Tag: Beyond Meat ethics

• Beyond Chicken Tenders at the Grocery Outlet – sustainability & ethical rating

  Beyond Chicken tenders have been available at the Grocery Outlet for $2.99, compared to the normal price of between $5 and $6. However, last weekend they were reduced even further to $1.99 (at least in one store), so it’s a good time to try them out if you’re thinking of reducing your carbon footprint or reducing harm to animals. We kill around 50 billion chickens per year, for worldwide meat production – that’s over 6 times the number of humans on earth, slaughtered every year. The vast majority of the chickens live in extremely crowded, inhumane conditions. The business of slaughtering animals is also creating a negative miasma in society – check out this post on the social impact of the meat industry.

  Beyond Chicken Tenders – review

  First off, I’m not sure that I’ve ever had a chicken nugget, so it’s hard for me to compare Beyond Chicken directly to chicken. However, you can check online for reviews of plant-based chicken tenders and you’ll find that most of the taste panelists (The Kitchn, Food Network, Buzzfeed, etc.) consider them to be very close in taste and texture to real chicken. Is there really any need to eat chicken anymore?

  

  I have, however, had many kinds of plant-based chicken nuggets and I’ll say that these stand out for juiciness and meatiness. They pair perfectly with JUST vegan mayo (which I need to review here at some point) for dipping, but also work quite well with Spero vegan goat cheese and many other options.

  My most important tip is that I’d recommend cooking for longer than the 8 minutes directed on the packet or you may find them a bit too juicy! I find that around 12 to 15 minutes in a toaster oven (turning halfway) gives the best results. Cooking in an air fryer also gives very good results.

  Beyond Chicken Tenders – Ingredients and Nutrition

  There are certainly a lot of ingredients – I wouldn’t eat these on a daily basis – but it’s still a lot better than a regular chicken nugget. It’s worth mentioning that folk who eat a lot of animal-based protein have shorter lives, relative to those who follow plant-based diets.

  Beyond Chicken Tenders – Ingredients: Water, Faba Bean Protein, Breading (Wheat Flour, Rice Flour, Salt, Corn Starch, Pea Protein, Canola Oil, Wheat Gluten, Paprika, Spices, Dextrose, Leavening[Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Monocalcium Phosphate], Sugar, Sunflower Oil, Dried Onion, Dried Garlic, Yeast Extract, Natural Flavors), Breadcrumbs (Wheat Flour, Sugar, Sea Salt, Dried Yeast), Vital Wheat Gluten, Modified Corn Starch, Natural Flavors, Expeller-Pressed Canola Oil, Pea starch, Methylcellulose, and 1% or less of Yeast Extract, Refined Coconut Oil, Salt, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Sodium Phosphates, Spices, Titanium dioxide (for color), Sunflower Lecithin. Contains: Wheat, May Contain Soy

  Beyond Chicken Tenders – Nutrition Facts: The fat content is not super high – I thought there would be more, based on the taste. They do contain sodium 20% of your recommended sodium intake, per serving, so I would recommend sticking to the serving size. Also, as the picture below shows, I ate four of them (2 servings) in one meal and found that this was too much – they are pretty filling.  

  

  Ethical rating for Beyond Chicken Tenders

  I’ve previously written about the sustainability of Beyond Meat on The Green Stars Project, so please take a look at that post for more information, including detail on a life-cycle assessment (LCA) of peas versus other protein such as meat. Beyond Meat started off well with that LCA study and pretty minimal packaging for their Beyond Sausage and Cookout Classic burgers 10-pack. Since then, Beyond Meat haven’t produced much new information on sustainability, and the amount of packaging for some of the newer products, like these Beyond Chicken Tenders is pretty high, relative to the contents. Beyond Meat still rates well, ethically, but needs to step it up right now – having Kim Kardashian telling us that Beyond Meat is better for the planet is not enough.

  I think that Beyond Chicken Tenders deserve 4/5 Green Stars for social and environmental impact, based on these factors:

  • Beyond Chicken is a vegan product. Adopting a plant-based diet is the top thing you can do to mitigate deforestation & climate change and to end animal cruelty and the insidious negative impact that the meat industry has on society.
  • The main ingredients, faba (fava) beans, peas, and wheat are far more sustainable than meat.
  • Legumes such as peas and beans are among the most sustainable protein sources, as shown in many studies such as the well-regarded 2018 study by Poore and Nemecek.
  • Legumes generally require far less fertilizer as the plants fix their own nitrogen
  • Packaging for Beyond Chicken Tenders is disappointing compared to Beyond Sausage and other Beyond Meat products – a thick plastic bag was used when a box could have been used (e.g., as used by Quorn).
  • Unlike other Beyond Meat products, this one is not non-GMO certified – this is also a step backward for Beyond Meat. I don’t expect the beans and peas to be organic, but other ingredients should be.
  • I’d also like to see corporate sustainability reports from Beyond Meat and more information on ingredient sourcing.

  Summary scores (out of 5) for Beyond Chicken Tenders:

  • 4.5 gold stars for quality and value
  • 4 green stars for social and environmental impact

  

  If you have a different opinion, please share your rating!

  August 14, 2022

  Beyond Meat ethics, Beyond Meat Grocery Outlet, Beyond Meat sustainability, Grocery Outlet

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• Beyond Meat Cookout Classic burgers

  Having stocked up and reviewed Beyond Sausage previously, I was excited to see Beyond Meat Cookout Classic burgers on sale at the Grocery Outlet, recently. This is a 10-pack of their burgers on sale for $7.99, compared to a normal price of around $17. This was a limited release from Beyond Meat and they are no longer in stock on the company website, so at this point availability is probably very limited.

  The Grocery Outlet is also currently selling Impossible Burgers at a steep discount, so it’s a good time to try out these two products and compare them. That’s exactly what I did, and I would summarize the comparison as follows:

  1. As a vegetarian, I prefer the Beyond Meat burgers to the Impossible Burger, simply because the Impossible Burger tastes too meaty to me and I prefer the more nuanced flavor of these Beyond Meat burgers.
  2. Conversely, if you are used to eating meat then you may prefer the Impossible Burger – but I’d recommend trying both.
  3. In both cases I add a lot of dried dill and organic ketchup, along with tomato, napa cabbage, etc., to my burgers, particularly for the Impossible Burger, where I feel that I need to mask the overly meaty flavor.

  Bottom line is that I really like the Beyond Meat Classic Cookout burgers and intend to stock up on more of them while they’re still at the Grocery Outlet. They’re also very light on packaging, but I’ll get to that later.

  Beyond Meat Cookout Burgers – ingredients.

  Water, Pea Protein, Expeller-Pressed Canola Oil, Refined Coconut Oil, Rice Protein, Natural Flavors, Methylcellulose, Potato Starch, Apple Extract, Pomegranate Extract, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Vinegar, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Sunflower Lecithin, Beet Juice Extract (for color), Carrot.

  

  How to cook Beyond Meat Classic Cookout burgers

  Basically you store the burgers in the freezer and take them out to thaw in advance of cooking. You can thaw them at room temperature for a few hours if cooking the same day or in the fridge overnight, where you can keep them for up to a week before cooking. I tried cooking one from frozen but it’s not recommended as you may end up with a cold or even frozen center, depending on how you cook them. So thaw and then cook in a pan (non-stick or regular) that’s pre-heated with a very thin film of olive oil – or you can omit the oil as the burgers have plenty of fat in them. I cook them as directed, for 4 minutes per side on medium-high heat and add sometimes a slice of vegan cheese to the top after flipping them (I’ll get around to reviewing that cheese someday!).

  You can also take a raw burger and mix in herbs (thyme, sage, etc.) and spices (smoked paprika, mustard, etc.) and then shape the burger into breakfast sausages. The burgers are fairly large so each one can be turned into three or four breakfast sausages.

  Ethical rating for Beyond Meat Classic Cookout burgers

  I’ve previously written about the sustainability of Beyond Meat on The Green Stars Project, and also reviewed Beyond Sausage on this site. Overall, I think that Beyond Sausage deserves 4.5/5 Green Stars for social and environmental impact, based on these factors:

  • A vegan product that avoids hardship to animals.
  • A life-cycle assessment showed that Beyond Meat burger is far more sustainable than beef, cutting water use, land use, and greenhouse-gas emissions by over 90% each.
  • A 2018 Oxford University study looked at various metrics such as carbon and pollution footprints and land use. Peas and other legumes had the best scores on all fronts.
  • Legumes such as peas general require far less fertilizer because the plants fix their own nitrogen.
  • Packaging for these 10-packs of Beyond Meat burgers is nice and minimal. There’s a cardboard box and inside is one bag containing all of the burgers – that’s not a lot of packaging for 10 burgers. You can recycle the box and, for bonus points, you could repurpose the bag for something like kitty litter disposal.
  • I’d like to see corporate sustainability reports from Beyond Meat and more information on ingredient sourcing.

  Summary scores (out of 5) for Beyond Meat Classic Cookout burgers:

  • 4.5 gold stars for quality and value
  • 4.5 green stars for social and environmental impact

  If you have a different opinion, please share your rating! Until next time, stay safe and sane : )

  February 4, 2021

  Beyond Meat burger review, Beyond Meat burger sustainability, Beyond Meat Cookout Classic, Beyond Meat ethics, Beyond Meat Grocery Outlet, Beyond Meat sustainability, Beyond Meat versus Impossible Burger, Cookout Classic 10-pack, Greenhouse gas emissions, how to cook Beyond Meat burgers, land and water use, LCA

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• Beyond Sausage at the Grocery Outlet

  Visiting the Grocery Outlet in October, I was most excited to find Beyond Meat sausages on sale in their freezer – the Sweet Italian flavor of Beyond Sausage, which was new to me. I’ve tried their Hot Italian and their Brat Original sausages and the latter have become a regular buy for me – semi-regular, as they’re usually priced a little over $9 at Whole Foods. So, seeing the new flavor of Beyond Sausage at the Grocery Outlet for $3.49, I bought eight packs – just enough to fill the remaining space in my freezer! I don’t normally buy such large quantities of anything but its lockdown (the excuse for everything, ha ha) and it’s nice to have a change of pace from avocado toast for lunch.

  Is Beyond Sausage still available at the Grocery Outlet?

  First off, I don’t know if you’re going to be lucky enough to find the Beyond Sausages at your Grocery Outlet now that it’s November. But there’s a reasonable chance as this isn’t the first time that I’ve found Beyond Meat products in one of my local Bay Area (California) stores. Previously I found meatballs from Beyond Meat at the Alameda store, if my fuzzy lockdown brain recalls correctly. This blog is just getting started so I’m a little behind schedule for now, but I’m hoping in future to post reviews of products very soon after I find them. The Grocery Outlet isn’t like a regular store – popular products will sometimes sell out over a few weeks. But don’t despair – they often return!

  

  How to cook Beyond Sausage (Sweet Italian)

  Since I had so many sausages to experiment with, I discovered a few things to improve them. At first I wasn’t enjoying the Sweet Italian sausages as much as the Original Brat that I normally buy. They tasted too charred on the outside, too undone on the inside and a little too sweet overall. Three things helped to make them a lot better:

  1. Cook them at a lower temperature than you would expect. Beyond Meat sausages are made with coconut oil, which has a lower smoke point than most other oils. So, the key thing is to cook them on a medium heat – if your kitchen smells smoky (or of charred food) after you’ve finished cooking then the cooking temperature was probably too high. I cook mine for about 8-10 minutes in a non-stick pan coated with a very small amount of olive oil, flipping them once, which brings me to the next point.
  2. Split the sausages down the middle before cooking. This may sound wrong as the sausages have a casing to keep them intact (it’s made from alginate, which comes from seaweed) and I didn’t need to split the Original Brat sausages that I normally eat. But when I cooked the Sweet Italian sausages whole, the inside of the sausage seemed a little undercooked to me and I didn’t like the pinkish color. So now I split them down the middle, lengthwise (don’t worry, they won’t fall apart!) and cook them on the round (casing) side first and then flip them to cook the open flat side.
  3. Eat these with fixings like lettuce and tomato. Because of their slight sweetness, the sausages work much better when you pair them with any of the typical fixings like lettuce, tomato, or avocado. Typically, I toast a little bread (whole-wheat walnut or sourdough work well), butter it (optional!) and then stack lettuce, tomato, salt and pepper and half a sausage (split down the middle before cooking). Because they contain a fair amount of fat it’s really good to pair them with healthy veggies, both for taste and health 🙂

  

  Now that I’ve discovered a good way to cook and eat these, I’m super-happy that I have 5 more packs in the freezer! They aren’t quite as good as the Original Brat, in my opinion, but they’re pretty close – and at around one-third of the Whole Foods price, I’m totally sold on them. Now let’s take a look at how they rate ethically….

  Ethical rating for Beyond Sausage (Sweet Italian)

  I’ve previously written about the sustainability of Beyond Meat on The Green Stars Project, so please take a look at that post for more information, including detail on a life-cycle assessment (LCA) of peas versus other protein such as meat. As you probably know, the main ingredient of Beyond Meat products such as Beyond Sausage is pea protein, usually followed by coconut oil and sunflower oil.

  Overall, I think that Beyond Sausage deserves 4.5 Green Stars (out of 5) for social and environmental impact, based on these factors:

  • It’s a vegan product that avoids hardship to animals
  • Life-cycle assessments show that peas are far more sustainable than meat
  • A 2018 Oxford University study looked at various metrics such as carbon and pollution footprints and land use. Peas (and other legumes) scored really well on all fronts.
  • Legumes generally require far less fertilizer as these plants can fix their own nitrogen
  • Packaging for Beyond Sausage is impressive – a cardboard tray (which I can recycle as the sausage casing prevents them from staining the cardboard) and a thin film with a label.
  • Room for improvement: I’d like to see Beyond Meat use organic sunflower oil, as almost all conventional sunflower crops are treated with neonics, insecticides that harm bees.
  • I’d also like to see corporate sustainability reporting from Beyond Meat and more information on ingredient sourcing. Especially now that it’s a huge public company.

  I had been debating whether to do Green Stars ratings only in whole units, or to allow half-stars also. In my original post on Beyond Meat, I awarded the sausages 5/5 Green Stars. Now, I’m thinking that it’s useful to be able to score in half-star increments as it allows more nuance – in this case I’m dropping half a Green Star as a way of telling Beyond Meat that I’d like them to use organic sunflower oil in their products and to publish more information on sustainability (e.g., a CSR report).

  Overall, though, I think Beyond Sausage is one of the most ethical meat substitutes around.

  Summary scores (out of 5) for Beyond Sausage Sweet Italian:

  • 4 gold stars for quality and value
  • 4.5 green stars for social and environmental impact

  If you have a different opinion, please share your rating! Until next time, stay safe and don’t panic 🙂

  November 6, 2020

  Beyond Meat ethics, Beyond Meat Grocery Outlet, Beyond Meat sustainability, Beyond Sausage review, how to cook Beyond Sausage

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