingredients that you can pronounce” (a response to an infamous attack ad against Impossible Foods a few years ago), “processed foods lack nutrition”, and “eating soy is going to give me man boobs”.

One criticism it tackles is the sodium content – Impossible Beef has nearly five times as much sodium as conventional 80/20 beef mince. But, the company points out, “raw animal meat is naturally low in sodium”, which is why “animal meat is usually salted when cooking”. And even then, the Impossible Beef makes up only 16% of the daily recommended sodium intake by the USDA.

Impossible Foods gets new health certification for Lite Beef

In addition to the launch of the Health Hub, Impossible Foods’s Lite Beef – an alternative to 90/10 lean beef – has satisfied the guidelines set by the American Diabetes Association’s Better Choices for Life programme.

The announcement, made at the HLTH 2024 event in Las Vegas today and a week ahead of Diabetes Awareness Month, follows the product’s ‘heart-healthy’ certification by the American Heart Association (AHA) a year ago. The two accreditations speak to two leading diseases in the US – heart disease is the leading cause of death, while diabetes affects nearly 12% of the population.

“Working with trusted organizations like the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association helps us clearly demonstrate how products like Impossible Lite Beef are healthy options for people who want to find easy ways to make better choices,” said McGuinness.

To further highlight the health benefits of its products, the Impossible Foods Health Hub features five new recipes certified by the AHA’s Heart-Check initiative. These include BBQ pineapple and chimchurri-avocado burgers, a southwest taco salad, a miso beef soba bowl, and sheet pan meatballs – all using the Lite Ground Beef.

To solidify the nutritional claims, the Health Hub contains insights from several nutritionists who serve on the company’s health and nutrition council. “So many people struggle to figure out how to eat more plant-based foods because learning to cook new meals and overhauling your plate can feel intimidating. Impossible meat makes it easy to gain momentum and add diversity to your diet while enjoying the foods you already know and love,” said Kaytee Hadley, a functional medicine dietitian.

“We don’t believe in a single dietary regimen for health. Rather, we promote diets that prioritise nutrient density, a variety of foods from the different food groups, and the enjoyment of a good meal,” the company says.

“That’s why we strive to formulate our products specifically to be delicious, versatile, and full of key nutrients, all while imposing a far lower environmental impact compared with meat from animals. But we don’t just want to replace meat from animals, we want to make it better.”