Beyond Meat Has Good News For Costco Shoppers
Beyond Meat just rolled out plant-based meatballs to grocery stores a few months ago (via Business Insider). The company says on its website that the meatballs can be found in a number of outlets, including Kroger, Albertsons, and Whole Foods. On Thursday, December 3, Beyond Meat announced that you can add Costco to that list (via Yahoo!).
While the world has been warming up to meatless meat for a few years now (via Fast Company), and Costco is famous for selling in bulk, we're not yet talking about Beyond Meatballs coming in 50-pound bags. Instead, you'll find a double-sized 24-pack of Beyond Meatballs in select Costcos for $9.99. Yahoo! reported you should be able to find them in New York, New Jersey, and California at least. Beyond Meatballs usually come in 12-packs that cost $6.99 or more, so as usual, you're getting a good deal at Costco.
Meatballs are one of the newer additions to a growing product line at Beyond Meat. The company also offers burger patties, sausage, and "crumbles" that sit nicely inside a taco. Beyond Meat recently introduced lower-fat burger patties, according to Yahoo! The company introduced the original Beyond Burger patties in 2016. The patties first appeared in Costco in late 2019.
Beyond Meat has also shown up on fast food menus
Beyond Meatballs are more or less the same as the other Beyond Meat products, just shaped into balls and seasoned to taste like traditional Italian meatballs. Beyond Meat starts with a base of plant protein (pea and rice in the meatballs) that gets pressed, heated, and cooled to give it a meat-like texture. Then the food engineers layer in the fat, in the form of canola and coconut oils, and some carbs, such as potato starch. Beet powder gives the meatballs a meat-like color.
Beyond Meat has also been establishing itself in the fast food scene. Beyond Fried Chicken debuted this past summer at KFCs in southern California (via Business Insider). Beyond's products are available at Hardee's and Carl's Jr., and Dunkin' has a Beyond Sausage sandwich (via Fox Business). Beyond Meat has also made an Italian sausage topping exclusively for Pizza Hut.
Beyond Meat's biggest competitor is Impossible Foods, which scored a deal with Burger King to offer the Impossible Whopper. Impossible's products involve genetically engineered yeast, while Beyond Meat boasts no GMOs. Both companies place a smaller carbon footprint on the planet than industrial beef production (via FoodPrint).