March 05, 2019
One way to avoid getting food poisoning, or consuming the “extraneous materials” that seem to be plaguing ground beef of late, is to switch to a meat-free alternative.
Until now, there wasn’t a meatless product that rivaled the quintessential ground beef staple. Beyond Meat, the vegan and plant-based burger and sausage powerhouse has just announced Beyond Beef, their new product meant to taste, feel, and smell just like ground beef.
“We’ve long had our eye on creating a versatile product that enables consumers to enjoy all the benefits and versatility of ground beef while tapping into the human health, environmental, and animal welfare benefits of plant-based foods,” Beyond Meat founder and CEO Ethan Brown told Fast Company.
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A mix of mung bean, pea and rice protein, Beyond Beef has 25 percent less saturated fat than regular ground beef, with six grams of saturated fat and 20 grams of protein per serving, according to the company. It suggested the plant-based product can be used as a substitute for ground beef in everything from tacos to meatballs to empanadas. It is free of any antibiotics, hormones, soy, gluten and genetically modified organisms.
Beyond Meat isn’t the only company catering to vegans and vegetarians to market plant-based ground beef. But this new product demonstrates further the ambition to take on the $1.4 trillion meat industry — a clear part of the company’s mission: “By shifting from animal, to plant-based meat, we are creating one savory solution that solves four growing issues attributed to livestock production: human health, climate change, constraints on natural resources and animal welfare.”
“The ambition is to go all the way up to steak,” Brown previously told Fast Company.
If you're curious to try the Beyond Meat products, they are sold at Whole Foods, Wegmans and Acme locations, or you can search for their availability here.
