Impossible Foods New Fake-Meat Sausage Arrives On Little Caesars Pizza

Impossible Foods is spreading its faux-meat, with a new plant-based sausage set to appear on the Little Caesars Impossible Supreme pizza. The latest in the company's meat alternative line-up, the new Impossible Sausage is described as "spicy-sweet" and will be trialed on the new pizza.

Work on the sausage began earlier in 2019, Impossible Foods says, after being approached by Little Caesars. Like the Impossible Burger, it combines plant-based meat alternatives with the company's own "heme" ingredient.

That's what makes it smell and taste like meat, with the expected texture, too, Impossible says. In fact, it cooked up more than 50 different varieties of sausage for Little Caesars to choose from. The winning pick turned out to combine plants with caramelized onions, mushrooms, and green peppers, among other things.

As well as avoiding meat consumption, Impossible is billing its new sausage as being healthier to eat. A quarter pound of Impossible Sausage, for example, has no cholesterol, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 17 grams of total fat, 17 grams of protein, and 270 calories. In contrast, the typical beef sausage would have 70 mg of cholesterol, 12 grams of saturated fat, 29 grams of total fat, 14 grams of protein, and 340 calories in the same quantity, the company claims.

Little Caesars will combine the Impossible Sausage with crushed tomatoes, mozzarella, and Muenster cheese.

Now for the bad news. Right now, Little Caesars is only testing the Impossible Supreme in select markets – indeed, there are just three of them. You'll need to be in Florida, New Mexico, or Washington state in order to stand a chance of finding it on the menu.

Assuming you do, it's a $12 pie, plus tax. If the reception is positive, the pizza company says it expects to offer more plant-based menu items.

It's been a good year for startups pushing meat alternatives. Back in March, Impossible Foods rival Beyond Meat launched its IPO, with the stock more than doubling in price on the first day as trades raged to such an extent that the market temporarily paused for volatility. Meanwhile independent research suggested that heart disease risk factors such as triglycerides and blood pressure could be reduced, as well as "bad" cholesterol levels, compared to a red meat diet if people replaced some of their consumption with plant-based alternatives.