Following the approval of a key colour ingredient in its plant-based burger by the United States Food and Drug Administration, those products would be brought into the market and grocery stores in September, said Impossible foods on Wednesday, the closest competitor of Beyond Meat’.

Impossible’s use of soy leghemoglobin — or heme — has been cleared by it to be used as a color additive in its products, the regulator has said,. This has cleared all regulatory impediments from the way for the company that manufactures alternative meat based products to sell the products to consumers in the US through grocery stores.

The technology used by Impossible to manufacture the plant based meat is to genetically engineers yeast to create heme which is a molecule that contains iron which is the main ingredient that gives the typically taste and aroma opt animal meat.

A 2017 report published in the New York Times had stated that concerns about the safety of heme had been expressed by the FDA because it had not been consumed by humans every before. Soy leghemoglobin was identified to be “generally recognized as safe” by the FDA last year. However since the laboratory produced meat of Impossible was comprised of heme, and since the FDA had not cleared its usage as an ingredient as a color additive, the company was not able to bring its alternative meat products such as the its uncooked vegan burgers to the market and to the grocery stores.

“We’ve been engaging with the FDA for half a decade to ensure that we are completely compliant with all food-safety regulations — for the Impossible Burger and for future products and sales channels,” Impossible Foods chief legal officer Dana Wagner said in a statement.

Up until now, the only way that Impossible has been able to distribute its product is through sale to restaurants. After initially starting sale of its plant-based burger to high end restaurants, currently its product has now made its way to the menu list of a few fast-food chains such as Burger King and White Castle.

Impossible would be allowed to begin selling the product directly to consumers if within the next 30 days, no objections from any one is received by the FDA related to any one being affected adversely by the ingredient.

The competitor of Impossible, Beyond Meat that went public in May this year and has seen its shares soar over 750 per cent in value since then, reported sale revenues of $34.1 million in the second quarter from the sale of its products at the grocery stores. That accounted for a little over 50 per cent of its total quarterly revenues.

Flexitarians, people who are trying to reduce their meat intake, are the ones that have primarily driven up the demand and popularity of alternative meat that taste and look just like animal meat. Meat Animal meat is also purchased by about 98% of buyers of meat substitutes, according to Nielsen data. It also stated that meat alternatives are also being bought by more than one-fifth of American households.

(Adapted from CNBC.com)