Impossible Makes Progress Toward Plant-Based Fish

As plant-based meat alternatives continue dominating conversations within the foodservice industry, Impossible is diversifying from turf—and moving toward surf.

According to the New York Times, Impossible Foods has dived into developing a seafood-free alternative to seafood. Impossible’s research and development team, which will grow to 200 people by the end of next year, has been working on reproducing a fishy flavor using heme, the same protein it uses for its meat. So far, it’s successfully created an “anchovy-flavored broth” that could be used for paella or Caesar salad dressing, according to Pat Brown, the company’s chief executive.

The NYT points out that because billions of people depend on seafood for protein, overfishing has become a serious global concern with the world’s oceans now 90% depleted. To address the crisis, the company Wild Type is reportedly even growing sushi-grade fish from cells in a laboratory setting.

Brown acknowledged that current demand for a plant-based fish isn’t exactly busting down any doors. “The only way we can succeed is to make fish from plants that is more delicious than the fish that’s strip mined from the ocean,” he said, because before consumers got a whiff of meat alternatives, they “weren’t crying out for plant-based burgers, either.”