Plant-Based Alternative “Meat” Impossible Beef Is Now Stocked in Aussie Supermarkets

Four months after Impossible Foods launched its plant-based burgers in Australia , exclusively available on the menus at Grill’d and Butter in Sydney, Impossible Beef is now available in 800 Woolworths stores around the country.

It’s an alternative meat made for meat eaters. If you enjoy the look, smell and taste of beef, the heme-based food even sizzles when cooked to give you that sensation that you’re eating meat.

In 2019, it was ranked best meatless burger by the New York Times , and the Californian company’s private investors include celebs Jay Z, Katy Perry, Mindy Kaling and Trevor Noah, along with big-tech companies such as Google.

When Broadsheet tasted one of the first burgers in Australia made with Impossible Beef, in November 2021, it very much lived up to the hype. The meat was tender and pink (as though it’d been cooked medium-rare) and we could have been duped into thinking it was seared beef. “It tastes a bit like a Macca’s cheeseburger, but a more gourmet meat product,” said Julian Cincotta, owner of Butter, at the time.

It’s the soybean-based heme, which is fermented with genetically engineered yeast, that tricks our brains into thinking we’re eating meat. It was designed by Stanford University biochemistry professor Patrick O Brown, in 2011. But it’s taken years to reach Australia.

“Ground beef is entwined in Aussie cooking culture,” Nick Halla, senior vice president of Impossible, told Broadsheet last year. “Beef is versatile and a well-loved ingredient for staple dishes like minces, chilli, burgers and meat pies, and the centrepiece for cultural pastimes like barbeques and roasts.”

It’s the first time Impossible Beef can be purchased for at-home use in Australia, and the company said its expansion to Australia and New Zealand is because we’re two of the highest meat-consuming countries in the world per capita.

At Woolies, you’ll be able to buy 340-gram packs of mince “meat” and Impossible Burger Patties, which come in packs of two, for around $10 per pack. The mince can be used in the same way you’d cook minced beef – so for casseroles, lasagne, chilli, bolognese, pies etc. Restaurateur Cincotta uses it in meatballs, katsu and noodle dishes too.

The company says it uses 96 per cent less land, 87 per cent less water and has 89 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions compared to beef from cows, based on beef production in the US. Impossible Beef is certified kosher, halal and gluten-free, and doesn’t contain animal hormones or antibiotics, but in the past the company has been criticised for testing its products on animals. Impossible Foods confirms this is no longer the case.

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