Course:FNH200/Projects/2020/Beyond Meat

Introduction

Beyond Meat is a modern meat substitute that mimics the taste and texture of real meat (beef, pork, chicken, etc.) for the growing market of conscious consumers in our society looking for sustainable alternatives. The company has it’s roots in Los Angeles, California with production facilities in El Segundo, California and Colombia, Missouri. The founder, Ethan Brown, started the company in 2009. He was motivated to shift consumers towards eating plant-based meat substitutes for a more sustainable future. Beyond Meat’s mission statement from their website- “By shifting from animal to plant-based meat, we can positively impact four growing global issues: human health, climate change, constraints on natural resources, and animal welfare.”.

Ethan Brown was a city boy from Baltimore who had farming in his blood. After getting his MBA, he set out to create a product that would help fight two of the issues he cared about most: harming animals, and climate change. In 2009, Ethan embarked on his mission of eliminating chicken and beef from peoples’ plates and replacing it with plants, all while ensuring that taste was not being sacrificed. As such, Beyond Meat was born. In the beginning, Ethan was able to pull in some high-profile investors such as Bill Gates, the founders of Twitter, and some venture groups, which allowed the company to get off the ground and running.

Beyond Meat in it's different forms as seen in the meat isle of a supermarket in Vancouver, Canada

When the product first launched in 2013, there was a frenzy to try it out. Products sold out rapidly across the nation as hype around the company grew. In 2018, they opened a second production facility in Missouri tripling their manufacturing footprint. This allowed them to meet market demands in the USA and expand production to include 50 countries globally. Now, It can be found in over 20,000 retail locations around North America. The company has a 133% compound annual growth rate since 2016. Still to this day, Beyond Meat is one of the fastest growing food companies in the United States due to the increasing market for meat-alternatives. In July of 2020, there was a 279.8% increase in demand for plant-based meat alternatives compared to July of 2019, increasing still from the 206.4% increase in market demand from the previous year.

Beyond Meat is becoming increasingly popular, this is likely in part due to the company’s mission and proven effectiveness to positively influence climate change. Compared to a single quarter-pound beef burger patty, a single quarter-pound Beyond Burger uses significantly less water (99% reduction), land (93% reduction), energy (46% reduction) and produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions (90% fewer GHG emissions). With increased education of climate change and it’s related issues worldwide, it’s no wonder that conscious consumers are picking the meat option that addresses their concerns but doesn’t seem to compromise flavour or texture.

Beyond Beef as seen in the meat isle of a supermarket in Vancouver, Canada

A Beyond Meat patty looks identical to beef burger

Beyond Meat has partnered with many chains and restaurants including but not limited to: A&W, Tim Horton’s, Tesco (UK), Dunkin’ Donuts, Subway, Denny’s, Whole Foods, Costco, Save-On Foods, Safeway, Target, Walmart, TGIFridays, Carl’s Jr., DelTaco, ShopRite, and Sprouts. There are also several food chains and restaurants that have opted out of serving Beyond Meat because they are “too heavily processed” such as Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol. It’s undeniable that Beyond Meats are a processed food, which is why the company employs a staff of scientists and food analysts that work year round on research and development in aim to simplify the processes needed to create alternative meats.

Despite being relatively unknown outside of the vegan/vegetarian community and not turning a profit for the first few years of its existence. Beyond Meat has entered the culinary lexicon of even the most carnivorous consumers, and has emerged as a true competitor in the meat industry. In Beyond Meat’s first ever TV advert Academy Award winning actress Octavia Spencer asks the question, “What If We All Go Beyond?”. The ad suggests we could make friends with cows, take better care of our health and our planet, all while promising a “great burger”. Intrigued consumers that seek out Beyond Meat burger patties will pay nearly double the price at the till compared to ground beef patties. Going meatless has become trendy as of late, with many people jumping on the Beyond Meat bandwagon, but how does it really stack up? Is plant based meat really as environmentally friendly as we think it is? Is it safe? Healthy? What are the differences in texture, flavour, nutrition, and shelf life compared to real meat? These are the important questions we will be answering in our project.

Project by Stephan Bishop-Mercier, Bi Yu Li, Emma Irvine, Vincent Sastra, Manreet Mangat.

History of Meat Analogue

Meat continues to be the primary choice of food for consumers because of its appealing taste and a good protein source, in fact meat consumption exceeds its recommended amount considerably. However, meat consumption has multitudes of problems: high cost, high environmental blueprint, high cholesterol, and high proportion of fatty acids. These have been a driving force toward “meat analog,” products like Beyond Meat that are identical in composition to meat and contain its nutritional benefits without its drawbacks. Moreover, a meat analogue can be marketed towards people who are not eating meat for ethical or religious reasons such as vegetarians or Buddhists.

Ingredients

According to the official Beyond Meat website, the product is made with the five building blocks of meat: protein, fat, minerals, carbohydrates, and water. These building blocks are sourced directly from plants.

Beyond Meat sources proteins from pea, Mung bean, Faba bean and brown rice. They claim to deliver greater or equal levels of protein compared to real meat by sourcing from a variety of plants.

The fats come from cocoa butter, coconut oil and canola oil. Beyond Meat says their formula creates juicy plant-based burgers, beef, and sausages with less saturated fat than real meat.

Beyond Meat minerals come from calcium, iron, salt and potassium chloride. These are said to deliver taste and function expected from real meat and stimulate taste buds.

Flavours and colours are sourced from beet juice extract, apple extract and natural flavours. These give a meaty taste and cooking experience without using GMO’s.

Finally, the carbohydrates are sourced from potato starch and Methylcellulose, a plant fiber derivative. The blend holds other ingredients together and provides texture.

Beyond Meat has no cholesterol, less saturated fat, and is free of antibiotics and hormones.

From https://www.beyondmeat.com/about/our-ingredients/

Ingredient	Function
Cocoa Butter	Helps maintain flavor Helps mimic the flavor of fat that is in actual meat
Coconut Oil	-This helps to mimic the fat in actual meat -Source of healthy fats
Canola Oil	-Source of healthy fats -Helps mimic the fat in actual meat
Potato Starch	Helps to blend everything together Acts as a thickener
Methycellulose	Additive This is a thickener and an emulsifier Adding this helps to overall blend the other ingredients
Beet Juice	This adds the colour
Apple Extract	Helps to make the proteins appear brown like actual meat While cooking the product, this addition feels like you are cooking with actual meat because of the colour and texture
Salt	Flavour enhancer
Yeast Extract	Enhances flavours Mimics the taste of red or white meat
Citrus Extract	Protects the quality of the product
Ascorbic Acid	This is to maintain the colour
Annatto	This is added for colour
Pea Protein	-Helps to mimic actual meat -is one of the main sources of plant protein
Calcuim	Delivers the nutrients that are in actual meat
Iron	Delivers the nutrients that are in actual meat
Potassium Chloride	Delivers the nutrients that are in actual meat
Natural Flavours	Delivers the meaty texture when cooking Adds flavour Adds colour

Processing Steps

There are no GMOs that go into making this product. From the website, it describes the process of creating beyond meat as quite simple. “Heating, cooling and pressure” is used to create the texture of the beyond meat then the ingredients from the five building blocks are added in to create the final product. Considering that the website says that “heating, cooling and pressure” is used during the process, it is assumed that if the product is to be bought frozen then the process of plate freezing has been done.

Packaging

Just like actual meat products, beyond meat is vacuum packaged which increases the storage life and removes the oxygen and decreases the growth of aerobic spoilage causing bacteria. Beyond meat needs to be refrigerated just like animal meat and is good to use by the best before date. Once the product has been opened and thawed the website does not recommend refreezing the product if it was kept frozen previously. Also, once the product has been thawed it has a shelf life of 10 days.

The packaging of Beyond Meat is more sustainable than how other animal meats are packaged. Beyond meat uses a cardboard tray instead of a foam tray, and is covered in a thin layer of polyethylene film. Unlike, animal meats such as beef or pork are vacuum packaged in a thick packaging material.

Regulations

Canada’s Food and Safety Administration states that the common name for beyond meat is simulated meat, and this common name must be written on the labels and advertising. As defined by The Government of Canada Inspection  “simulated meat and simulated poultry products do not contain any meat or poultry, but are represented as having the physical and nutritive characteristics of meat or poultry.” Canada also requires the simulated meat product be nutritionally equivalent to the product it is claiming to be.

There has been a lot of pushback from US and Canadian cattle producers not only with regards to the product itself but also the name “Beyond Meat”. In Canada, the farmers are less concerned with the product and more concerned with the use of the word “meat”. The Canadian cattle industry has expressed a disliking to the name because they say “[m]eat has its own definition, and we want to hold up that integrity for the product we produce.” (Globe and Mail. 2019) . The farmers also say that the CFSA prohibits beyond meats use of the word “meat” because of their prohibitions on advertising “in a manner that is false, misleading or deceptive or likely to create a false impression”.

When Beyond Meat first began, they had used GMO’s claiming that it helped the texture and taste closely resemble beef; however, as of 2018 Beyond Beef announced that they are certified Non-Gmo. Like any product entering canada, beyond meat had to outline the development of their product to health canada as well as explain manufacturing, importing and developing. There are other companies selling plant based meats that use GMO’s; however, Beyond Meat is not one of them. There has been slight backlash with companies and governments claiming the products are highly processed and the level of processing is unhealthy, but these claims do not have supporting evidence. The level of processing is not a concern to the CFSA. There did not seem to be any difficulties in having the burger approved in Canada. The burger was tested in A&W’s across Canada, which has roaring success. After the success with the fast food chain, beyond meat quickly expanded into grocery stores in Canada.

Exam Question

Calcium and Iron are added to Beyond Meat to deliver the nutrients that are found in actual meat, would these two additives be considered a NATURAL HEALTH PRODUCT or a FUNCTIONAL FOOD?

1. Functional food, because they are a fortification of vitamins and minerals provided to add health benefits to the food product.
2. Natural health product, because they are an isolated form of the vitamins and minerals provided to add health benefits to the consumer.
3. Functional food, because they are an isolated form of the vitamins and minerals provided to add health benefits to the consumer.
4. Natural health product, because they are a fortification of vitamins and minerals provided to add health benefits to the food product.

Answer 1 is the correct answer, because Calcium and Iron are two vitamins and minerals added to this food product that aim to add health benefits to the product. Calcium and Iron are not in an isolated form in Beyond meat so could not be considered a natural health product in Canada. Options 3 and 4 aim to confuse the person answering the question and test their knowledge of the difference between a natural health product and a functional food, according to the definitions given in chapter 13.1 ‘What are Functional Foods and Natural Health Products?’. Functional foods cannot be in isolated form and natural health products are not directly associated with food products.

https://canvas.ubc.ca/courses/49295/pages/13-dot-1-what-are-functional-foods-and-natural-health-products?module_item_id=1835640

References

Our Ingredients. (n.d.). Retrieved August 13, 2020, from https://www.beyondmeat.com/about/our-ingredients/