Impossible Foods Is Trying To Make Plant-Based Milk Which Tastes Just Like Dairy Milk

After making meat from plants, Impossible Foods is now doubling investment into research and development of plant-based milk over the next year.

In a virtual press conference, the company showed a prototype of its milk and said it aimed to produce milk “that a dairy milk consumer will choose”, reported CNN. Impossible Foods raised close to $700 million in two rounds this year, which it intends to use for this new product and to fund hiring.

Impossible aims to bring this product as close to dairy milk as possible. Some popular types of non-dairy milk include oat milk, soy milk, coconut milk and almond milk. But customers have complained of slight differences in taste, consistency and nutrients.

In the video conference, Laura Kliman, senior flavor scientist at Impossible, poured the prototype milk into a hot cup of coffee, showing how easily it blended. She also demonstrated how the milk foams and can be heated like dairy milk.

“We have made prototypes from a number of different plant sources,” CEO Pat Brown said during the call. He added that soy will be their number one choice to be the base protein for their milk.

The demonstration was just with the prototype though—it is unclear if this is the final recipe for the plant-based milk or there can be more experiments on it.

How Do Plant-Based Products Work?

Impossible Foods is one of the many players in the meat alternatives market, like Beyond Meat, Incogmeato and Sweet Earth Brand by Nestle. These brands have launched plant-based, meat-mimicking products to bring in customers who do not favor a vegan diet. One of Impossible’s flagship products is the Impossible Burger, which it claims is fast displacing regular meat burgers in the U.S.

Plant-based meats are made from soy, which has a significant resemblance to ground beef, along with the nutritional constitution that makes it an ideal substitute for meat. Impossible primarily uses soy in its other plant-based meat products, as well as pork products it announced in September.

Claiming to be one of America’s fastest-growing brands, Impossible Foods makes meat from plants to stop the production of animal-derived foods, which is “one of the biggest generators of greenhouse gas emissions and the driver of the global meltdown in wildlife”. Since its inception in 2011, the company has raised close to $1.5 billion.

The plant-based meat market is a growing sector, with a rise in awareness about the environmental consequences of meat-eating and the growing adoption of veganism across the globe. The U.S. plant-based meat market is expected to cross $4.15 billion by 2026, according to data.