“Food is the ultimate technology: digestible tech,” says Rachel Konrad, chief communications officer at Impossible Foods, the creator of fully plant-based meat and dairy products that aim to give consumers the taste and benefits of meat and dairy with a much smaller environmental footprint. “It is the marriage of science and nature, and that is what technology is all about.”

Consumers are, now more than ever, invested in having a clear understanding of what they eat, and Impossible Foods offers consumers full transparency of the ingredients in their Impossible Burger. The Impossible Burger 2.0 is the culmination of years of food research, all the way down to the heme, the iron-containing molecule that gives the burger its flavor.

Since its start in 2011 and its first Impossible Burger, Impossible Foods has gone through more than 100 different iterations of its product, fine-tuning recipes to create a perfect patty that challenges plant-based anxiety and satisfies even the burger lover.

Seven years after the company’s inception and two years after the debut of the Impossible Burger, the Impossible Burger 2.0 — more sustainable to create and tastier than its original product — showcases the best of years of food science and technology development. These advances play as vital a role as the growth of computers and gaming consoles.

A departure from the cars, robots and televisions that have headlined the tech industry, food tech companies like Impossible Foods are showcasing how technology — whether online meal-prep ordering services, food delivery technology or the science of flavors — drives the continued development of the food industry.

The launch of the Impossible Burger 2.0 at CES 2019 marked the first time a food company exhibited at CES. But to the Impossible Foods team, the technology show was an unquestionable choice.

Sustenance and Sustainability

Food tech has gained significance as a vital piece of resilience tech. Along with fellow industryleaders from McPherson Strategies, Freight Farms, IBM, and Soft Robotics, Impossible Foods SeniorFlavor Scientist Laura Kliman spoke at CES 2019 about how the company is using technology to feed the world.

“We use technology to understand meat at the molecular level and understand how we can generate delicious meaty flavors from plant-based ingredients,” she said.

With the goal of addressing the threat of climate change, Impossible Foods has redefined the technology of meatless meat.

“In order to tackle [the environmental damage], we need the best technology,” said Impossible Foods Chief Science Officer Dr. David Litman on the CES Tech Talk podcast. “There is no more important technology that humanity has than food.”

Impossible Foods’ success at CES 2019, with more than 446 million media impressions and more than $4 million USD in ad value equivalency, highlighted the world’s recognition of the growing presence and value of the intersection of food and technology.