U.S. chain plants vegan burger in the meat case
Whole Foods: New product ‘cooks like’ its beefy cousin
It looks like a beef burger. Tastes like a beef burger. And for the first time ever, it’s being sold alongside sirloin, lamb and honest-to-goodness ground beef in the meat department at Whole Foods grocery stores.
The Beyond Burger is a plant-based protein that is making its debut this week in the meat section at 51 Whole Foods Markets stretching from Pennsylvania to Ohio, south to Kentucky and east to Maryland and the District of Columbia — launching what may be a new era in how people think about the protein they consume.
“It’s a foot in the door into the mainstream protein case where Americans buy their protein,” said Ethan Brown, the founder of Beyond Meat, a California-based company that makes plant-based vegan alternative to animal protein. “We’ve been living in the penalty box, and we’ve been knocking on the door of the meat case since the first day I started the company in 2009.”
Beyond Meat represents a food version of alternative energy, with traditional meat companies such as Tyson Foods hedging their bets as consumer demand increases for healthier, plant-based alternatives to meat protein. Other investors in Beyond Meat include Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates and Seth Goldman, the creator of Honest Tea and the executive chairman of Beyond Meat.
Whole Foods Market operates 442 stores in the U.S., 11 in Canada and nine in the U.K.
“This Beyond Meat Burger in particular cooks like a burger and looks like one,” said Joe Wood, midAtlantic meat coordinator for Whole Foods Market.
Whole Foods is the exclusive seller of the Beyond Burger through the end of the year, and it is stocking the product in both the meat department and in the dairy/alternative foods section.
Brown believes his yellow pea-based burger’s entry into the meat case is transformational.
“The future is one where the meat case is going to be called the protein case and consumers will be able to buy plant-based and animal-based protein side by side,” said Brown, 45, who worked on clean energy before he tackled meat.
Beyond Burgers cost $5.99 for two four-ounce patties, putting the product at $11.98 a pound, significantly more than even organic grass-fed beef.
The Washington Post wrote earlier this year that “nutrition-wise, the burger stacks up closely to an 80 percent lean beef burger, using the USDA Nutrition Database: 290 calories (compared to 288), 22 grams total fat (compared to 22.7), 5 grams saturated fat (compared to 8.7), and 20 grams protein (compared to 19.5). The biggest difference: no cholesterol, compared to the beef burger’s 81 milligrams.”