Beyond Meat The Start Of Something

The talk all this past week revolved around a simple patty. Why was is so special? Because It's Beyond Meat and not only tastes like beef but has the same texture too. Will it spark a vegan revolution? Possibly.

Beyond Meat is a far far cry from when vegan meat  products first came on the market. Thirty years ago you had to visit a health food store to get so so tasting hotdogs and burgers. Some stores , such as The Happy Carrot in River Edge, NJ made a vegan tuna salad using soy, celery and some kind of vegan mayo that was eggless. The tuna salad was passable in taste and texture but you wouldn't want to eat it every day. Vegan restaurants were scarce. Forget the fast food chains. You could order a hamburger, hold the meat at McDonald's. That was it. Slowly but surely vegan foods started to appear in supermarkets. With each decade there was improvement. Companies such as Morningstar Farms and Gardein started to pop up with a cornucopia of soy based "meats'. There was bacon that sort of tasted like the real thing, better than bacon because there was no grease to deal with. The chicken nuggets tasted like the real thing. Gardein nailed it with their hamburgers and fish fillets which taste like the real deal.

Now there is Beyond Meat. The company is not new. It has been around since 2009, started by Ethan Brown in Los Angeles, CA.It's making the news now because Mr. Brown has come up with a plant based "meat" that can easily be subbed in for actual beef. His creation, will no doubt, have Morningstar  Farms and Gardein worried, especially if more and more supermarkets and big box stores like Wal-Mart and Target carry it. Mr Brown's mission is simple . He wants people to forgo any  kind of meat to save animals , save the planet and save his fellow human beings from cancer and heart disease. A plant based diet will cut down on slaughter along with positively influencing climate change and garnering more green land. People who eat less animal protein will have lower cholesterol and less of a chance of getting certain types of cancer. The burgers are already served at Harvard and Carl's Junior. TGIFriday's  also has the Beyond Meat faux beef along with Del Taco.
What is the meat made from? There is no soy, but cellulose from bamboo along with pea protein and refined coconut oil. The red beefy color comes from beet extract along with annatto, natural food coloring that originates from the tropical plant achiote.

Ethan Brown may be the force behind the new wave of veganism. He may make us forget the real beef deal to go for his Beyond Meat. What that means is only good - a planet that is less climate challenged along with less slaughter and less disease.