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Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries
211–220 of 1001 posts
Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries
#212I'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."…
These companies are losing a lot of money. That the raw ingredients are cheap doesn’t matter much if the cost and complexity of processing is high.
Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Vegetables " are not cheaper than meat. Grains are cheaper than meat. Most vegetables are very expensive per calorie compared to meat. Chickens in particular are very efficient at turning feed corn into usable protein. 3000 calories of fully cooked chicken costs $5 at costco.
Just add olive oil to any food you want more energy in. As long as the base food meets the nutritional needs, adding oil is a pretty good strategy.
A lot of fat plus carbs with little protein? That's the exact opposite of what I'm going for when I eat a chicken breast.
Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries
#214I 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.…
FWIW, to each their own, but I have the complete opposite experience and opinion: 1. First off, the vast majority of restaurants that I've been to that offer Impossible or Beyond Burgers still offer at least one traditional veggie burger. In fact I don't know if I've ever seen a restaurant that will only offer a faux meat burger but not offer a veggie burger. 2. I love a good Impossible Burger, fundamentally because…
Complete opposite experience on both counts, anecdotally. I've been vegetarian for years, and the texture of meat (and substitutes) creeps me out. My town has like 10 restaurants that dropped their veggie burgers for beyond/impossible.
Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries
#215If you’re vegetarian, why do you want the uncanny valley version of meat? Be a vegetarian.
I have always thought that the target market for Beyond/Incredible/etc was not vegetarians, but rather partners of vegetarians. They don’t really want to give up meat but they want to support their partner and/or avoid conflict.
Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries
#216Basically we are talking about TV dinners and fast food. Meat is cheaper and better in this realm than the expensive and highly processed vegetarian stuff.
I'm fine with either but I don't eat much fast food or TV dinners.
For homemade the processed fake meat is more expensive and harder to work with than just grilling some steaks.
Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries
#217Earlier 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 see you are being downvoted, but I know exactly what you mean. When I eat Impossible and especially Beyond burgers, my stomach feels slightly off. A bit of indigestion. I don't get this with typical veggie patties.
I’m not positive but I have a feeling it’s the methylcellulose. In my own home experimentation, none of the ingredients seem to cause issues except for that.
It seems fairly benign, but it can’t be digested and it isn’t clear to me if we have gut flora which can break it down efficiently.
I enjoy throwing together little experiments in a similar vein to beyond meat or impossible burger products, but it feels too much like a lab experiment to eat regularly. My kids like “meat balls” with spaghetti, so I tend to make that and otherwise I’m gravitating back towards whole food-based garden burgers.
A weird thing about beyond/impossible is that while they appear moderately healthier than real meat from some perspectives… They are still pretty trashy. I can’t not feel like I’m making a bad choice, even if it’s home made, and at the end of the day I just want to feel good (mentally and physically) about my food.
Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries
#218Beyond Meat is a lot worse than Impossible Burger. They're losing to someone in their same vertical who has a superior product.
Unless you are a strict vegan, in which case, you can't eat Impossible Burgers. [0]
[0]: https://oopsvegan.com/en/blog/is-the-impossible-burger-vegan
Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries
#219When you push “meat” made of soy, not not helping the narrative. Vegetarians are “pussies” to begin with and you pile on that stereotype with “soy boy”. It doesn’t stand a chance.
Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries
#220Earlier 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.
Would that be the same thing I’d find in tofu? Because tofu doesn’t upset my stomach at all.