Little Caesars Testing Out a Plant-Based Pizza with Impossible Foods

After investing a lot of time and money in Research and Development (R&D), Impossible Foods has created the long-awaited meat-free sausage, and Little Caesars, the pizza chain, will be the first company to jump on the bandwagon and try its hand at plant-based proteins with its “Impossible Supreme” pizza.

Impossible Foods is the same company responsible for the plant-based Impossible Burger.

The new vegan sausage made its exclusive debut on May 20, 2019, as a topping on Little Caesars’ $12 pizza alongside green peppers, caramelized onions and mushrooms. It is currently available in 58 restaurants in four different locations including Naples, FL, Yakima, WA, Myers, FL, and Albuquerque, NM.

Little Caesars said it will test the product for four weeks, and if it’s successful, they’ll decide if they’ll roll it out to more markets around the nation. The pizza company started paying more attention to the plant-based protein trend in 2018 after realizing more meat-eaters were switching from animal-based products to vegetarian alternatives.

So, in an effort to wrap itself in its mission of attracting carnivores and vegetarians alike, Little Caesars partnered with Impossible Foods in October 2018 to create a meal boasting a plant-based protein.

“These kind of flexitarians have been growing in nature,” Ed Gleich, Little Caesars’ Chief Innovation Officer, told CNN Business. “They’re not hardcore ‘vegans or vegetarians,’ but they’re more adventurous in their choices. The Impossible Supreme pizza is designed to appeal to meat eaters, and isn’t vegan (it’s topped with cheese, along with the fake sausage and other items).

”At first, Impossible Foods proposed the plant-based beef they were using on their Burgers. However, Little Caesar told them that most clients order sausage-topped pizzas than beef-topped pizzas, so Impossible Foods went back to the drawing board and come up with a sausage alternative.

“Normally companies want to sell you the product they have,” said Gleich. “Not a product they’ve got to get out and put some R&D time in, and put resources against and develop.”