Recent years have been lean times for Beyond Meat, but the company is aiming to turn things around with new products, including a new steak alternative. The company already sells plant-based steak tips made with ingredients including faba beans and wheat, but the new product will be made with mycelium, the root-like part of fungi, to mimic the texture of meat, CNBC reports. CEO Ethan Brown tells CNBC that unlike earlier partnerships with fast-food chains, the new steak alternative will probably be introduced in a partnership with a chain selling healthier food.
The company's market valuation has slumped to below $400 million from a high of $14 billion. As part of its turnaround strategy, it has been putting more emphasis on health than on climate change. With the new product, the "focus on this has been a very small number of ingredients, very high protein, very low saturated fat," Brown tells CNBC. New versions of Beyond Burger and Beyond Chicken will also have a shorter list of ingredients to counter perceptions that meat alternatives are too processed.
"We're going to build healthier, better for you, center-of-the-plate proteins," Brown told Fast Company in July. "We have an unassailable story on the environment. An obviously unassailable story on animal welfare. We needed to make our story on health unassailable." The magazine noted that the approach is in line with Whole Foods' prediction that in food trends this year, "more companies would put the 'plant' back in plant-based," replacing "complex meat alternatives" with simple ingredients. (More Beyond Meat stories.)
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