From greenqueen.com.hk
By Anay Mridul
Ahead of its latest product launch, Beyond Meat is dropping ‘Meat’ from its name to focus on the power of traditional plants amid falling sales and rising demand for protein.
Beyond Meat is going beyond meat – quite literally.
The Californian pioneer of plant-based meat says it’s ditching ‘Meat’ from its name to simply be ‘Beyond’ as it enters a new era with products centred on celebrating whole plants rather than imitating animal protein.
The move, as first reported by Fast Company in an interview with CEO Ethan Brown, comes amid falling sales for the industry giant. By Brown’s own admission, Beyond had a “disappointing” first quarter of 2025, with year-on-year sales down by 9%. Longer-term, the company’s market value has shrunk by around 95% since its 2019 IPO.
There are several factors behind this decline. If you ask Beyond, the main culprits are “weak category demand” and “intense misinformation”. “While Beyond Meat can always and will always seek to improve our products, we believe the central issue impeding our return to sustained growth is perception. Or more accurately, misperception,” Brown said in the company’s latest earnings call.
As protein enters virtually every food category, Beyond is pivoting its business model. For years, it has been known for its signature burger and other meat analogues – now, though, it’s going all-in on traditional plant proteins.
Beyond CEO hints at post-workout products and lentil sausages
Since 2024, Beyond has been on a product launch spree. It first reformulated its beef platform with a new recipe, before revamping its beef crumbles and its sausage portfolio. This year, it has rolled out chicken pieces, a reimagined version of its first-ever product, as well as a mycelium steak.
It turned heads in 2024 when it introduced its Sun Sausage lineup. They’re made from a base of yellow peas, brown rice, red lentils and faba beans, and represented the company’s first foray beyond meat alternatives.
It seems the move wasn’t a one-off. As plant-based meat continues to struggle – US retail sales fell by 7% in 2024 – a rethink has become necessary. While Beyond’s shift may seem radical, it plays into consumer trends in the US.
Its newest product is a testament to that. Called Beyond Ground and due to be launched in August, the mince-like protein only has four ingredients: fava beans, potato starch, water, and psyllium husk. Each serving contains 140 calories, 4g of fibre, 1.5g of fat, and 27g of protein (that’s higher than beef). Plus, it has zero cholesterol, saturated fat, or added oils.
“It’s not trying to be beef, pork, or poultry. It’s simply a very high protein, centre-of-the-plate product that can be used in any dishes you’d use any ground meat in,” Brown told Inc. Magazine in June.
This is just the start, however. In his interview with Fast Company, he said: “If you’re the best in the world at making plant proteins, why confine yourself to the centre of the plate?”
He elaborated: “Instead of thinking about a simple replacement for animal protein, what if you just thought about your daily protein consumption, and I started to try to replace as much of that as I can with plant protein, any form that I could?”
So what could future Beyond innovations look like? Brown hinted at everything from a centre-aisle offering with 30g of protein and zero fat to post-workout products inspired by Roman gladiators. The company’s new mission seems to “serve an occasion” instead of trying to mimic an animal. “You’ll see us come out with things like, maybe, lentil sausage,” said Brown. “Or chickpea hot dogs.”
Beyond targets America’s protein obsession in new era for plant-based
There has been no official announcement about the rebrand from Beyond Meat, and Green Queen has reached out for confirmation.
But for the company whose vegan chicken got the thumbs-up from Mark Bittman, and scored famous investors like Bill Gates, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jessica Chastain, to resort to the veggie burger category feels like a gamble.
Is Beyond turning back the clock and undoing all the work it has done over the past decade-and-a-half? Is it giving in to the meat lobby it has very publicly fought for years? Or is it being a shrewd business that has identified the needs of today’s consumers, and its place in the renewed landscape?
The bottom line is: protein is going nowhere. In December, 85% of Americans said they wanted to consume more protein in 2025. And a more recent survey by Bain has found that a net 44% of consumers want to eat more protein (a 10-point rise from last year).
Despite the furore around ultra-processed foods, few Americans (15%) want to eat more unprocessed products now than they did in early 2023 (20%). So products like Beyond Ground, which process climate- and health-supporting whole foods like fava beans into a blank protein canvas, are destined to succeed – at least in theory.
“There’s a longing for animal protein because we associate it with simpler times,” said Brown. “But how it’s being delivered to us is not [simple].”
All that said, Beyond’s meat portfolio isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. This month, it introduced another first for its portfolio, a whole-cut steak fillet made from mycelium. It will hope the product helps turn its fortunes around.
Brown blamed Big Meat and Big Pharma for the vast amount of misinformation surrounding alternative proteins, which has hurt sales, scared off investors, and forced many startups to shut. VCs also share part of the responsibility, with funding for the sector decreasing by 27% in 2024.
The Beyond CEO said he was grateful for the large investment sums his company has attracted – it secured a $100M debt financing deal this year – ultimately, however, the money “diverted consumers’ focus” from the fact that its vegan meat “is closer to the field than the factory-farmed ingredients they’re used to eating”.
So maybe the changing landscape has forced Beyond’s hand. It isn’t the only one. Its chief rival, Impossible Foods, recently floated the idea of a foray into blended meat.
By ditching the ‘meat’, is Beyond ushering in a new dawn for plant-based?
https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/beyond-meat-rebrand-plant-based-protein-grounds-vegan/
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