Can you pass the Turing taste test: Telling the difference between plant-based meat and real meat?

On Sept. 29, Beyond MeatBYND

, a plant-based meat producer, announced an expanded distribution with Walmart to offer their plant-based meat products to 1,600 more stores nationwide.

Cookin’ up a global storm

2020 has been a pivotal year for Beyond Meat. Consumers turned to plant-based meat as meat producers struggled with supply chain issues. Meat processing plants became COVID hotspots due to their close-contact working environment while plant-based meat factories were in the clear.

Beyond’s stock has more than doubled in 2020 and up next on its menu, global expansion:

Jun. 11: Launched its first European manufacturing facility to aggressively push into the European market.

Aug. 27: Launched its e-commerce store to sell directly to customers.

Sept. 8: Announced its plans to build a factory in China to expand its Asian presence.

But don’t get caught up in all the positive announcements. Challenges that Beyond Meat will face include:

• High pricing… Plant-based meat is often double the price of real meat but Beyond has a solution: lower selling prices, which it has executed throughout 2020, and reduce production costs by making supply chains more efficient and negotiating better deals with suppliers.
• Competition… Beyond Meat was the first to market with a plant-based meat product but close competitor, Impossible Foods, and traditional meat producers are starting to catch up.

Just what investors ordered: Growth

Having generated just under $300m in 2019 sales, Beyond makes up only 0.13% of the $232b US meat industry. They’ve got a long way to go to catch up to the largest meat producer in the US, Tyson FoodsTSN

, who generates over $40b in sales.

It’s not easy becoming the master chef but here’s Beyond’s plans to cook up the perfect plant-based burger:

• International growth… The company is aggressively targeting China, who makes up nearly 1/3 of the world’s meat consumption. In Sept., Beyond Meat became the first international plant-based meat producer to begin building a production facility in China.
• Plant-based everything… Beyond Meat is looking to dominate all types of meat products with Beyond beef, burgers, sausage and meatballs… It even convinced KFC to sell a plant-based fried chicken.