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] In 2016 Tyson Foods purchased a 5% stake in the company.^[19]

Founder Ethan Brown

Beyond Meat founder Ethan grew up spending weekends visiting 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][20]

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][21] As of 2014, the company's product offerings consisted of Beyond Chicken and Beyond Beef.^{[2][8][15][22]} 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][23] 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][21]

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.^{[22][24][25][26]}

The Beast Burger was officially released in February 2015 and is available at Whole Foods markets.^[27] Burger ingredients include powdered pea protein, water, sunflower oil, and an OIL BLEND or (CANOLA OIL, FLAXSEED OIL, PALMOIL*, SUNFLOWER OIL, DHA ALGAL OIL). 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.^[28][29]

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.^{[30][31][31][32]}

The Beyond Burger

In May 2016, Beyond Meat released the first plant-based burger to be sold alongside beef, poultry and pork in the meat section of the grocery store.^[33] Making its debut at the Pearl St. Whole Foods in Boulder, CO, The Beyond Burger sold out within the first hour of hitting shelves.^[34]

The Beyond Burger contains 20 grams of protein and has no soy, no gluten, no GMOS, zero cholesterol, and half the saturated fat of an 80/20 beef burger.^[35]

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."^[36] 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

External links

• Official Web Site