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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

#941

Post by mywittyname »

musicale wrote: post #910
WhackyIdeas wrote: post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% in agreement. It’s not even in the fast food places I struggle to find a plain bean burger now… it’s the supermarkets too. The odd peculiar taste of these kinds of new plant based burgers can be pretty foul. For me and my partner, the Burger King veggie burger now tastes similar to dish soap. Bring back the delicious bean burgers and actual normal veggie burgers.

> the Burger King veggie burger now tastes similar to dish soap. That's interesting - is it a genetic thing like cilantro?

It might be, but it's not that particular genetic marker. I have it (confirmed by testing) and, while I hate Impossible Burgers, they definitely don't taste like soap to me. More like a bean that's developed a "funk". And not like tasty cheese funk, more like meat that's gone off funk.

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

#942

Post by joshspankit »

yreg wrote: post #630
friend_and_foe wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the target market for these products is people that want to eat real meat and actively seek it out? And they're catering to them by... replacing existing vegetarian options? They must not have read your comment. Sounds like a bad market fit. The number of people who eat meat and don't care if their meat is made of meat has got to be in the 7 figure range worldwide. The number of people that don't eat meat and want…

There are three kinds of products for three groups of customers. - People who don't like the taste of meat -> traditional veggie patties - People who like the taste of meat but are open to eating less of it -> beyond meat, etc. - People who like the taste of meat and want to eat meat -> meat I myself fall into the second group.

I don’t know if anyone should even be targeting the second group.

I don’t think a significant number of people who “start” with beyond meat are going to end up vegetarians.

In fact I think it’s more likely that they go back to eating meat the same amount once they’re done with the substitutes. And maybe if they’re as (rigid? closed-off?) as we’re implying (since they are not already actively eating less meat), they might even walk away with the mindset of “vegetarian food is not as good as meat” and therefore in future avoid the wide variety of delicious vegetarian food.

If people truly want to eat less meat, just throw in some of the most delicious off-the-shelf replacements (like veggie patties) once a week or once a month. The water’s fine, as they say.

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

#943

Post by mywittyname »

ajmurmann wrote: post #915
nixpulvis wrote: post #622

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry. I really tried to just lurk this thread, but. What in the flying fuck is "cyber chicken". I'm assuming this is a joke, right!?

Sorry, I prefix plant-based/meat-substitute products with "cyber" instead of one of the more boring options because it makes me giggle. I shouldn't have used it with people not familiar with my in-joke.

FWIW, I knew what you meant and got a cluckle from it.

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

#944

Post by lock-the-spock »

mrguyorama wrote: post #887
kodah wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My partner is a vegetarian and she doesn't eat the fake-meat patties, however, she does get these: https://www.morningstarfarms.com/en_US/products/chikn/mornin... They're really good with no awful side effects or tastes. I like some vegetarian options, but honestly, most of it either tastes nasty or has poor texture.

My girlfriend dislikes some meats and seems to want to be a low-meat household, she loves morningstar nuggets of most kinds. Another good one is Quorn. They are a cultured fungus protein and it just makes a much more meaty tasting and feeling product, and you could easily forget it's not chicken. Big problem though is the required level of processing to take a vague protein slurry and turn it into a glued together nu…

Quorn is a fermented slime mold, the fungi label is a marketing trick.

This said, I used to like Quorn before they started stuffing egg (mostly eggwhite) into everything. The real slime mold is great, but where I live it's near impossible to get Quorn products without the egg. They taste as bad as impossible/beyond with their clearly chemical taste.

Going beyond this, mosr vegetarians/vegans find over time that it is much cheaper and actually nicer to go simple, not with the replacements. tofu, seitan or simply vegetable dishes without any of these things. E.g. in a well flavoured bolognese/ragout no one can taste a difference between meat, fake meat or simple hard tofu (mouth feel/texture are clearly different though). And anyone should really try making seitan, it's super fun and easy - basically you just wash a bag of flour repeatedly with warm water.

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

#945

Post by lock-the-spock »

dqv wrote: post #143
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. 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." Veggie burgers are in a weird position because it's hit or miss on whether they are made with eggs. So it a…

It's very sad that so much veggie food is now with egg. A horrible rancid flavour that meat eaters and veggies alike don't like. But it's cheap and heavily subsidised so goes into everything as a filler.

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

#946

Post by lock-the-spock »

jitl wrote: post #65
tjpnz wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

I’m a meat eater and I would love to find a faux ground beef or faux ground pork that I can use in the kitchen exactly the way I use beef/pork in my recipes. I would prefer such a food if it was similarly priced to animal, but more sustainable, because I would rather be vegetarian but not to the degree that I need to give up my favorite recipes. I need it to provide essential umami, salt, fat, flavor. Often vegetaria…

Everything is of course flavour preference but I found that liquid smoke is a great add-on that makes much veggie food taste good to meat eaters; it takes care of the smokey/charred flavour that you get using ham or frying your meat before you add other things.

And for umami tomato (fresh/canned & condensed) works wonders.

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

#947

Post by mike_d »

SpaghettiX wrote: post #508
mike_d wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which would be very compelling if your body only needed calories to survive. Meat is the most efficient way to deliver proteins and essential amino acids. You should also dig into the concept of bioavailability.

Your comment is obviously (to me) someone who hasn't explored any other diet except meat eating (feel free to dispute). There are many people thriving on a vegan diet.

I was vegetarian for six years. But my personal diet has nothing to do with debunking the myth that humans are not omnivores by necessity.

There are plenty of studies showing large populations of vegetarians suffering vitamin deficiencies, so thriving is quite a stretch. Here is one example: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29446340/

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

#949

Post by martin82 »

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 animals eat the vegetables because they evolved to eat the vegetables.

Humans did not.

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

#950

Post by braingenious »

dragonwriter wrote: post #844
Loughla wrote: post #842

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pickles, lettuce, tomato, a whole fried egg. All of these are options that don't include sugar. There are options outside of ketchup (corn syrup) and mayo (probably corn syrup). Except the pickles. I bet those have sugar. But I'll fight anyone who eats hamburgers without pickles.

> Pickles, lettuce, tomato, a whole fried egg. All of these are options that don't include sugar. All of those except for the egg have sugars as a major source of calories, they just aren't, except for the egg, particularly calorie dense.

How much sugar is in lettuce?
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