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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

#121

Post by silisili »

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.

Agreed. The first time I had an Impossible burger, I didn't know what it was. I thought it was just the weird name the hotel bar in SF I was at gave its burgers. Loved it, they made a great burger. I had no idea it was nonmeat until weeks later when I learned what Impossible was.

Now, if I'd known to look out for it, I'm sure I could have picked and found out. But since I wasn't looking for a difference, I didn't notice one. And that's coming from someone who eats a ton of (real) burgers.

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

#122

Post by nappy-doo »

pessimizer wrote: post #98
shalmanese wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the impact of subsidies is always heavily exaggerated by those who want to promote an agenda, as evidenced by the relatively small differences in prices between countries that subsidize and don't subsidize various things. $38B is only $100 per person. Even if it all went towards ground meat, it could only subsidize 4 lbs at a $30 -> $5 cost reduction.

> the relatively small differences in prices between countries that subsidize and don't subsidize various things. Through no-tariff trade agreements, countries like the US who massively subsidize dump on countries that don't.

That would just make the 100$pp figure smaller.

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

#123

Post by jeltz »

tjpnz wrote: post #48
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.…

>One extremely frustrating aspect of plant meat is that they tried to aggressively push out traditional veggie burgers on restaurant menus. This upsets me because as a vegetarian the last thing I want is to be reminded of what meat tastes like. Who exactly is this for? Because the last I heard it was being marketed primarily at meat eaters.

Ethical vegans? I have a vegan friend who loves the taste of meat, but does not eat meat entirely due to ethical reasons.

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

#124

Post by Flipflip79 »

jsemrau wrote: post #104
georgefrick wrote: post #13

"Its stock has slumped nearly 83 percent in the past year. Sales, which the company had expected to rise as much as 33 percent this year, are now likely to show only minor growth." So they still showed growth, the stock just crashed; and the others in the segment who don't have to report numbers are doing better. Just sounds like a discounted stock to me.

Is there really a market for that product? I tried their burger patty and couldn't finish. Might be personal taste, but it just didn't work for me. https://app.finclout.io/t/kRPQyAo

It’s not “might”. It literally is personal taste.

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

#125

Post by loeg »

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.

Yeah, price is the problem. If it costs more than ground beef, what's the point?

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

#126

Post by a2tech »

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.…

I much prefer a good black bean patty to a Beyond/Incredible patty. They smell like cat food and never sit right in my stomach.

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

#127

Post by bawolff »

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.

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

#128

Post by [deleted] »

notfromhere wrote: post #84
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…

Its even less complex than this: its more expensive than its meat or vegetable equivalent, so you're either eating meat or you're eating vegetables and there's no point to sub in plant-based meat. If you're doing it for cost reasons you'll eat cheaper meat or vegetarian, or if you're doing it ideologically you're eating vegetarian.

[deleted]

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

#129

Post by an_aparallel »

im confused by eating food like this, sure ethics are important, as is sustainability, but within the ingredients list of something like BM is pretty horrible:

Tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), Red #3/erythrosine, Sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP), Propylene Glycol....

not in my lunch/dinner thanks.

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

#130

Post by frakkingcylons »

Gare wrote: post #120
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…

Why is wet cat food smell revolting to you? It's meat, after all.

Personally I don’t eat cat food. Most of the meat I prepare smells completely different.
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