Impossible Foods calls off talks with McDonald’s: report

The CEO of Impossible Foods said in an interview Wednesday that his company is abandoning plans to partner with global fast food chain McDonald’s.

In an interview with Reuters, Pat Brown said that Impossible Foods, famous for its plant-based burgers, could not meet the scale required to partner with such a large chain at the present time.

“It would be stupid for us to be vying for them right now,” Brown told Reuters. “Having more big customers right now doesn’t do us any good until we scale up production.”

“I wish we had vastly more capacity than we do right now because the demand is high,” he continued.

“When we are ready to do it, we would certainly like them to be a customer,” he concluded. “Right now, if McDonald’s said they wanted us to be in all the restaurants, we’d have to say ‘Sorry, we can’t do it.’”

Another meatless food company, Beyond Meat, told Reuters that it is exploring a partnership with McDonald’s as well and told Reuters that talks are going “very well.”

“We would have to work with them [McDonald’s] on timing but, yes, we would be able to meet their demand globally,” the company’s chief growth officer said.

Impossible Foods previously partnered with McDonald’s for a 12-week test of a “P.L.T.” burger in some Canadian stores, an alternative to the traditional BLT sandwich. McDonald’s declined to comment on the results of that test when contacted by Reuters.