LOS ANGELES–Air New Zealand is giving customers a taste of the future with a new inflight collaboration with Impossible Foods.
The airline is the first in the world to serve the award-winning, plant-based Impossible Burger, which is now available as part of its Business Premier menu on flights from Los Angeles to Auckland.
Impossible Burger’s magic ingredient is an iron-containing molecule called heme, which it gets from the roots of soy plants. The heme in the Impossible Burger is the same as the heme in meat from animals. The result is a plant-based burger that cooks, smells and tastes like beef from cows — but contains no animals whatsoever.
Air New Zealand’s Inflight Customer Experience Manager Niki Chave says the airline has been watching Impossible Foods since its 2016 debut in the USA and has been impressed with the work it’s doing.
“Like Impossible Foods, we are committed to offering our customers a fresh and innovative approach to cuisine. We’re incredibly excited about this partnership and the opportunity to offer our Business Premier customers travelling from Los Angeles to Auckland a delicious plant-based option that tastes just like the real deal.
“We’re confident that vegetarians, flexitarians and dedicated meat lovers alike will enjoy the delicious taste of the Impossible Burger,” Chave said, “and for those who want to stay with the tried and true it will sit alongside our regular selection of menu items prepared by our talented culinary team and consultant chefs.”
Impossible Foods CEO and Founder Dr. Patrick O. Brown says the company’s mission is to make the global food system more sustainable — by making products that don’t compromise on sustainability, nutrition or taste. The Impossible Burger is now available in nearly 2,500 restaurants throughout the United States, including America’s beloved "better burger" concepts Fatburger, Umami Burger, Hopdoddy, The Counter, and B Spot.
“We launched with high-credibility, innovative chefs known for their delicious burgers — so it’s no coincidence our first airline partner has been named Airline of the Year for five straight years,” Brown said. “Air New Zealand can help us take the Impossible Burger to even greater heights, quite literally.”
Air New Zealand will serve the Impossible Burger on flights NZ1 and NZ5 from Los Angeles to Auckland through late October.
ABOUT IMPOSSIBLE FOODS
Based in Redwood City, Calif., Impossible Foods makes delicious, nutritious meat and dairy products directly from plants — with a much smaller environmental footprint than meat from animals. The privately held company was founded in 2011 by Patrick O. Brown, M.D., Ph.D., formerly a biochemistry professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Stanford University. Investors include Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, Google Ventures, Horizons Ventures, UBS, Viking Global Investors, Temasek, Sailing Capital and Open Philanthropy Project.
Source: Impossible Foods
