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Brown alluded to this problem on the Beyond Meat earnings call. The company is working on a fourth version of the beef burger tradition and has also released a thinner version with a new texture and texture.
The plant-based industry has also suffered from claims that its products are ultra-processed and unhealthy. The science about food processing and its effects on our health is still not well understood, but that hasn’t stopped activists from using the highly processed label as a stick to hit the plant-based industry. The Center for Consumer Freedom, an organization that campaigns on behalf of the meat industry, ran full-page ads in national newspapers in the United States attacking plant-based companies for their processing. One campaign compared plant-based meats to dog food, while another classified them as “ultra-processed imitations assembled in industrial plants.”
The idea that vegan meat is unhealthy seems to have passed on to consumers. On the earnings call, Brown cited industry research indicating that the percentage of people who believe plant-based meats are healthy is declining. He attributed this to “competitive marketing” deliberately targeting the plant-based meat industry. “[They’ve] He did a very impressive job of changing consumer perception,” he said.
Perception is not entirely fair. Most plant-based meat alternatives are processed, as are many of the meat-based products they are meant to replace. As data scientist Hannah Ritchie writes in WIRED, meat alternatives tend to be lower in calories and saturated fat and higher in fiber than their animal counterparts. Granted, vegan meat isn’t a great substitute for lentils or peas, but it stacks up reasonably well against burgers, hot dogs, and other processed meats. Perhaps calling them healthy, but the super processed argument isn’t a slam dunk.
Impossible Foods has attempted to embrace the ultra-processed brand, describing its burger as “unusually processed” in a post on its website. Beyond is taking a different tack with a campaign called “There’s Goodness Here” featuring shots of rural fields and a smiling farmer while noting that Beyond Steaks has been certified by the American Heart Association.
It’s too early to tell how these campaigns will play out, but it’s an interesting shift in tone in an industry that has long positioned itself as a tech-adjacent. Early on, these contraptions were marketed as high-end tools. Genetically modified burgers that bleed! More protein than beef, but from plants! What’s more, they were tools that promised to solve a real problem: the massive emissions that come from raising animals for meat. When Beyond Meat went public, there was a wave of excitement that the plant-based meat industry would discover the killer application to our dinner plates.
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