Beyond Meat

Beyond Meat
Founded Los Angeles, CA
Founder Ethan Brown
Website www.beyondmeat.com

Beyond Meat is a Los Angeles-based producer of plant-based meat substitutes. Beyond Meat's Products became available nationwide at Whole Foods Markets in 2013.[1][2][3]

Beyond Meat was founded by CEO Ethan Brown in 2009.[4] The company has received venture funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Obvious Corporation, Bill Gates, Biz Stone, and the Humane Society.[5][6]

Origins

CEO Ethan Brown founded Beyond Meat, formerly Savage River Inc., in 2009 to produce plant-based products that replicated meat and to attempt to eliminate "some of the downsides" of the meat industry in the process.[1][4][7][8] The inspiration for Beyond Meat began for Brown in "chicken country," where as a young boy he spent weekends on his family farm near the Pennsylvania border in rural Maryland.[9]

Brown initially contacted two University of Missouri professors, Fu-hung Hsieh and Harold Huff, who had already been refining their meatless protein for years.[10] The duo spent nearly a decade in the University lab working different temperatures and pressures to get their mixture of soybean and pea proteins "as close to the look and feel of real chicken as possible".[10] It took them another five years to come up with a recipe for Beyond Meat's first product, "Chicken-Free Strips," which the company released to limited locations in 2012.[11][12]

Brown has stated that his long-term goal is to offer a product that can satisfy the world's growing demand for meat, especially in markets like India and China.[2][12]

History

Ethan Brown founded Beyond Meat in 2009 as a potential solution to problems he saw with the meat industry.[13]

Beyond Meat first released its Chicken-Free Strips exclusively to Whole Foods Markets in Northern California in 2012.[12] Soon after, the company began building a larger production facility with plans of adding meat-free ground beef and pork products to their repertoire.[9]

Fast Company listed Beyond Meat as one of the most innovative companies in 2014, and PETA named Beyond Meat as its company of the year for 2013.[7][14]

Beyond Meat goes nationwide

The company began selling its chicken-free products in Whole Foods Stores nationally in April 2013.[4][5][12][15]

Atlanta-based Tropical Smoothie Café started carrying Beyond Meat products in May 2013 as a vegan-friendly substitute for items with chicken on the menu.[4][16][17]

Obvious Corporation, Bill Gates, and other investors

Obvious Corporation, which was founded by Twitter co-founders Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Jason Goldman, began backing Beyond Meat in June, 2013.[6][12][18][18]

Bill Gates also became an investor in Beyond Meat in 2013 after he sampled the product and said he "couldn't tell the difference between Beyond Meat and real chicken".[2][4]

The same year, Kleiner Perkins, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm, made Beyond Meat its first investment in a food startup.[4][18] The company also has backing from the Humane Society.[14]

Founder Ethan Brown

Beyond Meat founder Ethan grew up on his father's dairy farm in western Maryland, an experience that made him concerned about the welfare of the animals he cared for. When he eventually became a vegan, his frustration over the limited availability of meat-free options inspired him to learn more about the industry, and eventually start his own company.[9] After acquiring a master's degree in public policy and an MBA from Columbia University, he spent his young career working at Ballard Power Systems (BLDP), a fuel-cell company. While studying clean energy, Brown became acquainted with the contribution of livestock to resource depletion and climate change, and as a result shifted his focus from energy to food.[4][13][19]

A 2013 Fortune article noted Brown's support of animal welfare groups such as Farm Sanctuary.[4]

Products

Beyond Meat develops and manufactures a variety of plant protein-based food products. The vegetarian meat substitutes are made from mixtures of soy protein, pea protein isolates, yeast, and other ingredients.[15][20] As of 2014, the company's product offerings consisted of Beyond Chicken and Beyond Beef.[2][8][15][21] A vegan and soy-free burger patty, called the The Beast, was released in 2015. Beyond Meat products are available for purchase in packaged form as well as in retail-prepared dishes.[2][8][15][18]

Beyond Chicken

Beyond Meat's Chicken-Free products, marketed as Beyond Chicken, are made from a mixture of soy and pea proteins, fiber, and other ingredients and are marketed as a healthy alternative to chicken meat.[4][18] Ingredients are mixed and fed into a food extrusion machine which cooks the mixture while forcing it through a specially designed mechanism that uses steam, pressure, and cold water to form the product's chicken-like texture.[15] After being processed in the extrusion machine, the product is cut to size, seasoned, and grilled before being packaged.[10] Each batch of chicken takes approximately 90 minutes to produce.[10]

The analog chicken is available as lightly seasoned strips, grilled strips, and southwest style strips.[15]

Beyond Beef

The company's two flavors of Beyond Beef imitation ground beef product, Beefy and Feisty, are made from pea proteins, canola oil, and various seasonings.[18][22] The soy and gluten-free pea protein mixture initially resembles a paste before being heated and processed by an extrusion machine.[12]

The beefy crumbles possess the same protein content per 55 gram serving as traditional ground beef.[4][20]

The Beast

Beyond Meat announced in 2014 that it had begun development and testing of a new product called The Beast. The vegetable protein-based burger patties were taste tested by The New York Mets during a pre-game event.[21][23][24][25]

The Beast Burger was officially released in February 2015 and is available at Whole Foods markets.[26] Burger ingredients include powdered pea protein, water, sunflower oil, and various nutrients and natural flavors. A twin-screw extruder mixes, cooks, and pressurizes the ingredients. After leaving the extruder, the product is shaped into patties and then packaged for retail food sales.[27][28]

The burgers are vegan, soy-free, and contain 23 grams of protein in addition to antioxidants, iron, calcium, Vitamins B6, B12 & D, Potassium, DHA Omega-3s and ALA Omega-3s all of which may assist in muscle recovery.[29][30][30][31]

Production

The Beyond Meat factory is located in Columbia, Missouri.[1] The facility is capable of producing approximately seven million pounds (three million kilograms) of chicken substitute in one year.[8]

Reception

Beyond Meat products have received favorable reviews. Mark Bittman, a food journalist with The New York Times, wrote that "you won't know the difference between that [Beyond Meat] and chicken. I didn't, at least, and this is the kind of thing I do for a living."[32] Bill Gates wrote on his personal blog that, "I couldn't tell the difference between Beyond Meat and real chicken".[1] In 2013, chef and television personality Alton Brown wrote about Beyond Meat's Beyond Chicken that, "it's more like meat than anything I've ever seen that wasn't meat".[15]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Tom Foster (2013-11-18). "Can Artificial Meat Save the World". Popular Science. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Flanagan, Graham (7 July 2014). "This Fake Meat Is So Good It Fooled Whole Foods Customers For 3 Days". Business Insider. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  3. ↑ Julie Strickland (05/07/2013). "Fake Meat for the Masses?". Inc. Retrieved 7 July 2014. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Marc Gunther (Oct 3, 2013). "Beyond Meat closes in on the perfect fake chicken, turns heads, tastebuds". Fortune. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  5. 1 2 Katie Fehrenbacher (May 7, 2013). "Beyond Meat CEO: One day eating meat will have no connection to animals". Gigaom. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  6. 1 2 Darrell Etherington (May 7, 2013). "We’re 80% of the way to fake meat that’s indistinguishable from the real thing". TechCrunch. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  7. 1 2 Lulu Chang (Feb 7, 2014). "Meet the man behind "Beyond Meat" plant-based protein substitute". cbsnews. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Jacob Barker (Aug 7, 2012). "Chicken substitute to be made in Columbia". Columbia Tribune. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  9. 1 2 3 Yuki Noguchi (May 17, 2012). "Betting Better Fake Chicken Meat Will Be As Good As The Real Thing". NPR. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Meredith Kile (Jan 15, 2014). "Need to Know: Tastes like chicken, made in a lab". Aljazeera America. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  11. ↑ Patrick J. Hurley (Jun 27, 2014). ""Beyond Meat," the Mizzou-Creared Faux Chicken That Fooled the New York Times". Riverfront Times. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Farhad Manjoo (Jul 2012). "Fake Meat So Good it Will Freak You Out". Slate. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  13. 1 2 Rahim Kanani (03/06/2014). "The Future of Meat is Meatless, Just as Tasty, And About to Change the World". Forbes. Retrieved 7 July 2014. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. 1 2 Jane Black (Feb 2, 2014). "43. Beyond Meat". Fast Company. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Alton Brown (Sep 2013). "Tastes Like Chicken". Wired. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  16. ↑ Melissa Nguyen (Jul 12, 2013). "Tropical Smoothie Café: Beyond Meat Here to Stay". Veg News Daily. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  17. ↑ Christopher Seward (May 21, 2013). "Tropical Smoothie Café adds Beyond Meat’s ‘chicken’". Atlanta Journal Constitution. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Biz Stone Explains Why Twitter’s Co-Founders Are Betting Big on a Vegan Meat Startup". Jun 13, 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  19. ↑ Chanelle Bessette (2014-01-31). "10 Questions: Ethan Brown, CEO, Beyond Meat". Fortune. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  20. 1 2 Stephanie Strom (April 2, 2014). "Fake Meats, Finally, Taste Like Chicken". New York Times. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  21. 1 2 Sarah Nassauer (2014-06-25). "Meatless Burgers Make Their MLB Pitch". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  22. ↑ "Beef-free crumbles". Beyond Meat. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  23. ↑ "Beyond Meat Unleashes New ‘Beast’ Vegan Burger on NY Mets". Ecorazzi. 7 July 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  24. ↑ "Beast Burger Packs Flavor, Nutrients". ABC News. 7 July 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  25. ↑ "Beyond Meat Pitching Beast Burger to Big Leagues". VegNews. 7 July 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  26. ↑ Haber, Matt (April 9, 2015). "How Long Before Silicon Valley Can Produce Fake Meat That Tastes Like Real Meat?". New York Magazine. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  27. ↑ Jacobsen, Rowan (December 26, 2014). "The Top-Secret Food That Will Change the Way You Eat". Outside Magazine. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  28. ↑ Kummer, Corby (March 31, 2015). "The Problem with Fake Meat". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  29. ↑ Angle, Sara and Rachel Schultz (February 13, 2015). "Beyond Meat’s High-Protein Veggie Burger Is the Best Thing to Ever Happen to Vegans". Shape Magazine. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  30. 1 2 "The Beast Burger". Beyond Meat. April 2015. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  31. ↑ Joiner, James (January 15, 2015). "The Veggie Burgers With Meaty Ambition". The Daily Beast. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  32. ↑ Wellman, Victoria (7 July 2014). "New vegan 'chicken' sells out in days with promise of authentic texture and taste... but can it impress our meat-loving tester?". The Daily Mail. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
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