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

nytimes.com

321–330 of 1001 posts

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

#321
post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a bit old, but it thoroughly examines why the livestock industry is not sustainable. https://www.fao.org/3/a0701e/a0701e00.htm

I think it’s fair to say that an industry that’s lasted ten thousand years[1] is sustainable. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle

Are you a climate change denier? Are you unaware of the changes that have happened in the last ten thousand years?

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

#323
post #297
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting I've experienced this too though interestingly it is way more noticeable for me with beyond than impossible. I get a weird after taste for hours and my stomach feels off. Not bad enough to never eat again but noticeable enough that I tend to avoid beyond in particular now. Some people have suggested it is so close to meat that your stomach just isn't used to it but I'm pescatarian and eat fish fairly regu…

It's the pea protein. The aftertaste is horrible. They've started putting it in vegan ice cream. .. Why?

It’s cheap and people who avoid soy might buy pea instead. Almond protein might work better for ice cream from a taste perspective, but that’s super expensive. We have a great almond & coconut based ice cream in our region but it costs 2x as much as the milk based one.

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

#324
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. You are not the target group for these products! The whole point of these products is to replace meat for habitual meat eaters. If the companies can get their products to taste about the same as meat, and have about the same nutritional value, while being cheaper , we can eliminate enormous amounts of habitual meat consumption. That's t…

Which is why OP complains about "One extremely frustrating aspect of plant meat is that they tried to aggressively push out traditional veggie burgers on restaurant menus".

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

#325
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like I don't think Beyond could fool a meat eater for a second Eaten 'naked', no. Cover it with cheese, bacon, bbq sauce, onions, tomatoes etc. and I think it can easily compare to a Burger King pr McDonald Burger.

Covered with all that and you could probably serve it with no patty at all and half wouldn’t notice.

People would notice. There needs to be meat in there so customers can worry about food poisoning and complain that it isn't cooked exactly the right amount, regardless of how it is cooked. It is part of the burger tradition.

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

#326
post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Cellulose? This is the modern equivalent of adding sawdust.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulose

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

#327
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.…

My wife is a vegetarian, we have the same complaints about restaurants.

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

#328

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.

> They are trying to make meat in a sustainable way I mean, isn’t meat sustainable? As it’s renewable. Factory farming isn’t sustainable, but there’s plenty of pasture raised organic beef ranchers who grow meat in a sustainable way. If the goal is sustainability, then there are other ways that are likely healthier. I thought the benefit was for ethical vegetarians who like the taste of beef but don’t want to harm ani…

The water usage requirements and methane emissions present challenges to sustainability.

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

#329
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’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'm not vegan or vegetarian, but I like certain black bean and garden burgers. I don't eat them with a bun though, I cook them and then top with a little cheese.
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