Impossible Foods CEO Says he Could Create Brand-New Types of Meat

"We can create things that would be unmistakably meat, flavor and texture, but unlike anything that you’ve had before in that category."

Dinosaur Steaks

Thus far, the plant-based and lab-grown meat industries have largely sought to imitate commonplace meals like poultry, beef, and pork. But that could someday change, says Impossible Foods CEO Patrick Brown.

Brown told The Verge that the way he sees it, there are lots of opportunities to experiment. As plant-based meat techniques improve — and market permitting, he added — we might see a variety of Impossible-brand meats for animals we wouldn't think to dine on, or even brand-new kinds of meat.

First Taste

Brown suggested our current meat preferences might be based on what's been historically convenient, so why not try and make something new?

"We can create things that would be unmistakably meat, flavor and texture, but unlike anything that you’ve had before in that category," Brown told The Verge. "Because after all, the choices of meat that are available in the world today are basically a historical artifact of the species that people were able to domesticate 10,000 years ago.

"And they weren’t chosen because they were the most delicious animals on earth," he added. "They were chosen because they were capable of being domesticated."

Science Fiction

Of course, anything like that is still a far way off in the future, if it happens at all. The Verge's Andrew Marino asked Brown when, for example, Impossible would figure out different kind of steaks like a rib eye, to which Brown deflected.

"You don't know how close you are until you get there," he said.

READ MORE: Impossible CEO says it can make a meat ‘unlike anything that you’ve had before’ [The Verge]

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