Beyond Meat's Only Real Competition Is Impossible Burger

Beyond Meat had a first to market advantage, trailblazing a new secular movement away from animal protein. But the competition wasn’t far behind.

Kellogg (K) introduced “Incogmeato,” which is a plant-based meat alternative made from non-GMO soy such as Chik’n tenders and Chik’n nuggets. Kroger started selling a new line of branded plant-based burgers, other meatless products like dips, pasta sauces and cookie dough following under their Simple Truth Plant Based label. Hormel Foods started selling its plant-based meat substitute called “Happy Little Plants.”

But the biggest threat was Impossible Foods which first launched the Impossible Burger through Burger King. Although Beyond Meat entered into a joint venture called The PLANeT Partnership, LLC with PepsiCo. Impossible Burger just reduced their prices by 20%. Impossible Burger will drop to $5.49 for patties and $6.99 for a 12 oz. package in about 17,000 U.S. grocery stores including Walmart (WMT), Kroger (KR), Safeway and Target (TGT). Their ultimate goal is to undercut the cost of a traditional beef burger by increase production rates. In just the last two years, Impossible Burger has increased their production rates by 9X.

Now I do think there is room for both companies as their burgers make-up and taste are very different.

Impossible meat patties are made from a blend of soy and potato protein, mixed with sunflower oil, yeast extract, salt, and a whole lot of other scientific-sounding ingredients (full ingredient list can be found here). The most notable thing about Impossible patties is the inclusion of heme, an iron ion found in all living things that gives meat its inherently meaty flavor. The heme used in Impossible Foods is derived from fermented soybeans.

Like Impossible, Beyond Meat’s patty is also made from a blend of plant proteins -- just different plants. Beyond contains a mixture of pea, mung bean, and rice proteins, canola and coconut oil instead of sunflower, potato starch, and beet juice extract to give the “meat” its pink hue. The full list of ingredients in the Beyond patty can be found here.

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But don’t continue to expect technology growth like top and bottom lines for Beyond Burger moving forward.