Beyond Meat hit as shoppers shift to cheaper animal protein (opens in new tab)

Is there really softer demand in the plant-based meat category, as Beyond Meat claims? In Germany, that market has been growing and is projected to grow further. But there are lots of brands competing, including cheap in-store brands. Beyond Meat is available here, but I don't think it's very successful, and it's a luxury option for sure.

The thing to bear in mind is that silk-watered steel sword blades aside, we don't forget things we've invented much. Fusarium as 'Quorn' didn't disappear, it just became less pressing as the 1960s fear of mass starvation faded a bit under the impact of modern agricultural practice.

Quorn and its legitimate descendants of tank bread organisms continue to exist.

And, beyond style high-haem vegetable protein will continue to exist. Sure, the company might go bust but somebody venal (KKR?) will buy the IPR, and it will persist as a model. And the non-IPR components of knowledge about veg-meat will be taken on as lessons: Don't underestimate the production costs of things like this.

I'm with Michael Pollan on food. This stuff is great snacking, every now and then but your grandma wouldn't recommend eating beyond every day.

I’m not sure if this is related, but I’ve been considering going back to regular milk as the price of oat milk continues to slowly increase. It’s gone from £1.50 to as high as £2.80 around my area. I haven’t tracked the price of milk over the same period but I can’t imagine its jumped as much, even with general cost-of-living increases.

I highly recommend the Richmond meat free sausages. I now prefer them over real sausages.

Makes sense as this is a weird product, market wise.

It’s not healthier than meat (ultra-processed with worse macros). And if you are avoiding meat, there are cheaper plant options already.

I didn’t understand people who wanted to pay MORE for veggie options and I think they were just burning a massive marketing budget.

I’d choose boca burgers if I really wanted a burger shaped thing. But just simple beans are a better fit if you want to eat healthy food that doesn’t come from an animal.

I thought we were supposed not to eat this type of hyper-ultra processed food anyway? Maybe people are just waking up to how unnatural and possibly damaging it is.