Last of three parts
Rina Raphael of FastCompany visited Beyond Meat’s analytical lab in Los Angeles recently and took a tour. Beyond Meet seeks to match the taste of meat with vegetables. Americans increasingly want wellness through food and the majority are willing to pay increased prices.
“Beyond Meat is keenly aware of that. When the brand was readying its sausage variety for market this past Spring, it debated between three different versions, with the team tempted to go with the fattiest–and presumably tastiest–option. Ultimately, the healthier version was crowned the victor.
“Besides health concerns, (founder and chief executive officer Ethan) Brown believes consumers are now factoring how their food choices contribute to the industrial farming system and impact the environment.
“More consumers are beginning to understand the biggest choice they make in terms of impact on the climate is protein,” said Brown. A recent poll found that 43% of consumers are more likely to try plant-based alternatives today than just five years ago.
“It takes an estimated 18,000 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef. (Peas, in comparison, take 740 gallons.) Factor in the time it takes for an animal to grow muscle, and plants seem like a far more efficient supply chain.
“Then there’s the economic argument: Brown is confident that in several years, plant-based alternatives will cost less than meat. A pack of Beyond Meat ranges from just above $5 on Amazon Fresh to $7.49 in grocery stores for two four-ounce patties, which can be nearly double the price of beef per ounce in some markets. Its products will become more affordable as it masters processes and manufacturing, whereas beef and poultry are projected to get more expensive, according to the Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service. (The Manhattan Beach Project is projected to help the company cut production time in half.)
“But Beyond Meat’s messaging doesn’t strive to make you feel guilty about your current diet choices; it’s more about making something so good and so tasty that, as Brown hopes, “they desire it.”
A plentiful plant-based future:
“The Beyond Meat founder’s office is a minimalist, sparsely decorated space with photos of Ethan Brown’s family in one corner, a surfboard hanging in another. One element that caught my eye: The multiple framed press quotes doubting the meatless juggernaut.
“Slightly better tofurkey,” reads one. “Companies like Beyond Meat will never be able to introduce pea protein powder into one end of a machine and extrude a convincing substitute for seared steak or roasted chicken from the other,” reads another.
“Beyond Meat certainly defied market expectations and early naysayers. It no longer competes solely in the meat alternative category. The global meat substitutes market is expected to reach $6.4 Billion by 2023, according to ResearchAndMarkets.com. Even Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is experimenting with vegetarian fried ‘chicken.’
“The company, which has raised $72 Million in funding, has more work to do to overcome the Tofurkey-tainted stigma, Brown said. To that end, an ambitious range of products are in the pipeline, from home-cooked essentials to snack favorites, because is more plant-based poultry, pork, and likely bacon substitutes. The latter is a toughie because it’s hard to get the fat to lie just right.
“Brown is adamant that his R&D team will crack the code of all your barbecue and restaurant favorites, no matter how daunting, including the Holy Grail: The ambition is to go all the way up to steak,” Raphael wrote.
Nutrition-wise: Beyond Burger and Impossible Burger. Both burgers are comparable to a beef patty. The Beyond Burger has 22 grams of total fat and five grams of saturated fat per quarter pound, while the Impossible Burger has 17 grams of total fat, but a whopping 15 grams of saturated fat! That’s a full 72% of your daily allowance. No wonder it tastes so juicy. The Beyond Burger has 20 grams of protein, while the Impossible Burger has 28 grams.
“This high fat content translates to a familiar feeling of burger bloat after you’ve finished eating. I wanted to do nothing more than sit on the couch and faux-meat veg out after eating them, though that feeling was stronger with the Beyond Burger. These kinds of effects are very hard to measure in an objective way, so take all that with a grain of salt.
“The Beyond Burger: Pea protein isolate, expeller-pressed canola oil, refined coconut oil, water, yeast extract, maltodextrin, natural flavors, gum arabic, sunflower oil, salt, succinic acid, acetic acid, non-GMO modified food starch, cellulose from bamboo, methylcellulose, potato starch, beet juice extract (for color), ascorbic acid (to maintain color), annatto extract (for color), citrus fruit extract (to maintain quality), vegetable glycerin.
“The Impossible Burger: water, textured wheat protein, coconut oil, potato protein, natural flavors, 2% or less of: leghemoglobin (heme protein), yeast extract, salt, soy protein isolate, konjac gum, xanthan gum, thiamin (vitamin B1), zinc, niacin, vitamin B6, riboflavin (vitamin B2), vitamin B12.