Beyond Meat announced today that it is launching its new Beyond Chicken Tenders at select restaurants across the country. The plant-based chicken tenders are made from faba beans and peas and have 14g of protein per serving.
That Beyond Meat is expanding the availability of its chicken products is no surprise, since poultry is the most consumed meat in the U.S. It certainly wasn’t going to be a category that Beyond ignored. The company had an earlier chicken strip product that it pulled back in 2012 to focus on its alternative beef and pork. In 2019, Beyond piloted a Beyond fried chicken product with KFC in Atlanta before expanding that program to more states including North Carolina, Tennessee and California. In April of this year, Bloomberg reported that Beyond was telling its customers to expect a chicken product this summer.
Beyond is launching at a time when demand for chicken is soaring, thanks in part to the chicken sandwich wars that restaurants are duking out with one another. As a result, The Wall Street Journal wrote in May that chicken supply is limited and prices are steep. Introducing a plant-based chicken could help restaurants fill in any supply gaps for certain demographics — kids, for instance, probably wouldn’t know if they were eating plant-based tenders vs. animal-based ones.
On the flip side, however, Beyond is entering into an increasingly crowded plant-based chicken tender/nugget space that already includes products from startups such as Daring, Rebellyous, Nowadays, and SIMULATE, as well as giant retailers like Target, which launched its own line of plant-based foods. However, given Beyond’s size, market cap, and extensive retail and restaurant relationships, it towers above its competition and could wind up squeezing out some of these smaller startups before they have the chance to fully mature.
Beyond Chicken Tenders will be available at roughly 400 restaurants across the country starting today. To see if and where they are being offered close to you, visit this restaurant locator.
