Beyond the Headlines: A Clarification Regarding Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods

A New York Times article came out last week about Impossible Foods. The piece raises questions about heme, the GMO-derived ingredient in their Impossible Burger.

We’ve received a number of questions from our Beyond Meat consumers about heme,which, we do not use. These inquiries reinforced our understanding that folks often confuse us with Impossible Foods. We get it–there are some similarities. Our founder is named Ethan Brown. Impossible’s founder is named Pat Brown (no relation). Also, Bill Gates is an investor in both companies. And we both make plant-based burgers that the media has dubbed as “bleeding veggie burgers.”

There are some important aspects of Beyond Meat’s approach to innovation that we want to underscore:

— Beyond Meat does not use GMO ingredients. We believe it is entirely possible to recreate meat directly from plants without GMOs, and we would offer The Beyond Burger as evidence that we’re onto something.

— Beyond Meat has never tested our products or ingredients on animals. Our scientists are focused on identifying existing plant-based ingredients that emulate the properties of meat. For example, to achieve the beefy red color of our Beyond Burger, they tested hundreds of vegetables and fruit extracts, before settling on a combination of beet powder and annatto.

— The Beyond Burger is soy free and gluten free.

Okay, glad we got that cleared up. While we have your attention, please be sure to visit our website for the latest list of forward-thinking retailers shelving The Beyond Burger in their meat case. We’re up to about 2,000 stores nationwide!

-Team Beyond