Impossible Foods CEO talks pork and the future of plant-based meat

Hello and welcome back to CNET's live coverage of CES 2020. Meat alternatives are all the rage right now and we have Cleo Riley standing by at the Mandalay Bay Hotel where Impossible Foods just wrapped up their press event. [BLANK_AUDIO] All right guys, we have just wrapped up the Impossible Foods keynote here at C CES 2020, and this is potentially the most delicious of keynotes that I've been to. Because we got to taste the brand-new Impossible Pork. You might have tried Impossible Burgers, you might have tried the Impossible Whopper. But there is a new meat in town, and it's actually not meat, it's actually really delicious. I have to see on Impossible foods, Pat Brown right here with me. Now I had a taste of everything. It was all pretty delicious. It tasted like pork. Why did you decide to do pork? Well as you probably know, pork is the single most popular meat in the world, the single most widely consumed meat int eh world. The mission of Impossible Foods has always been to completely replace animals as a food technology, globally. The use of animals in food production is by far the most destructive technology on earth, by far. Both in terms of climate change, and the catastrophic collapse Is in, [UNKNOWN] University. So in order for us to achieve our mission. [BLANK_AUDIO] Pork as the most popular meat in the world is incredibly important for us. Today just to give an idea of the scale of it, every second of everyday. 24/7 all around the year every second, 47 pigs are slaughtered to produce pork. Wow, so the hope is that by making delicious impossible pork, we can save the pigs but also save the climate. Save the pigs and save the planet, that's exactly right. And not only that, but from a human health standpoint, Producing pork from plants is vastly superior to producing it from pigs. So the impossible pork that you're about to eat has 40% less calories, 60% less total fat, 40% less saturated fat, zero cholesterol [BLANK_AUDIO] More iron, equivalent protein. And unlike almost all the pork produced in the US, no fecal pathogens, so- Well, that's a delight, that's what I look for in my food- Yes, yes. No fecal pathogens. No, you're good here, you can eat it. [UNKNOWN] taste it, okay. All right. So, I've got the the Tsumai here. I'm just gonna chow down. [BLANK_AUDIO] It's really good. Okay. Mm-hm. [BLANK_AUDIO] It's, I'm talking with my mouth full. It has the same mouth feel, it feels kind of fuddy. How is it different to debate? It's actually interesting, by the way. This, I think, you might find interesting. This is, as far as I know, the only handheld technology at CES's here, that doesn't spy on you. Okay? That's such a plus. So, that makes it very special. [BLANK_AUDIO] A lot of the biochemistry that underlines flavor and texture of beef and pork is extremely similar. Think of it this way, a cow's muscle tissue and a pig's muscle tissue, in almost every way is extremely similar. The differences are subtle, but they're really important. So the the main catalyst of flavor in any kind of meat is its molecular heme. Pork has a lower amount of heme, which is partly why the flavor is more subtle. Okay, that's the molecule that gives blood it's red color right? Yes, exactly that Defects red color, markets pink color Okay But more importantly, it's responsible for producing all the unique flavors that you associate with me. But that's not the only difference, the fat composition is different between beef and pork, and the different fatty acids contribute Two distinctly different flavor profiles. And then there are textural differences as well.>> Well you can taste it in your mouth. it's it's sorta got that ground pork flavor. Obviously this has been sliced and plated. Based on the different dishes we have here we've got lon me we've got the dun dun noodle. We've got a little bow on hand so you can taste the different flavours with the spices but it does feel to me, or at least it feels a lot like I want to know. Everyone watching instead of me just eating is on camera quite selfishly. Where can everyone watching and get that hands on? Where can we get some polka polka For our existing products than we can produce right now. So the whole issue for us is scaling production as fast as we possibly. can. And that's certainly something that people have spoken to me about. And possible [UNKNOWN] come to Australia. But that you have to be on the lookout for it and you have to know where to buy them. Impossible made so there's a lot of people that want it but can't get it. Right, and we don't want that problem to last for long, so we [UNKNOWN] two of the best sort of business scaling people in the world Dennis would side who was the CEO of Motorola, Motorola mobility scaling [CROSSTALK] and stuff like that. Other handheld devices and [UNKNOWN] who worked for, also for Motorola and for various phone. And they are like Among the world's greatest experts on scaling technology and so forth. Okay. So that's what stands in the way, but we wanna get it in your hands as soon as possible. You want to get it to more people? All right so after pork, we had a question earlier, you're gonna work on bacon? Yes. Okay. We already, we've done some. Work out already, yeah. Excellent, and what's next after pork? We're about to wrap it up so I wanna know, what can I look forward to after this? Well without being any more specific I would say, if it's a food product that comes from animals, it's just a matter of time before we're producing it. We're working on other meats Poultry, fish, shrimp, dairy products and so forth. I want it to be a surprise when we launch our next product. Okay well, you'll just tell me and I won't tell anyone, I promise, okay? [LAUGH] All right, so- [UNKNOWN] [LAUGH] From Impossible Foods at CES 2020, this is Pretty much like pork, the other, other, other, other, other, other white meat, all right? I love that. Cheers, guys, I'm gonna have another bite. [APPLAUSE] It's good. Yeah, and it's like telling you're dating