Little Caesars To Debut Impossible Sausage, Shattering Faux-Meat Caste System
While it's too recent a development to make long-term pronouncements just yet, it's tough to deny that Impossible Foods and its soy-based replica meats have already made a mark on American fast food. After offering the Impossible Whopper at Burger King (and having it become so popular that it's already expanding wider), the company has announced that its next meatless meat option, the Impossible Sausage, will debut in a relatively unlikely place: Little Caesars.
Most of you know Little Caesars. You know of its $10-or-less full-size pies, and of its Hot-N-Ready pickup-pizza option. It's also the company that occasionally sells this spectacle:
Yes, that's a bacon crust. Needless to say, Little Caesars may have its advantages (ask anybody who grew up in a struggling family about the value of the Hot-N-Ready in a pinch), but even its most ardent supporters probably wouldn't argue that nutritional value is high on the list.
That makes the carryout pizza chain a fascinating launch point for Impossible Sausage; Fortune reports that the Impossible Supreme Pizza will be "only available for a limited time at 58 select Little Caesars in Yakima, Washington; Ft. Meyers, Florida; and Albuquerque, New Mexico." It's also the first time in three years that Impossible Foods is premiering a new meat option, so let the record reflect that in the annals of the faux-meat boom, Little Caesars will have its page in the history books.
The ongoing mainstreaming of vegan meat continues to be one of the more interesting stories happening in the food world today, and like any major food trend, the real boom will begin when alternatives become accessible to the everyday consumer. When people don't have to go out of their way (or spend exorbitant sums) to cut meat out of their diets, we'd hardly be surprised to see meatless dining catch on in a much bigger way than it already has.