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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

#191

Post by esparrohack »

TotempaaltJ wrote: post #24
lm28469 wrote: 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…

This is a very common theory on Beyond/vegetarian meat-like alternatives. At least in my perception, this is incorrect. I eat vegetarian, and know many others in my circles (24-32 year olds, mostly in Ams and NYC) who do, or who try to eat less meat. This: > 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 subst…

I’m from Texas. Total opposite experience.

Vegans and vegetarians are rare pokemons here.

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

#192

Post by bane »

jjcm wrote: post #136

I'm a meat eater, but am a big fan of fake meats - to the point where I prefer them in some situations. Overall I'm not a huge fan of Beyond Meat. While it does feel closer in taste to beef than impossible burgers, I heavily prefer the taste of impossible burgers to beyond. Impossible burgers have a stronger umami taste and tend to add to the experience. Beyond kinda just tastes like lower end beef to me. This means…

I find the Beyond product has a strange artificial odor to it. Like it's trying to recreate the smell of fully cooked meat product, but before it's even cooked. It's odd in the way that artificial smoke can be weird. I bought a package of Beyond patties at Costco (I think it was like 20) and had a hard time getting through them after the first 4-5. The Impossible equivalent tended to just make my kitchen smell like a decent meal instead of some kind of weird laboratory experiment.

The problem with both of them is I can get a sack of burgers from Costco, like 50 of them, for less than I'd pay for 20 of the fake ones. and they'll taste and smell the right way and be usable in more recipes.

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

#193

Post by rjbwork »

sho_hn wrote: post #10
lm28469 wrote: 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.

I just substitute meat for legume or dairy based products. For instance, I love black bean burger patties and paneer. If I want to eat meat, I'm going to eat meat. Not some weird frankensteined up soy bullshit.

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

#194

Post by duxup »

jjcm wrote: post #136

I'm a meat eater, but am a big fan of fake meats - to the point where I prefer them in some situations. Overall I'm not a huge fan of Beyond Meat. While it does feel closer in taste to beef than impossible burgers, I heavily prefer the taste of impossible burgers to beyond. Impossible burgers have a stronger umami taste and tend to add to the experience. Beyond kinda just tastes like lower end beef to me. This means…

I don’t know that $114 over a year would be an amount I would notice/ make me buy a lesser product.

I’ve no issue with removing the subsidy but I’m not sure that changes much either.

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

#195

Post by JasserInicide »

jerojero wrote: 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…

Easily-available meat is Pandora's Box; we're never going to be able to move away from it. It is what it is. People's eating habits are so fucking hard to change. It should be insanely obvious that talking down to people like they're children and saying "your eating habits are bad and you should feel bad" doesn't work, and often backfires. We should focus on trying to bring efficiencies to our current pipelines instead of making these processed monstrosities and trying to shove them down everyone's throats from some imaginary moral high ground.

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

#197

Post by duxup »

bawolff wrote: post #127
bgribble wrote: post #99

I try hard to avoid red meat for reasons but I do like a burger. I tried the Beyond when it was new and I was really impressed. I thought it tasted great and held together as a patty in a way that a lot of "traditional" bean and veg patties fail to do. Unfortunately after I had cooked a bunch of them I realized what the smell of uncooked Beyond reminded me of: wet cat food. Now I can't get that association out of my…

Out of curiosity, are you also ok with how raw hamburger looks, because to me personally that's also super gross. I guess everyone is different though.

IMO ground beef can look bad but it doesn’t have a distinct smell.

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

#198

Post by rgrieselhuber »

mathieuh wrote: post #161
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m vegan, converted about four years ago so I ate meat for decades. I ate impossible burgers for a while after Burger King got them, because there is some nostalgia/novelty in going to a fast food joint. But I’ve realized that this weird food product leaves some kind of odd taste in my stomach, and not just from Burger King. I’m pretty over these fake beef burgers now, and would way rather have a black bean burger o…

I agree with you, and I think it’s the soya protein. I don’t have any problems with pea protein, but the soya protein makes me feel queasy. I think those meat replacements are good for people who have just become vegan as they give you a sense of familiarity, but after a while you realise that it’s possible to eat a delicious vegan diet that doesn’t consist of mega-processed things trying to be meat.

Probably also the pesticides and industrial oils.

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

#199

Post by fbdab103 »

notjulianjaynes wrote: post #179
jjcm wrote: post #136

I'm a meat eater, but am a big fan of fake meats - to the point where I prefer them in some situations. Overall I'm not a huge fan of Beyond Meat. While it does feel closer in taste to beef than impossible burgers, I heavily prefer the taste of impossible burgers to beyond. Impossible burgers have a stronger umami taste and tend to add to the experience. Beyond kinda just tastes like lower end beef to me. This means…

The irony is that there is no reason these plant based alternatives should be priced higher than meat. The raw ingredients are dirt cheap. You can get pound of TVP or soy protein is like $3-4; and certainly less at wholesale prices. It comes dehydrated, so back of the napkin I'd guess the cost for a company producing fake meat products is like $1/lb or less. I paid $8.50 at a gas station for 2.47 oz of "Noble Jerky."…

I would love to have harder numbers on their product. I want to eat less meat and the Impossible Burger feels a totally adequate substitute to me, but the price has greatly limited my conversion.

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

#200

Post by sidibe »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #85
ASalazarMX wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't understand why some entrepreneur saw vegetarian food existing, and decided to make a startup about ultraprocessed vegetarian food. It's as if they thought ideology was more important than health or environmental benefits.

> can't understand why some entrepreneur saw vegetarian food existing, and decided to make a startup about ultraprocessed vegetarian food I'm a fan of real meat. But isn't the environmental impact of Beyond Meat lower than that of meat meat? Sure, a vegetarian meal would be even lower. But that's not the competition. Those folks are already eating vegetarian, or so the thinking goes.

I think the complaint is that in restaurants often they're replacing the veggie option instead of the meat option.
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