The plant-based company Beyond Meat has launched its “Test Kitchen,” releasing clean-label ground products and whole-cut mycelium steak — and they’ve been a quick hit.
It works to turn around its sales and eliminate its debt, US plant-based pioneer Beyond Meat has debuted a new strategy to launch its innovations. The company has unveiled Beyond Test Kitchen, a customer-led approach to product development, giving them an exclusive first taste of its new proteins before wider rollout.
Each product is produced in limited quantities and sold in fashion-industry-style ‘drops exclusively on Beyond Test Kitchen’s direct-to-consumer website. Its first products are the much-anticipated Beyond Ground and the mycelium-based steak that has only been available in restaurants, and they’ve been selling fast.
As part of the Beyond Test Kitchen, the company has also launched the Ground product in three flavours: Chipotle Pineapple, Korean BBQ Style, and Tuscan Style Tomato. These do contain more fat, saturated fat, and sodium, but don’t need further seasoning during cooking.
The whole-cut Beyond Steak Filet has so far only been available at restaurants like BOA Steakhouse, Ladybird, and Next Level Veggie Grill. After hearing what customers said, Beyond Meat is now offering this mycelium-based steak for people to cook at home for the first time.
The steak is made from a base of wheat gluten, fava bean protein, avocado oil and mycelium, along with a small amount of brown rice powder, oat bran, malted barley flour, beet juice for colour, apple extract, spices and natural flavours, starter culture, and salt. Each 127-gram fillet gives you 28 grams of alternative protein and 3 grams of fibre, with only 1 gram of saturated fat.