The two titans in the plant-based burger industry received probably the most press in the food industry in the last two years and before their 2.0 versions go mainstream, it might be time to evaluate how I feel about both companies.
Being in the space, I had the chance to talk to the many people involved in creating these surreal plant products.
We’ll first go into their products such as how they taste and what I find great and bad about their product. I’m just one food scientist and there are many other cool people who have tasted the product and have given their feedback. What I do find interesting is that there aren’t many comparisons between the two companies.
Next, is their marketing strategy which I find pretty cool, at least when first starting out.
And finally, I’d like to talk about the people I’ve met. I think this is what makes this article a bit more unique. The culture of both companies are radically different, and perhaps that might be the game changer when it comes to dominating this field.
Product
Both are great products.
To put it bluntly, Impossible Foods is a soy-wheat-proprietary thing burger and beyond burger is an extruded pea protein-based burger with a lot of stuff to mask the terrible taste of pea protein.
Both formulas work in delivering a meaty texture with a savory taste, suited specifically to the average meat eater who wants to replace meat from their diet.
Looking at the label, both companies will make someone mad about their product. Impossible has, well, wheat, soy, and heme, which will freak people out and people are still mad about how long the list is for Beyond Meat even though it’s a delicious product which has no top-8 allergens. People will always get mad about something innovative, but both companies know that there will be people who’ll eat it. Obviously.
I’ll try my best to describe the taste of each. I find the Beyond Burger to not really taste like meat, but still tastes pretty darn good. It tastes meaty, but not like meat. It leaves a slight metallic aftertaste in my mouth, and I guess I always cook it wrong because it’s always pink for me, but the restaurants serve it with a gray color. Overall, the meat experience is there, but it doesn’t taste like beef.
For Impossible, it really depends who makes it. I found White Castle’s slider too salty and it falls apart. I found it begin catered at the GFI conference too wheaty for my taste, probably because the chefs overcooked it. I found the caterer who served it at the special event where Pat Brown spoke absolutely phenomenal.
For the impossible, it really depends on who cooks it, which I feel is why it’s very hard for them to go CPG, because most consumers will mess it up. In terms of a low-quality fast food burger, Impossible does the best job emulating that. Take that as you will.
So in terms of which I like, I find the Beyond Burger much more robust, and I prefer it because I can eat it at home, but I find that in the hands of a skillful chef, there are some crazy things you can create with the Impossible that make it taste really good. However, the Beyond Sausage is probably the best sausage I’ve ever had. Yea, not a clear answer, but I don’t like playing favorites.
Placement
I did a talk at Indiebio under Alex Shirazi’s pre-symposium and talked about the target market. In one of my slides that were well received, I compared the Beyond Burger and Impossible Burger’s target market.
Both companies cater to a premium consumer but in different angles. Though they want to target the masses, there are two problems with this approach for now: both products are much more expensive than meat, and the premium market is willing to spend more to make a statement. It was actually not only recently where both players entered the mainstream in the fast food industry, where this might change drastically. Impossible Foods has had great success with White Castle while Beyond Meat did a great job with Carl’s Jr and Del Taco. As someone who’s tasted the White Castle and Carl’s Jr burgers, it’s quite impressive. Both burgers, however, are much more expensive than their beef burger counterparts.
The origins both companies took to market is quite fascinating as well.
Impossible started in the business to business (B2B) route because it wanted high-end chefs to work on the product first to generate buzz fast. The Impossible Foods trajectory was to show that this product was so cool and exotic that people needed to taste it. And it worked.
Beyond Meat did have food service under their belt, but with the release of the Beyond Burger, they focused on the CPG realm, serving their products fresh in the meat aisle. With this, they are making the product relatable to meat. You can now see their product sitting next to grass-fed beef in Whole Foods, Safeway and probably other places. This has served them very very well.
Of course, most companies have to cross streams. Beyond Meat has always had products in restaurants, but now they are being more vocal about it, working together with fast food restaurants. Impossible foods announced that they will have a CPG launched at the end of the year.
Now since both products are going mainstream, it will now be more of a Coke and Pepsi battle. Is your establishment team Impossible or team Beyond? It is unlikely that an institution can serve both in the future.
People
I’ve had a chance to talk to both members of Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods and suffice to say, I’ve enjoyed the people at Beyond Meat much more. I find them a bit more down to earth and passionate compared to Impossible, but perhaps I haven’t found the right person to talk to.
For the people I’ve talked to in Beyond Meat, I have great stories. I forget some of their names, but I found them engaging. Two actually have been guests on My Food Job Rocks: Deya Trujillo, and Weber Stibolt (who just got a job at Beyond. Congrats Weber!). I also had a chance to eat with Daruish Ajami (VP of Product in Beyond Meat) at the Protein Seminar and he gave me some great advice when starting out Better Meat Co. So I have quite a connection to the people at Beyond. Impossible, I’ve met a few, but they don’t like to talk much, they are very shy and seem to ignore me. Maybe I’m just not for them. However, if someone at Impossible can give me a good impression, it just starts with an email to me.
Perhaps this has also been a reflection of the founders and who they want on their team. Coincidentally, both founders have the last name Brown. Pat Brown leads Impossible, Ethan Brown leads Beyond. I’ve listened to both speak, and the way they present themselves is very similar to who they hire, and who’s on their team.
Both are pretty fervent in their mission. Ethan Brown is happy to have his son eat a vegan burger in a fast food chain, Pat Brown wants to end meat by 2035. Take your pick on which mission you like.
An ever-expanding category
With the plant-based burger industry growing and introducing new players such as Nestle, Lightlife, Morning Star and other great players, we’re now on a cusp of the mainstream market. If Beyond or Impossible don’t fit your jam, there are plenty of opportunities in the plant-based meat space, and expect innovation to explode in this sector in the future.
