Impossible Foods’ flagship product is rolling out at Lidl’s 145 locations across the U.S., as both companies continue major expansion efforts in recent years. Lidl will be the largest discount grocer to offer Impossible Foods’ products.
The award-winning Impossible Burger was recently introduced into Lidl stores across Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia. Customers can find Impossible Burger in the fresh meat section of the store in 12-oz. packages or in a recyclable package of two pre-formed, quarter-pound (4-oz.) patties.
In line with Lidl’s commitment to affordable prices, the 12-oz. Impossible Burger will be available for $5.99, and the patty package will retail at a price of under $5. Impossible Burger is also available through Lidl home delivery via shoplidl.com.
Lidl is the world’s third largest grocery chain, known for its international presence with around 11,200 stores across 32 countries, predominantly in Europe. The company established its U.S. headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, in 2015 and currently operates 145 stores along the East Coast.
The Redwood City, California-based startup Impossible Foods is also eyeing a major growth year. In 2020, the company expanded its grocery footprint by more than 100 times, and in early 2021 lowered its suggested retail prices by 20 percent for grocery stores and supermarkets throughout the U.S.
“We have achieved phenomenal growth in our domestic grocery store footprint in the past 12 months as we continue to meet the rapidly growing demand for our products,” said Impossible Foods’ President Dennis Woodside. “Through our relationship with Lidl we also hope to learn valuable insights about serving the European market, one that is hugely important to us and our long-term mission. We believe that delicious and sustainable plant-based meat will help Europe achieve its ambitious environmental targets by displacing demand for resource-intensive animal agriculture.”
“We are excited to launch Impossible Foods products in our stores, especially as we see the growing enthusiasm of our customers for plant-based products,” said Stefan Schwarz, Lidl U.S. EVP of purchasing. “Lidl’s best-in-industry pricing for Impossible Foods’ patties is also an example of our commitment to high quality products at unbelievably low prices.”
Already considered the world’s No. 1 environmental startup, Impossible Foods’ mission is to reverse global warming and halt the world’s catastrophic biodiversity collapse by building a sustainable food system that can scale to meet the demand of the growing global population.
Impossible Burger made its grocery store debut in September 2019, when it immediately rocketed to the No. 1 item sold on the East and West coasts at some of America’s favorite grocery stores, outselling all ground beef from cows at many grocery stores. At one grocery store in Southern California, Impossible Burger outsold all brands of ground beef from cows – and it outsold the next most popular single product by six times.
Impossible Burger has as much protein and bioavailable iron as a comparable serving of ground beef from cows. A 4-oz. serving of Impossible Burger has 0 mg cholesterol, 14 g of total fat, 8 g of saturated fat and 240 calories. (A conventional 4-oz. “80/20” patty from cows has 80 mg cholesterol, 23 g of total fat, 9 g of saturated fat and 290 calories.)
Impossible Burger contains no animal hormones or antibiotics, and is kosher, halal and gluten-free certified. And because it’s made from plants and bioengineered, it uses 96 percent less land, 87 percent less water and 89 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional beef from cows.
Home chefs can also log into Impossible Foods’ Impact Calculator to learn how much they have reduced their land, water and greenhouse gas emissions footprints by using Impossible Burger instead of ground beef from cows.
