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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Beyond burgers

Beyond Meat Announces 10-Pack, Narrows Price Point Gap With Traditional Meat, Plans D2C Site

Beyond Meat today announced its new Cookout Classic, a limited edition 10-pack of its plant-based burgers going on sale this month at the majority Walmart and Target stores in the U.S.

Normally, we wouldn’t cover packaging news, but today’s announcement is less about the box Beyond’s burgers will come in and more about the price of that 10-pack. In a press announcement emailed to The Spoon, Beyond says it will sell the Cookout Classic for $15.99, which is $1.60 per patty. That brings the price of its burger closer to the cost of traditional meat.

Right now, Beyond Meat burger patties sell in two packs that retail for $4.84, or $2.42 per patty, over at Walmart.com. Regular beef hamburger patties on Walmart sell for as little as $7.92 for a 12-pack (.66 cents per patty). While Beyond’s burgers still come in at more than twice the cost of the cheapest meat option, Beyond is more likely going after a customer that is willing to spend more to begin with.

However, getting the price down will be critical for Beyond and other players in the alternative protein space in order to make plant-based burgers cross over into the mainstream. The COVID-19 pandemic actually helped push more people into buying plant-based meats, with sales of the product up 264 percent between March and May of this year. Between that and shortages with our current meat supply chain, the time is right for Beyond to get its price down to attract more customers.

Also tucked away in today’s announcement is the news that Beyond will be launching its own direct-to-consumer site later this summer. This is of particular interest because earlier this month, plant-based burger rival Impossible launched its own direct-to-consumer sales. The Impossible site sells its burgers and ground product in bulk, and with Beyond launching its new 10-pack, it’s a safe bet they will as well.

But until then, if you are looking to grill up Beyond burgers for the whole family this summer, the new Cookout Classic 10-pack will be available in Target and Walmart stores starting June 22. (But before you do, check out our guide to grilling Beyond burgers.)

Cooking Plant-Based Meat Gets Smart as June Oven Adds Beyond Meat Programs

As I’ve confessed before, there are two food tech-related things I absolutely adore: Beyond Burgers and my June oven. Now, thanks to a software update earlier this week, those two things are the peanut butter and chocolate in my connected kitchen world, as the June sports new automated cook programs for Beyond Meat burgers and sausages.

While the news isn’t earth-shattering, it’s a reflection of both how plant-based meats are becoming more mainstream, and how smart cooking appliances will need to get specific when presenting users with a touchscreen full of pre-programmed cooking options.

I haven’t had a chance to test out the new plant-based cooking June features yet, so I have some questions. For instance, regular beef burgers on the June are cooked on a grill that raises the burgers above the pan. Why are Beyond burgers cooked directly on the pan? FWIW, I’ve cooked Beyond patties in the June following the beef instructions, and they turn out just fine (though I’m excited to try out this new feature!).

Also, will the camera automatically tell the difference between a Beyond burger and a meat one? And as June rolls out more “meat” cooking options, will Beyond get its own button a la the Whole Foods option?

One has to wonder how far down the rabbit hole June will go. Beef is beef is beef, so you can pretty easily create universal cook programs for the different cuts of it. But Impossible’s plant-based burgers are coming to grocery stores this year, and June already told us that they will get their own cook program. What about Nestle’s Incredible burgers? Not to mention all the plant-based chicken and fish coming to market. And what will all these choices mean for June’s limited UI space? How many decision trees will a user have to cook what they want?

Phew! That’s a lot of questions. Thankfully, we reached out to June and will update this piece when we hear back.

But it’s not just June that will need to grapple with these issues. Any smart oven manufacturer, like Brava, Markov, or Whirlpool, will also have to figure out its strategy for dealing with the variety of new foods that are being created. Our choices, as it were, are just getting warmed up.