If you’re a fan of the new Beyond Meat Plant-based Protein Meat Substitutes, you’ll be pleased to hear that the company has launched its Beyond Beef Ground Beef Substitute in Canada. Beyond is expecting big things… Vegan Shepherd’s Pie, Sloppy Joes, or Tacos, anyone?
Stuffed Zucchini à la Beyond Beef loose ground Plant-based Meat Substitute product.
Beyond Meat opened its doors in 2009, describing its mission as, “using simple, plant-based ingredients applied in fresh ways to replicate the taste, texture and other sensory attributes of popular animal-based meat products while offering the nutritional and environmental benefits of plant-based proteins.”
First, they took the Plant-protein Meat Substitute market by storm with their Beyond Burgers, which are now served in most of the major U.S. and Canadian Fast Food joints and sold at are sold at more than 58,000 retail and foodservice outlets in more than 50 countries worldwide.
Now, Beyond is launching its Beyond Beef ‘loose ground’ Meat substitute product in Canada and the company is anticipating another major success.
“Canada is a very progressive market, and, since launching in retail there earlier this year, we’ve seen a tremendous response from Canadians who are interested in our plant-based proteins,” said Ethan Brown, Beyond Meat Founder and CEO. “We are excited to bring our latest product innovation to Canadians, welcoming a growing number of consumers to the delicious taste and nutritional and environmental benefits of our plant-based proteins.”
What can you do with it?
Answer: Just about anything you can do with real Ground Beef. My sense, knowing that the Burgers were intended to be cooked differently than their real meat counterparts, is that the stuff will be best used in applications where the ground ‘meat’ is cooked through first, before assembling the dish, such as Tacos, Lasagna, Sloppy Joes or Quick Chili.
Benefits beyond real Beef
Beyond Burgers and loose ground claim significant health and nutrition benefits over real Meat. These were spotlighted and amped up in what the company calls Beyond 2.0, a new formulation of their product that débuted earlier this year, offering:
- A complete source of protein with 18g per 100g serving
- More iron
- 35% less saturated fat
- Less total fat
- No cholesterol, antibiotics or hormones
On the cosmetic side, Beyond added some esthetic enhancements in version 2.0, including simulated marbling, using Coconut Butter, which makes the cooked product juicer and more flavolurful.
All that on top of the fact that Beyond Plant-based Meat Substitutes are the only ones in the market made without GMOs, Gluten or Soy.
My take
First of all, I know Beyond Fans who have been using the Burger Patties as loose ground by breaking them up with their hands. You could still do that it you want, but I’m betting that most Beyond fans are also bid fans of convenience and will go with the new Beyond Beef loose product rather than bothering with the extra hand step.
Now, if only Beyond could bring the price down to that of real Meat (which is already really pricey) or even drop it below, we’d have a product everyone could both appreciate and afford.
~ Maggie J.