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Biotech

Beyond Meat Signs Global Supply Deals With McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut (agfundernews.com) 109

Posted by BeauHD from the future-of-meat dept.
U.S. plant-based protein company Beyond Meat has signed global supply deals with fast food firms McDonald's and Yum! Brands, which includes KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and others. AgFunderNews reports: The three-year strategic agreement with McDonald's will see Beyond Meat become the 'preferred supplier' of patties for the fast food chain's new McPlant plant-based burger. Under their separate strategic partnership, Beyond Meat and Yum! Brands will co-develop a range of exclusive plant-based protein menu items for the latter's KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell chains.

Bruce Friedrich, executive director of the Good Food Institute, said in comments sent to AFN that the two deals represent "the clearest sign yet that the future of meat will be plant-based." "The world's largest restaurant chains are placing plant-based meat directly on the plates of millions of customers around the world," he said. "With more restaurants and revenue than any other food chains on the planet, McDonald's and Yum! Brands will bring plant-based meat onto the mainstream menus of millions of people. When these restaurant chains move, the entire food industry takes notice."
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Beyond Meat Signs Global Supply Deals With McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut More

Beyond Meat Signs Global Supply Deals With McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut

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  • "U.S. plant-based protein company Beyond Meat has signed global supply deals with fast food firms McDonald's and Yum! Brands"

    Many have suspected for some time that whatever Taco Bell and McDonald's have been putting in their burgers and tacos, it doesn't bear much resemblance to meat.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It's real meat; the government requires it. I would be much more concerned about what's in these meatless patties. They are absolutely terrible for you. The only reason to ever eat one is if you want to prevent an animal from being slaughtered, or to help the environment - taste or nutrition are not valid reasons.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by scalptalc ( 6477834 )
        As for the slaughter of animals (and I love a grilled ribeye as much or more than anybody, OK?), I might recommend "Consider The Lobster" by David Foster Wallace. I don't care for his material at all but that essay is worth reading if only to remind you that Farmer John putting a bullet through a steer's head is not what you're getting in the industrial-scale slaughter of animals. If what you are getting interests you, Wallace handles it on a much deeper level, which is where the important thinking should b

        • Delivering the killing blow is probably the best part of a meal. But with beef it's just so impractical for me to butcher and store that much meat safely and economically. As a compromise I pay someone else to bash its head in and chop it up into steaks.

          But a lobster or a rabbit or even a white-tail deer, I can totally handle that myself.

      • Re:Is this really anything new? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by mendax ( 114116 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2021 @09:27PM (#61118118)

        I'm not certain that eating soy-based meat is helpful to the environment when the rain forests are being knocked down and burned to make room for soy beans. I read something about that recently but could not find it via Google. However, the search turned up several articles about soya production in Brazil and elsewhere.

        • Look up what oil palm plantations are doing to rain forests.
        • 90% of that soy goes to feed cattle, people are not eating it

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Anonymous Coward
            Erm, bullshit? [wikipedia.org]

            • Is there ant particular sentence on that page that you thought was relevant? The relevant fact I found there was "grazing systems supply about 9 percent of the world's production of beef".

              If 9% of cattle graze and 91% are instead fed corn and soy ...

              • Re: (Score:1)

                by Anonymous Coward

                If 9% of cattle graze and 91% are instead fed corn and soy ...

                Nowhere in that wiki article does it say 91% of cattle are fed corn and soy. In fact, it says (uncited)

                In the United States, most cattle raised for beef production are (mostly) grass-fed

                A more relevant link is here. [wikipedia.org]

                Of the total US soybean tonnage produced, about 35 percent was fed to US livestock and poultry as soybean meal.
                ...
                It has been estimated that, of soy meal fed to animals in the US, 48 percent is fed to poultry, 26 percent to swine, 12 percent to beef cattle, 9 percent to dairy cattle, 3 percent is used in fish feed and about 2 percent in pet food.

                So in the US, a little over 7% of soy production goes to feeding cattle. Not 90%.

                • > A more relevant link is here.

                  That *is* a more relevant link.
                  And you pointed out which parts directly address the question.

          • Certainly a lot goes to animals "35% of total soy imports; 48.7% of soy meal) is fed to livestock (approximately 90% of it to pigs and poultry and farmed fish" not that much goes to cattle since they cant digest more then a small amount. https://sustainablefoodtrust.o... [sustainablefoodtrust.org]

        • Re:Is this really anything new? (Score:5, Informative)

          by gmitch86 ( 7749558 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2021 @02:16AM (#61118672)
          Just so everyone knows, Beyond Meat is made from pea protein. Impossible Burgers are soy.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by bussdriver ( 620565 )

        McDonalds lobbied government to LOWER meat classifications in the past and that allowed them to sell you sub-standard meat that previously did not classify as edible meat. Remember pink slime? That was not the worst of it... and pink chicken slime continues... they actually have to flavor that chicken because after making it safe it loses all flavor. They may as well go all soy and flavor that in a similar way.

        Oh, I will never forget their heavily cooked beef in the mcburgers where you may eat a dozen cow

        • McDonalds lobbied government to LOWER meat classifications in the past and that allowed them to sell you sub-standard meat that previously did not classify as edible meat. Remember pink slime? That was not the worst of it... and pink chicken slime continues... they actually have to flavor that chicken because after making it safe it loses all flavor.

          That reminded me - the presumed fresh squeezed orange juice might have been squeezed fresh, but they store it in tanks, and it too loses it's flavor, and needs to be "refreshed"

          Frozen orange juice on the other hand, largely retains it's flavor. And I can really taste a difference between the two - something just seems off about the not so fresh squeezed stuff.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        It's real meat; the government requires it. I would be much more concerned about what's in these meatless patties. They are absolutely terrible for you. The only reason to ever eat one is if you want to prevent an animal from being slaughtered, or to help the environment - taste or nutrition are not valid reasons.

        That is exactly why they're promoting the plant based burgers.

        It's not about health - if you're eating a burger, health isn't exactly the priority here. Taste isn't it either - other than it tasts

        • if you're eating a burger, health isn't exactly the priority here.

          A burger is a perfectly healthy piece of food. There's literally nothing unhealthy in a burger. The only unhealthy part of the whole thing is the refined flour-based bun. It can be subbed out if you care.

          And heck, when you can have a gathering again, you can all make burgers that everyone can eat (except vegans), which is possibly exciting where the vegetarians no longer have to settle for the salad.

          When I make burgers, everyone can eat them. Some choose not to. That's their choice.

        • And heck, when you can have a gathering again, you can all make burgers that everyone can eat (except vegans), which is possibly exciting where the vegetarians no longer have to settle for the salad.

          Why couldn't vegans eat them? There's plenty of excellent plant-based "cheeses" available these days. My favorite is Daiya cheddar slices, but be warned that they taste best once they've started melting a little.

      • taste or nutrition are not valid reasons.

        People don't go to McDonalds for taste or nutrition.

        I actually have no idea why they go. The best I can come up with is that it's a sort of mini "unboxing" ritual - all those little packets to unwrap in a cartoon environment with no knives or forks or plates to be seen anywhere.

        • It's because it's cheap AF to get some hot food that you didn't have to prepare.

          I haven't been in a Mickey DeezNutz in literally years, because when I go on a long trip I make a sandwich first. But they are my go-to when I need to grab a bite quickly when I'm out in the world, because I know I can get something that's relatively tasty for very little money and in very little time, and be on with my day.

          I don't get why someone would make them part of their routine, though. Ugh.

        • Reminds me of: https://youtu.be/KYKGFujJp6Y?t=114

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by stajp ( 2588149 )

          I agree with the cheap AF to get some hot food that you didn't have to prepare.

          But I adore McDonalds as it's the
          1. only major chain of fast food in my country (there are others like KFC and Burger King, but they have only a handful of joints in the whole country, and a small number of those are in my city).
          2. one of the rare franchise that operates in all the surrounding countries (so I can choose it when I go abroad)
          3. when you combine it with the first two, most important for me - it always tastes the sam

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Shaitan ( 22585 )

        Which really is sad. There IS an option that tastes alright... certainly fast food burger level alright at least. The impossible foods one at least could pass as those bulk frozen pre-shaped patties you can get from the store for a large cookout or similar.
        .

    • Jesus if they can commit to that deal what the fuck is it made of.

      During bbq I call it âoebeyond assâ because it smells like ass.

      Lameness filter says I should say it really did smell like ass.

      I need to write more? How much sjw snowflake had slashdot gone. Probably too far at this point.

      No, your shit looks like ascii art you clown car mother fuckers.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dnaumov ( 453672 )

      And regarding McDonalds, your suspicioun would be as far from actual reality as it gets.

  • Well the nice thing is it will not be as perishable as meat. Making it easier to ship and store, both commercial, and individually.

      • Re: (Score:1, Troll)

        by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 )

        Citation?

        No citation is needed because you can easily confirm this for yourself:

        1. Set a raw hamburger patty on your kitchen counter
        2. Set a raw carrot next to it

        Which rots first?

        Moving on to safety:

        1. Eat the raw hamburger
        2. Eat the raw carrot

        Which makes you sick?

    • Re: Safer foods. (Score:4, Informative)

      by e3m4n ( 947977 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2021 @09:28PM (#61118122)
      Not sure safer is the right word. To make it taste like meat they have to give you a lethal dose of sodium (some exaggeration) . So its not much of a substitute when they eventually tell you that you can only consume 1 per week. Before you do anything with your patties, real meat might have 90mg sodium where beyond has 390mg. So by the time you add that gormet burger seasoning or montreal steak seasoning you could be in trouble. My advice is if your going to consume sodium, make sure you drink 100 fl oz of water a day to help flush your system. By then you should be ok. But those health experts will probably still bitch about the sodium. Thst impossible whopper had like 1000mg. But its fast food, theyre probably all timebombs.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gtall ( 79522 )

        Sodium alone doesn't do it. One needs to add heart stopping amounts of fat. Should be a natural for McDonalds: Try our New McSalt and McFat patty food burger, you'll never live to regret it!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        For comparison a Burger King Whopper (real meat) has around 980mg of sodium in it, so the Impossible Whopper is only 20mg more than a real meat Whopper.

        While the patty has more than a real meat one, they simply balanced it out by reducing the amount of sodium in the other ingredients.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by e3m4n ( 947977 )
          thats pretty high for one item in one meal dont you think? 1000mg? Did you know you can save 300mg just by going bunless? Whodathunkit that buns would have so much sodium. I do appreciate them trying to offset it though. If I am health conscious enough to eat impossible meats, Ive already abandoned 70/30 and 80/20 ground beef. If cooking at home I use 85/15 ground chuck, it tastes a lot better than ground sirloin or ground beef and its better nutritionwise than 80/20 ground burger. I havent tasted beyondmea

      • Re: Safer foods. (Score:4, Informative)

        by crunchygranola ( 1954152 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2021 @09:05AM (#61119182)

        The recommended protein intake for an 80 kg adult is 64 g. If you got all of that protein from Beyond Meat (eating 3.2 burgers) you would consume 1250 mg sodium [greenqueen.com.hk], just slightly more than half the recommended intake limit of 2300 mg.

        So, not suitable for a low sodium diet, or a body builder very high protein regimen, but for a typical person the sodium content is balanced for its protein content and a typical intake pattern (maybe one or two a day?) only consumes a fraction of your daily sodium intake allotment.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by e3m4n ( 947977 )

          whoever told you that protein requirement was highly mis-informed. Real males, who dont sing soprano, that have an active lifestyle need 1g of protein for 1lb of lean muscle mass. If you are a barely active person then you need 0.5g of protein per 1lb of lean muscle mass. link [nasm.org] link [verywellfit.com]. So if your lean body mass, calculated as 0% bodyfat comes in at 145lb (66kg), you still need 72g of protein daily for mildly active people. Your math has someone's body robbing their own muscle tissue. If you're a male you real

    • Bacteria, mold and fungus might act counter to your preconceptions. I'd do experiments before making such an assertion.

    • Well the nice thing is it will not be as perishable as meat

      You seem to think that this is an announcement by McDonald's to increase veggie burger offerings or replace some meat burgers with veggie burgers.

      It's not.

      This is just an announcement that their current veggie burger offerings will be sourced from Beyond Meat rather than another competitor, like Impossible.

      It's no different than a sunroof supplier announcing that it has been selected as the preferred vendor for Ford sunroofs. It has zero bearing on

      • No. I think that more public exposure will make meat substitutes more acceptable. The entire article essentially says that. They're just starting with fast food.

      • > This is just an announcement that their current veggie burger offerings will be sourced from Beyond Meat

        What "current veggie burger offerings" at McDonald's, exactly?

        Also, what planet do you live on?

  • I'm a little scared that people will put plant-based proteins in sandwiches ordered by people who want real meat.

    • their "beef tacos" were textured soy protein. AFAIK nobody ever noticed. There is technically meat in them (enough that if you're vegan you don't want them). And then there's all the shenanigans in Subway "meat" that they use to get the calorie counts that low. Buddy of mine can't eat there without getting violently ill and couldn't figure out why. That's why.

      In general it's best not to think about what's in the food you eat at restaurants.
      • It could be that he's diabetic, and the bread Subway uses could be classified as cake.

      • Yak in the Box tacos are shit. People who buy them have no taste.

        Subway also tastes like shit. I can literally taste the aluminum-based leavening in the bread. The meat is worse.

        In general it's best not to think about what's in the food you eat at restaurants.

        Those aren't restaurants. They're where food goes to die.

  • 'Plant-based meat'. (Score:3)

    by ChunderDownunder ( 709234 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2021 @09:28PM (#61118124)

    Nice clickbait article, editors.

    'meat' comes from an animal.

    If I want a vegie burger, I'll order a vegie burger.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by crunchygranola ( 1954152 )

      'meat' comes from an animal.

      What is the proteinaceous edible part of a nut called?

      The meat.

  • "the clearest sign yet that the future of meat will be plant-based."

    1. That is NOT MEAT, goddamnit!
    2. Meat is here to stay. Marketing slags can say that shit all they want but the human race is NOT going to all become vegetarian.
    3. Deal with it.

    • Maybe it's you to have to deal with things?

      Some people eat plant stuff instead of animal stuff, and even have the galls to call it meat.

      That's not going anywhere, either.

      • Plants != Meat. Plain and simple. If (You) can't accept that simple fact, then you're the one who has something wrong with them, not me.
  • Seems like huge news to sign big time customers like that.

  • Fitting.

    Beyond meat is about the most processed and artificial thing you could possibly eat.

    There's probably toys from Chiina that, of you ate them, would be less processed and closer to human food. ;)

    And all because some city dwellers that never saw nature are too selfish to use condoms, and want humanity to grow despite its depletion of resources, until we've extincted ALL other life on earth.
    (If they really cared about nature, and not just about virtue signaling and denial, they'd not make any more human

  • Simulated Meat is a good thing ... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Qbertino ( 265505 ) <moiraNO@SPAMmodparlor.com> on Wednesday March 03, 2021 @04:32AM (#61118848)

    ... I'd would be nice to see this catch on big time. Meat has an abysmal eco-balance, aside from regular meat being hell for animals. If we reduce meat back to rarer quality premium food, that would be a huge positive for the environment.

    • The problem is that "Beyond" meat is one of the most universally panned meat substitutes. I've had it. It's garbage. Total fucking garbage.

      I finally had an impossible burger recently, they were at grocery outlet for $2.50 a two pack. It tasted and felt very much like a shitty burger. Given the price and the general unhealthiness of it, that means it's garbage too. It's just expensive garbage.

      Let us know when there's a meat substitute that isn't fucking pathetic.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by EvilSS ( 557649 )
        You should try getting a regular and impossible whopper and do a blind taste test. The difference is barely noticeable. I wouldn't want it for my homemade burgers, or burgers from good restaurants, but industrial fast food like BK or McD? It's perfect for that. The burgers are already so overcooked, bland, and shitty that it really does a good job as a substitute at those places.

        • I don't eat Whoppers any more, because I keep burping up the flavoring for hours afterwards. This does not happen to me with any other burger.

  • Has anyone ever looked at the ingredients in beyond meat? It's less healthy than McDonalds, and that's saying something.
  • So, in order to have a high-quality, free and most importantly safe kitchen, you do not need to do much. Personally, based on my experience, I decided to contact this company this link [kitchensearch.com]. She helped me greatly in securing my kitchen and making it quite spacious.

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