For most vegans, the 2009 introduction represents a clear demarcation from life before Beyond Burgers, when store-bought veggie burgers tasted like wax, and after, when they became more than just edibles. Exciting, but also delicious enough to share with their fellow diners. .
The Beyond Meat brand has enjoyed quick and early success — with major investors including Bill Gates, high-profile partnerships with outlets from Dunkin’ to KFC, and a first day of trading in 2019 that saw its shares rise 163%. went Plant-based eating, it seemed, was finally going on an unbroken mainstream streak of success.
But that won’t last, at least in part, thanks to a 2019 campaign by the Center for Consumer Freedom, a project of lobbyist Richard Berman, who previously targeted the Humane Society and Mothers Against Drunk Driving. had taken According to the CCF website, the campaign was funded by “restaurants, food companies and thousands of individual consumers”, many of whom remained anonymous.
The campaign used prominent TV spots and full-page ads. The New York Times And The Wall Street Journal Asking, “What’s hiding in your plant-based meat?” Aim to paint plant-based burgers and sausages as less healthy than beef and pork.
And, much to Beyond Meat founder and CEO Ethan Brown’s shock, the campaign seemed to work.
“It was a very difficult period,” explains Brown. good luckrecalling how the accusations clashed with the internal marketing phrase that his company was using as a touchstone at the time: “Here’s to the good.”
“We had a belief system that… was good for the human body,” he says of the Beyond product. “There’s good for the climate, there’s good for the animals. And then, all of a sudden, has it all gone monstrous?” The worst part was that “consumers were starting to believe it,” says Brown, recalling a survey by the Food Industry Association that found more than 50 percent of people believed that plant-based foods would be in demand in 2020. Diet was healthy — but that by 2022, only 38 percent did so. .
“We felt it,” he says. “We realized that, all of a sudden, the dream that you could have a really good burger that was really good for your body and good for the earth started to become really unstable. And it was because of these campaigns.
Plant-based meat alternatives comprise an $8.8 billion market, with Beyond, followed by Impossible in 2011, one of the leaders of this “meatless meat” revolution. And there’s no question that these alternatives are better for the planet, as giving up meat and dairy is the single biggest way consumers can reduce their impact on our planet.
The health benefits of meat analogues have not always been so clear, although various studies have found that a plant-based diet is healthier than a vegetarian diet.
But while processed meats are classified as carcinogens and red meat is classified as a possible carcinogen, the non-meat products had their own problem: They were high in saturated fat, which It can lead to high cholesterol and cardiovascular problems. This was due to the reliance on coconut oil, which is one of only two plant-based sources (along with palm oil) of unhealthy fats.
That’s why Brown decided that, instead of going against the claims of the anti-vegan campaign, he would embark on a new mission: to make vegan products “healthy unapproachable.”
How Beyond Began
Reformulating Beyond’s products was just the next, necessary step in the process for Brown, a D.C. native who became an on-and-off vegetarian through high school and college after spending time on a family farm in Maryland. Seeing that some animals, like pets, were loved, and others were slaughtered, he recalls, “was a problem for me as a child.”
Brown became a complete vegetarian in his 20s, giving up leather and “trying to be a more consistent, coherent person.” He did his MBA at Columbia. He became a clean energy analyst—but after hearing an expert, his environmental studies professor father run through a lecture series in the family’s basement, about how cattle change the climate. Those who do are driving huge emissions.
“As a young professional in alternative energy, it dawned on me that I wasn’t really focusing on the most powerful thing I could be focusing on,” Brown recalls. .
He set his sights on finding a way to improve the veggie burger, eventually working with scientists at the University of Missouri on the soybean transformation technology that created his chicken-like strips. This would lead to the creation of Beyond Burgers, based on pea protein, with their famous, meaty mouthfeel.
They landed at Whole Foods, where sales took off, sending them to a 10-year high—something Brown can be proud of in front of her two kids (now in college and largely vegan). “There was definitely part of the motivation around going beyond meat. Very early on, when they were very young, I remember taking them to places to eat and thinking, ‘This is not going to change. This is exactly what it is. It’s a bad choice that I faced.”
But then came the aggressive takedown campaign.
While others dug in their heels—Impossible responded that “Impossible burgers contain none of the toxic slaughterhouse contaminants that can be found in almost all ground beef,” such as Brown, who admits That he was stunned by its speed and effectiveness. campaign, knew it had to completely change the game once again.
“We took a different approach,” he explains. “We looked inward and asked, ‘How do we make this product unassailable from a health standpoint? It’s unassailable from an environmental standpoint, so we wanted to make the same unassailable argument from a health standpoint.
Enter beyond the IV: Simple ingredients, low in unhealthy fats
Brown met with leading nutritionists, doctors, and university researchers, tested the ingredients and formulated a healthy fix. Nutritionist Joy Bauer was brought in as a consultant.
“It ultimately came down to reformulating the protein content, reducing the number of ingredients, and then changing the oil and adding avocado oil,” he says of the fourth-generation Beyond Burgers, which offer 21 grams of protein per serving. (from peas, brown rice, red lentils, and fava beans), only 2 grams of saturated fat (75% less than the previous formulation), and 20% less sodium than the previous version. (Protein was the source of another blow recently, as the company was named in several class-action lawsuits over alleged content exaggeration; it has denied all allegations and faces further litigation. 7.5 million dollars to avoid costs,” the spokesperson said.)
Now Beyond has introduced Sun Sausage, which aims to “become your delicious, satisfying protein option,” rather than a replica of a meat product.
All new products have received various health seals of approval from the American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, Good Housekeeping, and the Clean Label Project. And the changes may be having an impact: The company recently returned to growth, with net income up 7.6% year-over-year to $81 million, according to third-quarter financial results.
Now Brown is calling on other fake meat brands to try the same approach to present a strong, united front.
“If we’ve tried to clean everything up and just be inaccessible and the rest of the category isn’t doing that, it becomes difficult,” he says. “So we’re encouraging everybody to, like, shine a light on your process. Shine a light on your ingredients and make whatever changes you need to make.”
Brown has long argued that part of what is needed to help plant-based food producers in America is to shift government subsidies away from those who heavily favor meat and dairy producers ( (which receives $38 billion annually from the federal government). But without it, he is relying on consumers.
“I think it’s always been about us and the consumer. I think the government has played a poor role in people’s nutrition,” he says. “I mean, you go to the supermarket and it’s basically an attack on your health. So I don’t think we can wait for the government to do things that will push this forward.
Looking ahead, Brown is confident about Prey’s new product’s message of “clean and elegant execution,” he says. In this, fava beans are chopped, ground into flour, and placed in an air chamber to separate the starch and protein. The protein is then heated and cooled to form the texture and mixed with oil, natural flavor and natural color from pomegranate and beetroot.
“It’s the whole process. It is,” he says. “Consider what a pig goes through to become a piece of meat — plus the mill, the diseases… Our process is clean and beautiful. The other process is full of horrible things, and yet we are the ones who On their heels, fighting.
More on nutrition:
