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Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries

nytimes.com

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Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're processed, but not soy. Mostly pea protein.

Pea protein is a garbage incomplete protein too.

You're moving the goalposts here, but neither the person I'm replying to nor you are really providing anything compelling about how unfit these are for consumption.

Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries

#42
post #4

I think this shows us that "technological innovation" solutions are not always the right answer to our problems. I've had these fake-patties and they're good, I've gone to burger king and it's more than good enough. But then again, when I go to the supermarket these are still too expensive compared to regular meat and the flavor profile is not as good. So I they would have to come up with a really killer product, but…

Burger King uses Impossible. You could be right about the business side, but I point this out because I think Impossible is substantially better than Beyond. Like I don't think Beyond could fool a meat eater for a second (and it's not as explicitly their intention), whereas Impossible is pretty damn convincing in certain contexts. Also, Impossible started out strongly focused on the restaurant industry, and AFAIK sti…

> I don't think Beyond could fool a meat eater for a second

Anecdotally, my partner modified the menu at the bar he used to run to change the burger to be Beyond by default and beef optional. While it was clearly labelled on the menu, people didn't seem to read it/realise that the default was vegetarian. Everyone was very excited about the "new" burger, and most people were (happily) surprised to find out it was vegetarian.

So at least at this one bar in Amsterdam, Beyond fooled many meat eaters.

Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries

#43

We actually prefer the Beyond Meat patty to a real beef one about 3/4 times in my house. We also prefer their Italian sausage for several recipes. They aren’t the same by any means; we just happen to like the Beyond Meat alternative for those dishes. I really hope they stick around.

I got some push-back from my family on Beyond Burgers, we were grilling them somewhat regularly this summer and I was perfectly happy with them, but then towards the end of the summer my wife said, and my kids agreed: they didn't like them. I think the Impossible is the better product.

But, Beyond is listed on the stock market, so it's easier to see that they've been struggling?

Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries

#44
post #32

I married a vegan, and I eat a lot of vegetarian food. (I also still eat plenty of meat, just not every day.) One extremely frustrating aspect of plant meat is that they tried to aggressively push out traditional veggie burgers on restaurant menus. A familiar refrain I've heard in restaurants in the last few years is "we used to have a nice veggie patty, but they replaced it with the beyond/incredible/whatever patty.…

I disagree. I much prefer a Beyond pattie to more traditional veggie options.

It is quite literally a matter of taste though, so you aren't wrong, but your perspective is just your own.

Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries

#45
post #7

It really is not that complex to understand: You either love meat and won't touch these things with a 10 feet pole or you are vegetarian/vegan and usually take care of what you put in your body, meaning probably a limited amount of junk/processed food, meaning no fake meat substitutes. The market really isn't that big imho, there are already plenty of alternative to meat for most applications, which are cheaper, less…

Or you eat meat, take care of what you in your body, and know these meat substitutes are a gimmick to put "health halos" on highly processed soy products that were formerly just sold to prisons.

Lobsters were formerly just sold to prisons, but I still love eating the little dudes. This isn't a very persuasive argument.

Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries

#46
post #10
post #7

It really is not that complex to understand: You either love meat and won't touch these things with a 10 feet pole or you are vegetarian/vegan and usually take care of what you put in your body, meaning probably a limited amount of junk/processed food, meaning no fake meat substitutes. The market really isn't that big imho, there are already plenty of alternative to meat for most applications, which are cheaper, less…

> You either love meat and won't touch these things with a 10 feet pole I think this is wrong, and you're missing where the market is. From what I've read, the meat alternatives actually sell primarily to meat eaters who feel like they should occasionally substitute meat for health reasons or variety. Non-meat-eaters have already weaned themselves off meat taste-wise and are not-so-interested.

> Non-meat-eaters have already weaned themselves off meat taste-wise

Not all of them!

I don't buy meat for myself any longer, and am trying to get away from dairy. However, my childhood furnished me with possibly lifelong cravings for jerky, burgers, nuggets and sausages-- all of which the meat substitutes totally satisfy now. I'm very glad for these options!

Now I just need a good cheese substitute and I can go mostly vegan (I will still likely eat meat & dairy when it comes to leftover food that would otherwise be thrown out, though; my desire to avoid waste is greater than my desire to avoid those things because my body will be garbage all too soon no matter what I do anyway... life is far too short to justify being a purist imo).

Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries

#47

"Its stock has slumped nearly 83 percent in the past year. Sales, which the company had expected to rise as much as 33 percent this year, are now likely to show only minor growth." So they still showed growth, the stock just crashed; and the others in the segment who don't have to report numbers are doing better. Just sounds like a discounted stock to me.

Not really, if you look at the last 2 years their revenue has been flat and their cost exploded.

This stock doesn't look discounted at all, they don't make any money and don't have any growth. I haven't checked their strategy to turn this around but just from the financials I'd say the stock is about where it should be.

Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries

#48
post #32

I married a vegan, and I eat a lot of vegetarian food. (I also still eat plenty of meat, just not every day.) One extremely frustrating aspect of plant meat is that they tried to aggressively push out traditional veggie burgers on restaurant menus. A familiar refrain I've heard in restaurants in the last few years is "we used to have a nice veggie patty, but they replaced it with the beyond/incredible/whatever patty.…

>One extremely frustrating aspect of plant meat is that they tried to aggressively push out traditional veggie burgers on restaurant menus.

This upsets me because as a vegetarian the last thing I want is to be reminded of what meat tastes like. Who exactly is this for? Because the last I heard it was being marketed primarily at meat eaters.

Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries

#49
Given the popularity of the vegan diet among millennials and Zoomers I expected this type of products to skyrocket.

The marketing was building a lot of hype, and targeting fast-food was smart, because I think that meat is usually very low quality so changing for a plant-based recipe could have been a double win: the taste is not worse or better, and the concerns about animal cruelty and bad ecological footprint is the worst for the type of meat used in this industry.

Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pea protein is a garbage incomplete protein too.

What is an "incomplete" protein? I'm aware that the human body needs certain fatty acids that it can't produce. But protein?

Incomplete protein refers to amino acid profile.
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