Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, etc.

Margaret Pilgrim · November 6, 2019

Thanks for this...I guess. I have never looked into the BM ingredients but those you describe are not appetizing. We eat almost no industrially processed food (snacks, mixes, jarred sauces, etc.) so an occasional BM "burger" wouldn't be compounding an existing bad habit. But the ingredient list does introduce a significant yuck factor.

chromedome · November 6, 2019

Well, fwiw the mention of methylcellose as "an ingredient in laxatives" is disingenuous. It's used as a thickener in everything from ice cream to shampoo, and unless you avoid processed foods altogether you're probably eating it regularly.

Seeking Alpha is a site I draw on regularly when writing on personal-finance topics. It's the money equivalent of those sports-fan sites that go deeply into "moneyball"-style analytics, so it's always an interesting read. He's pretty keen on Beyond as a stock, and feels there'll be plenty of growth from its current valuation. That's one man's opinion, of course, and proverbially "there's many a slip..."

rotuts · November 6, 2019

@chromedome

I agree with you.

Ive noticed

over time

that there are very few , close to none , free internet sites

that do not have an axe to grind when discussing

" The Market "

the WSJ Opinion page , has plenty of that too. frequently quite a bit.

seeking Alpha is a good site to go to to learn terminology and dynamics

of The Market.

Edited November 6, 2019 by rotuts (log)

Margaret Pilgrim · November 7, 2019

So I'm enjoying my 4th cup of coffee when husband, who acts as my clipping service, returns to the breakfast table with news that Beyond Meat is composed of uncountable unpronounceable and undoubtedly unhealthful ingredients.

I give up. There goes another of life's fleeting flings. Back to filet o'fish.

rotuts · November 7, 2019

@Margaret Pilgrim

no worries

just don't look too closely at that fish.

chromedome · November 7, 2019

45 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

So I'm enjoying my 4th cup of coffee when husband, who acts as my clipping service, returns to the breakfast table with news that Beyond Meat is composed of uncountable unpronounceable and undoubtedly unhealthful ingredients.

I give up. There goes another of life's fleeting flings. Back to filet o'fish.

Yes, the pendulum of hyperbole is now on the backswing.

Let's take a look at that, shall we? Here's the actual list of ingredients:

Water, pea protein, canola oil, coconut oil, rice protein, natural flavors, cocoa butter, mung bean protein, methylcellulose, potato starch, apple extract, salt, potassium chloride, vinegar, lemon juice concentrate, sunflower lecithin, pomegranate powder, and beet juice extract. Not hard to parse out, right? Proteins to replace the meat proteins, fats to replace the animal fats, starches to act as binders, and then flavoring and coloring agents.

Although "natural flavors" can conceal a host of dubious things, the only "scary, unpronounceable" items on that list are potassium chloride and methylcellulose. Potassium chloride is mostly used to make foods savory while reducing sodium in the form of salt, and also to dial up the food's nutritional profile by adding potassium. Both of these are positives, by any measure.

Methylcellulose is... (gasp, shudder) plant fiber. You know, the stuff that the USDA estimates only 5% of Americans get enough of* (but 66% *think* they do...So unless you're keeping a detailed food journal guess which category you're probably in?). Also, it's already in a bunch of other stuff you're probably already using.

Bottom line, I suspect most of us would not have to dig very deeply at all into our cupboards and pantries to find items containing more unpronounceable ingredients than you'll find in a Beyond Burger. There are many reasons to eat or not eat faux-meat products, but the ingredients list is a non-factor.

*I'm not picking on Americans here, I'm pretty sure the figures for Canadians are pretty similar. I've just recently been re-reading the research on the subject, so it was fresh in my head.

rotuts · November 7, 2019

I see the concern for " processing " this way :

Methylcellulose is indeed plant fiber , or precessed from plants , but processed ultra or not.

if you get your Methylcellulose from the whole plant

the idea is that their might be or are micro nutrients that come along for the ride.

you loose those w processing. a tablet of B₁ is not the same as that same amount of B₁from vegetables or animals.

expeller canola oil Ill leave up to you

etc.

BYND is not going to kill you , but its not a ' whole ' food.

that's different from WF , the Payvheck place.

but these days , there is something about " Feeling Good "

which might be in short supply .

Ill take my extra $ 4 a / lbs and apply it to a bottle of TJ's Table wine

that makes me feel good.

Bernie · November 7, 2019

Be a bit careful of simply dismissing "processed" as bad.

Most milk is "processed" by bringing to moderate temperature (pasteurizing) to kill bacteria (originally cow pox). Homogenized means mechanically breaking up the fat globules into smaller and smaller sizes.

In fact I would suggest you might be horrified to learn that most milk will be initially broken down int all its constituent parts and then reassemble with different ratios of these parts (it why we have all the different types of milk). Some of the proteins that are extracted have other uses and are highly priced and are left out of the final reassembly. You may have heard the term "permeate". That's the bulk water part of the milk with most of the proteins removed. All milk has permeate. Homogenizing means you can thoroughly remix the various bits with some different volumes and no one will notice the difference. The processor can skim off some of the cream and still sell the milk as "whole milk" and sell the cream separately. The consumer cant tell because the cream no longer separates and floats to the top.

So don't be put off by the word processed. Cooking is a process. So is washing. So is ripening using gas. Most of the ingredients above you eat every day but they are known by other names.

So what are "Natural Flavors"? We are talking about meat substitutes here and so are they using beef flavor? Or are they using a chemical to simulate flavor and they are not going to tell you because its a proprietary chemical combination, or is it one of the "nastier chemicals"? To me the term "natural flavors" is what rings my alarm bells.

On a closing note, Super phosphate is bad but aged chicken poo is good for the garden. Things are not always what they seem.

Margaret Pilgrim · November 7, 2019

2 hours ago, rotuts said:

.... there is something about " Feeling Good "

which might be in short supply .

Ill take my extra $ 4 a / lbs and apply it to a bottle of TJ's Table wine

that makes me feel good.

Works for me. I'll have a Beyond Meat to go, please, and some TJ;s on the side.

rotuts · November 7, 2019

Id just get two TJ's.

Spork · November 7, 2019

Does a complete micro nutrient profile exist, published, of this concoction?

I spent a little time searching, to no avail.

Margaret Pilgrim · November 8, 2019

2 hours ago, rotuts said:

Id just get two TJ's.

That works. Maybe a BM as a blotter, as a dowager relative used to request. .

rotuts · December 10, 2019

now this :

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mc-donalds-could-be-the-key-to-1-billion-in-sales-for-beyond-meat-ubs-says-155925556.html

I think UBS has some options they would like to appreciate

liamsaunt · December 11, 2019

It will be interesting to see how popular the fast food Beyond products become. My husband and I recently travelled to Disney. Most of the food was good and I posted about it in the Florida thread. Disney has committed to offering a vegan option at every location where they sell food, which is admirable, but at the fast service locations, that translates to Beyond Meat burgers or sausages (there are better options at the sit down places). and they have no idea how to cook this stuff. I ordered a Beyond sausage at some location in the Magic Kingdom, just to see how they handled it. Behold. This was $14, by the way. One bite and into the trash it went.

TicTac · December 11, 2019

1 hour ago, liamsaunt said:

It will be interesting to see how popular the fast food Beyond products become. My husband and I recently travelled to Disney. Most of the food was good and I posted about it in the Florida thread. Disney has committed to offering a vegan option at every location where they sell food, which is admirable, but at the fast service locations, that translates to Beyond Meat burgers or sausages (there are better options at the sit down places). and they have no idea how to cook this stuff. I ordered a Beyond sausage at some location in the Magic Kingdom, just to see how they handled it. Behold. This was $14, by the way. One bite and into the trash it went.

Looks pretty scary.

I for one would have promptly returned that $14 abomination for something palatable!

chromedome · December 13, 2019

On a somewhat related note:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/12/judge-serves-up-sizzling-rebuke-of-arkansas-anti-veggie-meat-labeling-law/

**Smithy** · January 7, 2020

I'm bumping this up with a short report that we tried the Impossible Burgers in Whopper form at Burger King a couple of days ago. My sense of it was that the patty was thinner and drier than I'd have liked, but I've had meat burgers with exactly that description. I asked my DH what he thought of his burger, and his response was "it's good. I've always liked Whoppers." I told him after he'd finished what it was, and he said then he was doubly impressed because he hadn't noticed a difference. Then he asked me, "How many calories did we save?" I had to admit I'd forgotten to look. "Well, did we save money?" No, it cost us a couple bucks extra.

We might try them side-by-side with the regular burger sometime, for a better comparison.

rotuts · January 7, 2020

@Smithy

"" it cost us a couple bucks extra "

this matters in the very long run

there are plenty of people , gobs of then

that will pay that premium to

" feel good "

but the vast majority of the rest

will not

fake Meat and pork will do very well

in that premise :

Ill pay to feel good.

Big Beef and Oinky Pork have nothing really re the big picture

to be concerned.

that being said

once FakeBeef etc make their fast food stuff

cheaper than beef and pork and chicken

then we can discuss that at that time.

Edited January 8, 2020 by rotuts (log)

gfweb · January 7, 2020

Whopper, which I do like, has mayo and ketchup to lube-up and camouflage the meat texture and taste. Wonder what it'd be like with just the patty compared to real meat?

rotuts · January 7, 2020

Ive had each Whopper

as the same time :

extra Tomato , and Pickle and a bit more Mayo

theFake Whopper was not bad at all.

there is some char on the fakeMeat and cbar on the SemiRealMeat

that makes these burgers.

extra tomato etc helps

but no mater what :

the FakeWopper cost more.

and Ive yet to see Buy One get the Second Fake Free

does this matter ?

in the long run Id way yes

and the fake didn't make me feel any better one way or the other.

now BK just sent me a slew of

coupons : Ill try to get down there to get 2 for 1 real Whopper

Id way this : for this type of burger

if they are equal enough over time on your palate, cheaper is better

if is on the way to elsewhere.

there is a great deal of money to be made w the fakes

not enough for id way problem for BigBeef

and the FakeW did have a lingering taste of green split pea soup

just split green dried peas

no smoke and no bacon involved

Edited January 7, 2020 by rotuts (log)

heidih · January 7, 2020

I am in Southern California - a hot bed of veggie burgers from way back. Veggie Grill https://www.veggiegrill.com/ is a big chain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veggie_Grill They partnered with the Beyond Meat folks. But I am not seeing huge buzz on the burger end. Too many other tasty options - perhaps we are spoiled with decent choices.

Edited January 7, 2020 by heidih (log)

blue_dolphin · January 8, 2020

Went out to lunch with friends today. One of them ordered the Impossible Taco Salad:

Quote

Plant-based Impossible chorizo, housemade superfood krunchies, chopped romaine, curly kale, black bean, roasted corn & jicama succotash, red onions, cilantro,
grape tomatoes, avocado (400 cal) with house vegan chipotle ranch (240 cal)

Very tasty. I wondered if it used the new Impossible Pork, but apparently it's been on the menu of this chain for some time - see here.

**Smithy** · January 8, 2020

5 hours ago, gfweb said:

Whopper, which I do like, has mayo and ketchup to lube-up and camouflage the meat texture and taste. Wonder what it'd be like with just the patty compared to real meat?

I wondered the same thing. I always order my Whopper with no ketchup and extra pickles, and this was no exception. With it all tarted up that way the patty was difficult to distinguish. I tried a bite of patty alone, to see what I thought of it. That was the basis for my saying it tasted like a slightly dry, slightly too thin burger. Was there a flavor difference between this patty and a beef patty? I'd have to try them side by side to see. Either way, I've had better burgers...but I've had worse, too.

liuzhou · January 8, 2020

Interesting article on Impossible Foods' attempt to enter the Chinese market and why it will probably fail!

Edited January 8, 2020 by liuzhou (log)

**Chris Hennes** · January 8, 2020

Although I've had both Beyond and Impossible as ingredients in other dishes before, last week I finally actually had a burger made with the Beyond product. I actually ordered it because it seemed like the "safe" option compared to getting a beef burger (I was at a national park and the restaurant was not exactly Michelin starred). I got a 1/3-lb cheeseburger with lettuce, onion, and tomato. There was some kind of aioli involved: unlike with the Whopper, however, this burger was a much thicker style. Although the extras helped, it was clearly a Beyond burger with accoutrements, not a sandwich that happened to involve some Beyond stuff. Now, I didn't actually try the beef burger at this place, but the Beyond Burger was better than I would have expected the "real" version to be: flavorful enough, juicy enough, and well-textured for what amounted to a well-done burger. It was, as expected, "safe."

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