Breakthrough Dialogues

Tasting is Believing

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Episode notes

The Impossible Burger launched in 2016, with celebrity chef David Chang at Momofuku. Since then, the product has exploded: now available nationally at Burger King, soon to hit the grocery shelves, on its 2.0 formula (now grillable), and an R&D team that’s twice as big as it used to be. So we were excited to sit down with Jessica Appelgren, VP of Communications at Impossible Foods, who’s been there since its early days. She sees the plant-based burger as a concept more than a product: this isn’t a slow, sneaky swap, it’s an explosive cultural shift. On today’s show: how the company thinks about public fears over lab-made “Frankenfoods,” why taste is the number one factor, and Impossible’s theory of change.