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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

#221

Post by steve_adams_86 »

dagmx wrote: post #203
dqv wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might have a touch of legume allergy (if only have a touch is possible). Beyond has pea protein and Impossible has soy protein. What's in your veggie patties?

Hmm not to say that’s not it (because people vary) but my wife and I both get this feeling with these Beyond/Impossible meats but we otherwise eat a lot of legumes which don’t give us that feeling

I think they both contain methylcellulose, which is considered benign but not digestible. In my experience it doesn’t cause major discomfort, but a mildly off putting sensation in my GI tract for a few hours. It might be something else, but it seems likely after narrowing things down for a while.

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

#222

Post by layman51 »

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 have no idea what goes into making these plant-based meats, but I vaguely remember that for Impossible Foods specifically, that they had to do a lot of experimentation and genetic engineering of a yeast to make their product. I think that's part of the reason why they have to charge so much.

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

#223

Post by plaguepilled »

efitz wrote: post #215

If 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.

For some people, meat tastes good, but they want to reduce meat intake or remove it from their diet for health or environmental reasons. The status of 'be a vegetarian' is irrelevant to the material effect.

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

#224

Post by kristopolous »

efitz wrote: post #215

If 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.

The play was to be well positioned when the big meat brands (think McDonald's) eventually make the switch which they theorized will have to happen both because of climate change and because they'll have a cheaper, less resource intense substitute.

It's really the same play as any technology, the first generation jumps the gun and strikes too early given their ambitions.

But someone's gotta be the Yahoo! It's a necessary step in the path.

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

#225

Post by primitivesuave »

In India, which has the world's largest vegetarian population, there seems to still be a rapid expansion of fast-food burger restaurants taking place (e.g. https://www.burgersinghonline.com/menu). They cater to this large demographic with low-cost burgers where the meat patty is replaced with a range of existing Indian foods (deep fried cottage cheese, potatoes with mixed vegetables and spices, etc).

A single Beyond Meat patty at the U.S. supermarket price is equivalent to the Indian rupee price of ~4 full vegetarian burgers at Burger Singh (the Indian BK).

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

#226

Post by gtowey »

gwbas1c wrote: 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.…

What's your favorite veggie burger patty recipe?

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

#227

Post by stickfigure »

noobermin wrote: post #96
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…

I guess I don't exist then. I want to eat less meat not because of mumbo jumbo health stuff but because the meat industry is just cruel to animals. I wish I had the fortitude to eat no meat, but my hope is fake meat will get to the point where I don't miss real meat anymore, so I support it. And sorry, impossible burger tastes better than most vegan varieties, which aren't really just "vegan" by the strict definition…

Have you considered buying whole or fractional beef? In most places it's not hard to find small farms that will sell you a quarter, half, or whole steer that was raised in open pasture. You'll need a chest freezer, but it doesn't cost much more than supermarket beef.

If you don't know where to start, look for 4H programs. You could literally buy and eat some kid's loved school project. No cruelty required.

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

#228

Post by ajb92 »

noobermin wrote: post #93

Just a minor note, beyond burger was always subpar compared to impossible meat, which according to the article, is doing well.

Makes sense to me. I'm a now 7 year vegetarian and I've tried somewhere between most and all of the meatless options I've encountered in restaurants and at grocery stores. I eat probably 15-20 meals a week based around meatless burgers, bacon, chicken, steak, sausage, etc.

In that time (well, 2020-present) we've gone from having Beyond burgers constantly in the fridge + inclusion in a meal every few days, and seeking out restaurants that have them, to completely avoiding them. I cannot tell if the flavor has actually changed or my family has become too accustomed to alternatives-- Impossible is king to us and I'll happily take Gardein or even Boca options over Beyond now, althought I'll happily take a Beyond patty over the average black bean burger, my original standard, back before the Brave New Meatless Times (black beans feature heavily in my diet still, but not on bread :).

It's worth noting their sausage- and chicken-type products are really quite excellent. But the standard bearer, the burger patty, doesn't compete these days, IMO.

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

#229

Post by esparrohack »

sokoloff wrote: post #87
freitasm wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is BM (and others) aren't trying to create vega/vegetarian meat. They are trying to make meat in a sustainable way, so it has to taste more like beef/pork than chickpeas or tofu if they want to get the main market. They are still not there.

As a pretty hardcore meat-lover (we had sous-vide filets tonight at home), I think Impossible is close enough on the taste and feel side for a lot of dishes that use beef (including hamburgers). They're comically far off on the price side, but if they could get price-competitive with bulk 80% ground beef, they would capture a large amount of that market, I think.

There’s levels to the hamburgers.

That’s the issue here, veggie folks think meat tastes gross and everyone who eats it is evil and carnivores think vegetables taste gross and vegans are just NPC henchmen for the Illuminati

Hilarity ensues. Thus, beyond burger.

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

#230

Post by steve_adams_86 »

philliphaydon wrote: post #207
gwbas1c wrote: 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.…

> The thing is, vegetarian food is incredible without needing to taste like meat. When I've had these products, I've always walked away feeling like they taste inferior to traditional vegetarian burgers / sausages that don't try to taste like meat. I love meat, and the best non-meat burgers I've eaten that I would absolute eat again and again, didn't try to be non-meat. They were just really tasty vegetable burgers.

Me too (regarding the best veggie burgers) — the best I’ve had were nothing like meat burgers, but were awesome nonetheless.

One is in a cookbook called “the vegan Korean”, and it’s a legitimately memorable food experience. I’d much rather find that at a restaurant than some kind of run-of-the-mill faux meat burger.

https://thekoreanvegan.com/best-ever-black-bean-burger-with-...

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