Food & Beverage | Impossible Foods launches in Macau, China’s tourist hotspot

Impossible Foods is launching its award-winning, plant-based meat in Macau at one of the world’s hottest entertainment and dining resort complexes.

Starting today, Impossible Foods’ flagship product will be available at three popular restaurants at Galaxy Macau, Asia’s premier integrated resort and entertainment hub. Galaxy Macau has some of Asia’s top-ranked restaurants and entertainment venues, as well as more than 3,000 hotel rooms on the glamorous Cotai Strip.

“We’re humbled to launch in Asia’s premier tourist destination at one of the world’s most spectacular resorts,” said Nick Halla, Senior Vice President for International at Impossible Foods. “Macau is a global crossroads of ideas and influences, and we are confident that chefs and consumers in Macau’s dynamic restaurant scene will fully embrace plant-based meat.”

Impossible Foods is rapidly expanding in Asia. In April, the California-based food startup made its international debut in Hong Kong with some of the world’s leading chefs, including May Chow (Little Bao, Happy Paradise) and Uwe Opocensky (Beef & Liberty).

Impossible meat is now available in over 30 restaurants in Hong Kong, including Jinjuu, Urban Bakery, Plat Du Jour, Alto, and five-star hotels Hotel ICON and Grand Hyatt Hong Kong.

At Galaxy Macau, Impossible meat will be served eight different ways at three of the property’s acclaimed restaurants: CHA BEI, The Apron Oyster Bar & Grill and The Noodle Kitchen.

Impossible’s flagship product is made from simple ingredients, including water, wheat protein, potato protein and coconut oil. One special ingredient — heme — contributes to the characteristic taste of meat and is the essential catalyst for all the other flavors when meat is cooked.

Heme is an essential molecular building block of life, one of nature’s most ubiquitous molecules. Although it’s found in all living things and in virtually all the food we eat, it’s especially abundant in animal tissues. Impossible scientists discovered that it’s the abundance of heme in animal tissues that makes meat taste like meat.

To satisfy the global demand for meat at a fraction of the environmental impact, Impossible Foods developed a far more sustainable, scalable and affordable way to make heme and therefore meat, without the catastrophic environmental impact of livestock.

Impossible Foods makes wholesome food without slaughterhouses, hormones, antibiotics, cholesterol or artificial flavors. The Impossible Burger uses about 75 percent less water, generates about 87 percent fewer greenhouse gases, and requires around 95 percent less land than conventional ground beef burgers from cows. MDT/AP