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Beyond Meat fights for survival

foodinstitute.com

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Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#131

Post by intothemild »

mawadev wrote: post #127

Over here, beyond meat is simply more expensive than just buying meat. On top of that, it feels like you eat pure ultra processed product magic chemistry and thats not good. So who exactly is the target audience for that? I'd totally buy it, if it competes with meat prices by being cheaper and if there wasn't so much effort into trying to look like meat and taste like meat, which goes against the entire premise.

My vegetarian wife won't touch the stuff, or any meat substitute. It's too much like meat.

I always believed these things are like nicotine patches/chewables/etc.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#132

Post by cloudbonsai »

So the biggest problem here is that Beyond Meat has a huge debt due in just 2 years:

    That’s a problem given that $1 billion in convertible bonds come due in March 2027. Beyond Meat has no way to repay that debt, and the credit markets know it: The bonds currently trade at about 17 cents on the dollar.
To put the "$1B" number into the context, Beyond Meat sold $300M worth of plant-based meats last year, and made a net operating loss of $156M. Their total assets are $600M, and the market capitalization is only $260M as of today.

If they could magically become profitable at 10% profit margin, it would take 20+ years to repay the debt. It's hopeless.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#133

Post by jurip »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #118
gonzalohm wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What have you substituted cheese with? It's one of my favorite foods but no substitute has come close to it

> It's one of my favorite foods but no substitute has come close to it Why do you want to? Lactovegetarianism is far more precedented than veganism.

Cheese uses lots and lots of milk. There are questions of ethics (the treatment of dairy cows is often less than stellar) and carbon footprint (cheese is worse than pork, for example.)

I'd really love to see some good alternatives, too. I don't really expect to give up all cheese anytime soon, but having a substitute for at least some of it would be helpful.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#134

Post by adammarples »

t0mas88 wrote: post #128
dmazin wrote: post #68

It’s interesting that alternative meat consumption in the U.S. is struggling but taking off in Europe. One thing I noticed after moving to the UK: alternative milk is normalized here. Like, it’s so common to avoid milk that if you order coffee without specifying, you will be asked what kind of milk you want.

It's not all of the UK, you get asked in London, not in the countryside. Same in the Netherlands, you get asked in Amsterdam but not much outside. I guess San Francisco also has much more oatmilk latte's than rural villages

I don't know I've been in Bristol and Cornwall last week and was always asked. I guess you can extend that to anywhere they might reasonably expect a Londoner to turn up.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#136

Post by onli »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #119
mdaniel wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their newest release uses avocado oil, fwiw: https://www.beyondmeat.com/en-US/products/beyond-beef/ground...

Is anyone really pretending these are healthier than a grass-fed beef patty? Or cooked vegetables? The health pitch on these products has always struck me as incredibly weird.

Yes. Meat consumption is not exactly healthy. It's absolutely plausible that replacing it with something like this is a net plus.

That "grass-fed beef" is like a healthy standout is an unsubstantiated myth.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#137

Post by Marciplan »

t0mas88 wrote: post #128
dmazin wrote: post #68

It’s interesting that alternative meat consumption in the U.S. is struggling but taking off in Europe. One thing I noticed after moving to the UK: alternative milk is normalized here. Like, it’s so common to avoid milk that if you order coffee without specifying, you will be asked what kind of milk you want.

It's not all of the UK, you get asked in London, not in the countryside. Same in the Netherlands, you get asked in Amsterdam but not much outside. I guess San Francisco also has much more oatmilk latte's than rural villages

It’s very normalized in any of the medium to large cities in the Netherlands.

(take “medium to large” with a grain of salt given that means population of 100k)

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#138

Post by raphman »

makingstuffs wrote: post #129

The problem with Beyond Meat is that it is insanely expensive. I could buy a free range, organic and grass fed beef burger for the price of their ultra processed burger. Don’t get me wrong, as a vegetarian, I think they taste nice. They are just too damn expensive and not particularly healthy which goes against why I am a vegetarian. In Europe we have so many alternatives that are insanely cheaper and, as an Indian,…

> before wrapping in some cling film and pressing it into a patty

Why do you wrap it? Couldn't you also form the burger patty without the cling film?

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#139

Post by thegeekpirate »

beej71 wrote: post #20

Last I looked, there was an awful lot of saturated fat in their burgers. I tended to order something other than a veggie burger when their was the only one on the menu.

USDA 80/20 ground beef has 7.7g per 113g [0], 90/10 has 5g [1], Beyond Meat has 2g [2], and Impossible has 6g [3].

Impossible also has a "Lite" version (which doesn't seem to exist near me) with 1g [4], although apparently it doesn't taste very good.

[0] https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/2514744/nutrients

[1] https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/2514743/nutrients

[2] https://www.beyondmeat.com/en-CA/products/the-beyond-burger/...

[3] https://faq.impossiblefoods.com/hc/en-us/articles/3600189392...

[4] https://impossiblefoods.com/beef/plant-based-impossible-beef...

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#140

Post by whoknowsidont »

raphman wrote: post #138
makingstuffs wrote: post #129

The problem with Beyond Meat is that it is insanely expensive. I could buy a free range, organic and grass fed beef burger for the price of their ultra processed burger. Don’t get me wrong, as a vegetarian, I think they taste nice. They are just too damn expensive and not particularly healthy which goes against why I am a vegetarian. In Europe we have so many alternatives that are insanely cheaper and, as an Indian,…

> before wrapping in some cling film and pressing it into a patty Why do you wrap it? Couldn't you also form the burger patty without the cling film?

Pretty common thing to do to help limit cleanup and help shape the patties (regardless of what they're made of).
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