What Is Impossible Sausage?
Impossible Sausage is the plant-based sausage line from Impossible Foods, the same company behind the Impossible Burger. It's built around soy protein concentrate rather than the pea protein most competitors use, and it comes in a few formats: fresh ground "sausage meat" you shape yourself, pre-formed breakfast patties, and links in Savory and Spicy varieties. The pitch is the usual Impossible Foods pitch — a product that browns, sizzles, and bleeds like real pork sausage, minus the animal.
It's sold at major grocery chains including Kroger, Target, Walmart, Safeway/Albertsons banners, and Whole Foods, and it shows up on menus at chains that have run Impossible promotions over the years. This review focuses on the ground sausage and links, since those are the most widely available formats, and breaks down whether the ingredient list actually holds up to vegan scrutiny — not just the marketing.
Ingredients
The Savory Links ingredient list reads:
Water, Soy Protein Concentrate, Sunflower Oil, Coconut Oil, 2% Or Less Of: Methylcellulose, Salt, Yeast Extract, Cultured Dextrose, Spices, Food Starch Modified, Onion Powder, Dextrose, Garlic Powder, Natural Flavors, Citric Acid, Soy Leghemoglobin, Vitamin E (Tocopherols), Soy Protein Isolate, Zinc Gluconate, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Riboflavin, Vitamin B12.
The Spicy Links swap in dehydrated garlic, dehydrated onion, crushed red pepper, and cayenne, but the base — soy protein, sunflower and coconut oil, methylcellulose, soy leghemoglobin — is the same. Both varieties list soy as an allergen, and neither contains wheat or gluten-containing ingredients per the listed formula, though anyone with a wheat allergy should still check the specific package, since manufacturing lines and formulations can change.
The ingredient most people stumble on is soy leghemoglobin, the "heme" protein that gives Impossible products their meaty color and iron-forward flavor. It sounds like it could be animal-derived, but it isn't — it's a plant protein (heme is naturally present in soy root nodules) that Impossible Foods produces via genetically engineered yeast fermentation, similar to how insulin or rennet-free cheese cultures are made. There's no animal blood, animal protein, or animal byproduct involved. If you want to double-check any packaged food's ingredient list against known animal-derived additives, the spvegan.com ingredient checker is a fast way to scan for things like gelatin, carmine, or L-cysteine that sometimes hide in processed foods.
Is Impossible Sausage Vegan?
Yes — Impossible Sausage is vegan. Every ingredient in both the Savory and Spicy formulations is plant-derived or produced through fermentation, and Impossible Foods markets the entire sausage line as vegan, not just vegetarian. There's no dairy, egg, honey, gelatin, or animal-derived flavoring in the listed ingredients.
The caveats are the standard ones for any packaged product made in a facility that also handles animal products: Impossible Foods doesn't publish a blanket allergen-free or cross-contact guarantee, and shared manufacturing lines are always a possibility with any large-scale food producer. If cross-contact is a hard line for you (rather than a trace-allergen concern), it's worth checking the specific package for any facility statements, since these can vary by co-packer and region. For the vast majority of vegans, though, this is an uncomplicated "yes" — no ingredient-detective work required.
Nutrition Facts Comparison
Here's how Impossible Sausage stacks up against two other widely available plant-based sausage brands, per standard cooked serving:
| Brand / Product | Serving | Calories | Protein | Total Fat | Sat. Fat | Sodium | Carbs | Fiber |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Impossible Sausage (Savory link) | 1 link (95g) | 240 | 14g | 16g | 7g | 570mg | 8g | 5g |
| Beyond Sausage (Original/Hot Italian) | 1 link (76g) | 190 | 16g | 12g | 5g | 500mg | 5g | 3g |
| Field Roast Bratwurst | 1 link (92g) | 230 | 23g | 11g | 2g | 600mg | 11g | 3g |
A few things stand out. Impossible Sausage runs the highest in calories and total fat of the three, largely thanks to coconut oil (which is also why its saturated fat number, 7g, is the highest on this list — worth knowing if you're watching sat fat specifically). Field Roast wins on protein by a wide margin, since it's built on a vital wheat gluten base rather than soy or pea isolate. Beyond Sausage lands in the middle on most metrics and has the lowest sodium of the three, though "lowest" here is relative — all three products are solidly in processed-sausage territory for salt, which tracks with their real-meat counterparts.
None of these are diet foods, and none of them are trying to be. If you're comparing against a conventional pork breakfast sausage, Impossible's own marketing cites roughly 25% fewer calories and about 47% less total fat than a leading pork sausage brand when cooked — a meaningful improvement even if it's not a "health food" swap outright.
Taste and Texture
This is where Impossible Sausage tends to win people over even when its nutrition numbers don't. The texture is genuinely close to fresh pork sausage — a bit of snap on the casing when you bite in, a loose, slightly coarse grind inside rather than the smooth paste texture that plagues some plant-based sausages. It browns and renders fat in the pan the way real sausage does, which matters more than people expect; a lot of the "meatiness" of sausage is actually the sizzle, the smell, and the way it crisps at the edges, not just the flavor of the meat itself.
Flavor-wise, the Savory link leans on sage, black pepper, and fennel-adjacent spicing that reads as classic American breakfast sausage rather than anything more exotic. It's well-seasoned out of the package — you don't need to doctor it up with extra salt or fat the way some blander plant-based products require. The Spicy version has real heat from crushed red pepper and cayenne, more than a "spicy" label usually delivers, which is a plus if you actually want kick and not just a warning label.
The one consistent knock, echoed across a lot of consumer reviews, is that the fat can render out fast and leave the sausage a little dry if you overcook it even slightly — the margin between "perfectly juicy" and "dried out" is narrower than with pork. Pull it from the pan a little earlier than instinct says to, and it holds up fine.
How It Compares to Other Plant-Based Sausages
| Product | Protein Base | Texture | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Impossible Sausage | Soy protein | Coarse, meaty, snappy casing | Breakfast patties, pan-fried links, browning for crumbles |
| Beyond Sausage | Pea protein | Firmer, slightly springier bite | Grilling whole links, bratwurst-style preparations |
| Field Roast | Vital wheat gluten (not gluten-free) | Dense, chewy, high-protein | People prioritizing protein per link over macros |
None of these is a strict upgrade over the others — they're built on different proteins with different textures, so the "best" one depends on what you're making. Impossible is the strongest pick for a griddle-and-eggs breakfast plate; Field Roast holds up better on a grill grate without falling apart; Beyond splits the difference reasonably well.
Who Should Buy Impossible Sausage?
If you grew up eating pork breakfast sausage and miss the specific texture and browning behavior more than you miss any particular flavor, Impossible Sausage is one of the closer matches on the market. It's also a solid choice for anyone cooking for a mixed household of vegans and omnivores, since the format and behavior in the pan is familiar enough that it doesn't read as an obvious substitute to skeptical eaters.
It's a weaker pick if you're specifically optimizing for a high-protein, lower-fat plant-based diet — Field Roast beats it on protein, and both Field Roast and Beyond beat it on total and saturated fat. It's also not the cheapest option on the shelf; regular retail pricing tends to land somewhere in the $6–$9 range for a roughly 12–14 oz package depending on retailer and promotions, though sales and loyalty discounts bring that down fairly often.
Where to Buy and What It Costs
Impossible Sausage is distributed nationally, so availability is generally better than niche vegan brands you might only find at a co-op or specialty market. Look for it in the refrigerated or frozen meat-alternative section — not always next to the conventional sausage, since some stores shelve plant-based proteins separately — at Kroger and its regional banners (Ralphs, Fred Meyer, King Soopers, and others), Target, Walmart, Safeway/Albertsons stores, Whole Foods, and most regional grocery chains. Impossible Foods has run price cuts on parts of its lineup over the past few years to close the gap with conventional meat, and sale pricing at Kroger-family stores in particular has occasionally dropped well below regular shelf price, so it's worth checking a store's weekly ad or app before assuming full price is the only option. Regular price typically lands in the $6–$9 range for a roughly 12–14 oz package, which puts it a bit above mainstream pork sausage in price but generally in line with, or slightly cheaper than, other name-brand plant-based sausages.
The product line includes a few formats worth knowing about before you shop: the fresh "Ground Sausage" roll (which you shape into patties or crumble yourself, giving you the most flexibility), pre-formed frozen breakfast patties, and the Savory or Spicy links reviewed here. All formats share the same core ingredient base, so the vegan status and general nutrition profile carry across the line, though exact numbers shift slightly by format and serving size.
How to Cook It for Best Results
Because the fat renders out faster than in pork sausage, a few small adjustments go a long way. Cook links over medium rather than medium-high heat, and turn them more frequently than you would with real pork so they brown evenly without one side drying out before the other catches up. For patties, resist pressing down with the spatula — that squeezes out moisture you want to keep. Pulling everything off the heat a minute or so before it looks "done enough" tends to land closer to the ideal juicy-but-cooked-through result, since carryover heat finishes the job. If you're using the ground format for a recipe like stuffing, pasta sauce, or a breakfast hash, it behaves closer to ground pork than you might expect, browning and crumbling normally in a hot pan with a little oil.
Final Verdict
Impossible Sausage delivers on the thing it's actually trying to do: replicate the cooking behavior and eating experience of pork breakfast sausage, not just approximate the flavor. The ingredient list is unambiguously vegan, the soy leghemoglobin scare some people have heard about is a non-issue, and the taste and texture hold up better than most plant-based sausages we've tried. The tradeoffs are real, though — it's the highest in calories and saturated fat among the three products compared here, and it's easy to overcook past its juicy window.
Rating: 7.8/10 — a strong, reliably vegan option for anyone who wants sausage to actually taste and cook like sausage, with the caveat that it's not the leanest or highest-protein choice on the shelf.
