---
title: "Impossible Makes Progress Toward Plant-Based Fish"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/cd68ed31-f8c6-4060-9666-2af7c70af26a
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/impossible-makes-progress-toward-plant-based-fish-2710500
category: "Emerging"
topics: ["Emerging brands"]
published: 2019-07-11T20:15:02.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T02:29:57.267Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/1bfc25498d5c888e322a4d093fa4dc0b8670.jpg
---

# Impossible Makes Progress Toward Plant-Based Fish

**TL;DR:** Impossible Foods is developing a plant-based fish alternative using heme to replicate the flavor and texture of seafood. The company's research and development team has successfully created an anchovy-flavored broth that could be used for various dishes.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2019-07-11. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/impossible-makes-progress-toward-plant-based-fish-2710500).*

## Story

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.”

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- General (sector)
- sustainability (topic)
- Impossible Foods (company)
- food innovation (topic)
- plant-based fish (topic)
- seafood alternative (topic)

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Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/impossible-makes-progress-toward-plant-based-fish-2710500). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/cd68ed31-f8c6-4060-9666-2af7c70af26a).