California-based Impossible Foods, the fastest-growing plant-based meat company in the U.S., is making its European debut in the United Kingdom this week with the launch of two of its latest products — Impossible “Chicken” Nuggets™ Made From Plants and Impossible Sausage Patties™ Made From Plants.
Both products will be available starting May 19 at restaurants across the country — including many of the UK’s best-loved chicken shops — offering Brits a plant-based chicken nugget that tastes better than the animal version. Impossible “Chicken” Nuggets are preferred two-to-one by UK consumers.1
“The UK has a unique and unrivalled chicken shop culture that we’re confident our nuggets will compete in because first and foremost they taste better, and they’re also better for you and better for the planet,” said Peter McGuinness, CEO of Impossible Foods. “And there’s more to come — later this year we’ll be expanding to supermarkets and rolling out additional products. We can’t wait for our friends and fans in the UK to finally taste our products.”
Impossible “Chicken” Nuggets first launched in the U.S. late last year, and quickly became one of the company’s top-selling products, and the fastest-growing brand of plant-based chicken nuggets in the category. Impossible Foods’ expansion to the UK marks the international debut of Impossible “Chicken” Nuggets outside of the U.S.
This is the fourth new market the company has expanded to in nine months, following the launch of its flagship Impossible Burger in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Arab Emirates last fall. The company plans to launch its full product portfolio in the UK, including products containing heme (soy leghemoglobin) — a key ingredient in the Impossible Burger and other Impossible products — at a later date.
UK Availability
Impossible™ products will be available in thousands of restaurants and foodservice establishments in the UK within a year, starting with more than 300 this month. Beginning tomorrow, the country’s very first Impossible™ dishes will appear exclusively on the menus of select restaurants and chicken shops, including Chicken Cottage, Halo Burger, Le Bab, MEATliquor, Patty&Bun and others.
Later this month, Impossible™ products will launch at more than 250 Hungry Horse pubs owned by Greene King, the UK’s leading pub company and brewer.
“At Hungry Horse, we’re big on getting together, and our customers come to us for the generous and unique food creations in a ‘home away from home’ environment,” said Robert Calderbank, business unit director for Hungry Horse. “We’re so excited to bring the Impossible ‘Chicken’ Nuggets to our pubs and really believe these will deliver on that promise, tantalising the taste buds of our customers across the country, we can’t wait!”
‘Chicken Paradise’ Launch Party
Impossible Foods is celebrating its UK debut with a launch party hosted by fictional TV character and bossman Chabuddy G, played by Asim Chaudhry, a star on BBC’s hit mockumentary People Just Do Nothing. The company invited hundreds of lucky Impossible fans to be among the first to taste Impossible™ products on UK soil at its “Chicken Paradise & Sausage Palace” themed event emceed by Chabuddy, which is taking place tonight at Maison Bab, a popular London restaurant offering modern gourmet kebabs.
“From the beginning our goal at Le Bab was to offer a new kind of kebab, fusing global influences with amazing ingredients, always with a mind to sustainability,” said Stephen Tozer, co-founder of Le Bab, Maison Bab and Kebab Queen. “Impossible’s products are extraordinary. I first tried Impossible years ago and it blew my mind. I’ve wanted to collaborate with them ever since, so this is a bit of a dream come true! I’m absolutely certain that their plant-based meats are going to fundamentally change the way the world eats.”
Better for You, Better for the Planet
Chicken is the most commonly consumed meat per capita in the UK,2 with three-quarters of UK consumers reporting that they eat animal-based chicken on a weekly basis, and nearly 90% saying they eat it on a monthly basis, according to an Impossible Foods study.2
Made for chicken-lovers everywhere, Impossible “Chicken” Nuggets require far less resources to produce: 55% less water, 24% less land, and 24% less GHG emissions than animal chicken nuggets.3 They feature a golden, crispy breadcrumb coating on the outside and a tender, juicy bite on the inside, with 13 grams protein per 100-gram serving and 25% less salt than animal chicken nuggets.5
Impossible Sausage Patties Made From Plants are also better for consumers and for the planet, designed to be conveniently slipped into a breakfast sandwich or enjoyed as a centre-of-plate delicacy. In addition to their savoury, delicious taste, they’re produced using 88% less water, 77% less land, and 47% less greenhouse gas emissions than animal pork sausages.4 They’re also packed with 5.6 grams protein, 2.5 grams fibre, and 1.1 milligrams iron per patty.
To learn more about Impossible Foods’ launch in the United Kingdom, and to find a participating restaurant near you, please visit www.impossiblefoods.com/gb-en.
- Preferred 65% to 35% in a head to head comparison made with animal chicken nuggets made by a leading restaurant supplier in the U.K. Based on a study of 214 participants in the U.K. in January, 2022. For more information, please see impossiblefoods.com/gb-en/claims.
- https://ourworldindata.org/meat-production
- Compared to typical animal-based manufacturing processes. For more information, please see impossiblefoods.com/gb-en/claims.
- Compared to typical animal-based manufacturing processes. For more information, please see impossiblefoods.com/gb-en/claims.
- The UK’s CoFID data on chicken nuggets have 1.1g salt while Impossible Nuggets have 0.8g salt per 80g serving.
