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KFC's Meatless 'Beyond Fried Chicken' Gets Limited-Time Rollout Across America (gizmodo.com) 164

Gizmodo looks at "Beyond Fried Chicken," KFC's newest menu option from Beyond Meat, reporting that it's been available in limited U.S. test markets since 2019, until a few weeks ago when KFC announced a "limited-time national rollout" across America.

"That began on January 10, with the company estimating supplies would last for around four weeks..." Beyond Fried Chicken has the exact same breading as KFC's real chicken, complete with the dash of the chain's secret ingredient white pepper (once you know what it is, you can't fail to notice it), along with the MSG and salt. It was somehow both crisp and super oily. The actual "Beyond" component of Beyond Fried Chicken tastes, well, like chicken. It's at the very least competitive with most other fast food nugget options, which may be saying a lot or a little depending on your view on nuggs.... I found the texture quite pleasant. I'm frankly not totally sure that I'd be able to tell the difference between them and one of KFC's discontinued nugget recipes in a blind taste test.

Though "vegetarian" usually gets conflated with health, Beyond Fried Chicken is anything but. The company's guide indicates that a six-pack of the Beyond nuggets comes in at 480 calories, 27 grams of fat, and 1,440 milligrams of sodium. Mashed.com pointed out the closest comparable menu item, a kids' size Popcorn Chicken, comes in at 290 calories, 19 grams of fat, and 870 milligrams of sodium. But then, fast food is about indulging in something you know is a little bad for you....

Not that cats are a true measure of whether fake chicken can pass for the real thing, but I feel it's important to note in this review that my cats began swarming around the kitchen counter meowing from the second the bag was unwrapped.

The article includes footage of the cat eating one of the meatless chicken nuggets. And finally... As for whether Beyond Fried Chicken is going to save the planet... that's the wrong question. Chicken is much better in terms of carbon footprint than beef. But eating something other than meat is better still. The peas it's made of are actually one of the most carbon-friendly, protein-rich foods.
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KFC's Meatless 'Beyond Fried Chicken' Gets Limited-Time Rollout Across America

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  • erm (Score:5, Funny)

    by Blymie ( 231220 ) on Monday January 31, 2022 @08:38AM (#62223163)

    If I still ate at KFC, my first though would be, do they use special, separate fryers for this?

    Because I don't want this fake food on my real food.

    • Re: erm (Score:5, Informative)

      by TuballoyThunder ( 534063 ) on Monday January 31, 2022 @10:00AM (#62223385)
      Same fryers from what my vegan friends tell me, so it isn't vegan. They think it is a good step though and they are glad KFC made the step
      • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

        by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 )

        Same fryers from what my vegan friends tell me, so it isn't vegan. They think it is a good step though and they are glad KFC made the step

        Whatever. Do your vegan friends allow natural fertilizers? I mean that cow didn't give their consent to have it's manure used, and there is a whole lot of animal stuff in it. My Grandmam kept chickens, and used chicken manure tea to fertilize her veggies. Corpse eaters, amirite?

        It's the problem with veganism. I believe that all life from bacteria to plants to animals is precious. But I know that none of us lives unless we kill other life. Vegans have just deemed animal life as precious, and plant life as

        • I'm with you 100% that their position isn't always logically consistent and I don't agree with all of their views (eggs is another example). That said, I am able to be friends with people who I don't agree with and I respect their lifestyle choice (to include eating vegan when I'm having dinner with them).
          • I am vegan for other reasons, but if someone is vegan because he or she wishes to prevent avoidable harm to animals, then avoiding eggs makes complete and perfect sense. Almost 100% of hens are raised in conditions which result in very premature death of the animal, after a lifetime of suffering. (If and ONLY if you have a strong stomach, watch some videos about factory-farmed chickens. It's terrible for us and for the environment, as well as well as for them.)

            We cannot have perfect consistency. Veggies

            • by porges ( 58715 )

              Yeah, the whole interaction is a double-bind. Either you don't take your position to the absolute max, in which case you're a hypocrite, or you do take it to the absolute max, in which case you're a lunatic.

      • Certain animal products including most portions of animal fats, even in small quantities, would make me quite ill. That was why I became vegan, at an early age, decades before I ever heard the word "vegan." It's also why over time I've also had to cut from my diet things that were chemically similar to animal fats (e.g., tropical oils and hydrogenated or interestified "oils" whose main desirable attribute, being semi-solid at room temperature, is directly related to what makes me unable to digest them).

        It

    • Re: erm (Score:4, Informative)

      by ThurstonMoore ( 605470 ) on Monday January 31, 2022 @10:30AM (#62223427)

      I ate some yesterday, the side of the box says they should not be considered vegan or vegetarian, so I assume they're cooked in the same equipment.

      • I ate some yesterday, the side of the box says they should not be considered vegan or vegetarian, so I assume they're cooked in the same equipment.

        Most vegetarians aren't as insane as vegans. We had a member of our group who was a strict vegan. At restraunts she wouldn't allow eating utensils that had ever touched a corpse product to touch her food.

        Sorry vegans, that is not sane. Stainless steel does not remember what it has touched after it is washed.

  • No Thanks. Give me the real bird, please.

  • by ickleberry ( 864871 ) <web@pineapple.vg> on Monday January 31, 2022 @08:39AM (#62223167) Homepage
    Cheaper alternatives to meat sold at the same price or sometimes even more. Less costs for the megacorp thats making them & more money for the shareholders.

    Imagine a society where everyone is paying top dollar for cheap & abundant vegetation and insects highly processed into something edible by extremely expensive equipment and proprietary processes. That is where we are headed, this is how the tech industry will monopolise food. There will be a big move to make traditional meat & 'straight from the garden' veg go out of fashion, lots of sponsored studies highlighting the dangers of eating non-highly-proccessed foods & online campaings against meat (any meatless startup wanting to do this just needs to hand PETA a lump sum)
    • by Valgrus Thunderaxe ( 8769977 ) on Monday January 31, 2022 @08:44AM (#62223179)
      You don't need fake meat or meat substitutes if you want to avoid eating animals. Either learn to cook or expand into different types of restaurants or foods that cater to this.
      • It isn't about need. It couldn't be possible at this point in human evolution for us to "need" plant products processed into meat facsimiles.

        As if almost always the case the push behind eat substitutes is about making money. Depending on who you ask there are about 15MM people in the US who eat vegan/vegetarian diets, many of them fairly new to it. This fake meat works well as a transition food, people who are used to eating real meat can get a similar taste and texture and all that while they learn to c
      • As a kid, I had surgery in a Seventh Day Adventist hospital, whose food was vegetarian. The main course was sometimes canned Loma Linda Vege-Burger which I liked, or a canned peanut/soy pseudo bologna called Nuteena, with a texture poised between liverwurst and cranberry sauce, which I did not like. It was a kid adventure that introduced the notion that some people do not eat meat.

        Today I eat some meat, but I prefer vegetables to stand on their own merits. During the 2020 pre-vaccine time when I wanted t

        • I started experimenting, and evolved a vegan lentil soup that is both the best thing that I have ever cooked regularly, is devoid of kale but includes factionally divisive Brussels sprouts, and is now my main food.

          Recipe?

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Why are people so offended about the idea of making veg taste like meat?

        Humans make meat test like veg all the time, or have you never had any kind of seasoning on your meat? Because if you have it's pretty much entirely veg based. Even BBQ sauce is vegetarian for crying out loud so does that mean when someone puts BBQ sauce on some chicken wings they should stop trying to make meat taste like veg and just eat BBQ sauce by itself?

        Humans have long experimented with food flavours and textures, I really can't

        • Why are people so offended about the idea of making veg taste like meat?

          Or, in the case of A1 steak sauce, making meat taste like sludge at the bottom of Chernobyl.

          • Ingredients: tomato puree (water, tomato paste), vinegar, corn syrup, salt, raisin paste, crushed orange puree, spices (contains celery), dried garlic, caramel color, dried onions, potassium sorbate (to preserve freshness), xanthan gum.

            I mean, it's not my favorite thing, but it pretty much tastes like what's in it. Dunno why anybody would want steak to taste like that, but whatever.

            • Ingredients: tomato puree (water, tomato paste), vinegar, corn syrup, salt, raisin paste, crushed orange puree, spices (contains celery), dried garlic, caramel color, dried onions, potassium sorbate (to preserve freshness), xanthan gum.

              I mean, it's not my favorite thing, but it pretty much tastes like what's in it. Dunno why anybody would want steak to taste like that, but whatever.

              Most meat dishes you want umami enhancing ingredients, plus sweet, acid, and salty.

              Tomato, garlic, raisin, celery, and onion enhance umami
              corn syrup, raisin, and orange provide sweet
              vinegar provides acidity
              salt provides salty
              other ingredients are for texture, color, and preservation purposes.

      • One things to point out most vegetarians/vegans never really liked the taste of meat anyways, and probably didn't eat too much of it anyways. So popular vegetarian meals are prepared and cooked to the people do don't care for the taste of meat anyways.

        Sure I can enjoy a well cooked Portobello Mushroom Sandwich, it isn't going to replace a craving for a hamburger. However if I were to eat a Beyond Beef burger, while I can still taste the difference and I know it is fake, It does offer a lot of the texture,

    • Or... (Score:2, Insightful)

      They are simply jumping on the latest trend. But yes everything is a deep state conspiracy to fuck with people.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 31, 2022 @09:36AM (#62223311)

      Score:5, Insightful

      That is where we are headed, this is how the tech industry will monopolise food.

      Or maybe, you know just hear me out, maybe the market will reflect what people want. If people want fake shitty food, that's what the market will give them, if people want actual food, that's what the market will give them. This comment is the epitome of Slashdot think. Conspiracy theory marked as insightful. Oh wait, let's pepper some more crazy into this comment.

      There will be a big move to make traditional meat & 'straight from the garden' veg go out of fashion, lots of sponsored studies highlighting the dangers of eating non-highly-proccessed foods & online campaings against meat

      Do you have proof that such a thing is on the horizon? No? Pfft, Proof!? Slashdot needs no proof.

      This site has gone to shit. And incidentally that kind of hits on my premise here. See, the users of this site have turned it into shit. As much as the user's would love to blame the editors here, it's mostly the users of this site that have made this site the exact thing that they bitch about the editors about. The biggest problem of Slashdot is as close as the nearest mirror. Likewise, if we get shitty food, it'll be the consumers that give us the exact thing that everyone hates. The public is a mass of idiots, they say they want something, but in reality they want to hate shit and they vote for more things that they can bitch about. And Slashdot has become an incredible model for this. Nobody wants actual insightful things, we just want to hate shit. We just want to yell at kids being on our lawns. That's all this site has turned into, idiots yelling at other idiots. Maybe the every so often comment from someone who still hearkens back from the old days when this site was actually good and you could easily learn something from it.

      The fact that enough people voted this QAnon induced bullshit to 5:Insightful is evidence this site is a husk of what it once was.

      any meatless startup wanting to do this just needs to hand PETA a lump sum

      Fucking eh everyone. You should all be ashamed that this fucking comment is insightful. This is just some deep fried deep state bullshit. This website is a joke.

      • I don't think its a case of the market reflecting what people want. When I went to Tesco the other day I was struck at how dedicated sections had been created specifically to promote fake meat. I don't believe this is a deep state conspiracy decided by fellas in dungeons with robes who drink blood from skulls or some such thing. Rather it is a combination of private enterprise seeing the opportunity and the government eager to boot on the development / promotion of these products for carbon footprint reason
    • by Zak3056 ( 69287 )

      insects highly processed into something edible

      "What happens if the engine stops? We all freeze and die!"

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      They started with a high end product that was as close to meat as possible in taste and texture. That will be refined and cheaper versions will appear. A lot of people will find that they are not so hung up on the taste and texture of meat specifically, and there are plenty of cheaper alternatives.

      It's kinda like orange squash. It's not exactly like orange juice, and many people actually prefer it. It's also very cheap and most supermarkets have their own brand versions.

      • It's kinda like orange squash. It's not exactly like orange juice

        Ok...you got me on this one.

        I've never heard the term "orange squash".

        Is this an orange juice analog made from squash plant or something?

        • It appears to be a class of orange themed drinks containing trace amounts of orange products, like SunnyD or Mountain Dew.

          Like those products which compare rather poorly to the real thing, these fried erasers are essentially seed oil fried in seed oil. The current problems with inflammatory diets being caused by out of balance omega6 fats will only be exaggerated by this "solution" rather than lessened.

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          It's concentrated orange juice, or orange flavoured liquid. You add water to it to drink.

    • ... insects highly processed into something edible

      Already available at Whole Foods and even at Kroger.

    • by dasunt ( 249686 )

      Imagine a society where everyone is paying top dollar for cheap & abundant vegetation and insects highly processed into something edible by extremely expensive equipment and proprietary processes. That is where we are headed, this is how the tech industry will monopolise food. There will be a big move to make traditional meat & 'straight from the garden' veg go out of fashion, lots of sponsored studies highlighting the dangers of eating non-highly-proccessed foods & online campaings against meat

    • Imagine a society where everyone is paying top dollar for cheap & abundant vegetation and insects highly processed into something edible by extremely expensive equipment and proprietary processes.

      That sounds like factory farming to me. Where the "extremely expensive equipment" is cows, chickens, pigs, and the equipment to farm and slaughter them. The main differences are that some processes are not proprietary, and the number of insects included is limited by law.

  • by buck-yar ( 164658 ) on Monday January 31, 2022 @08:41AM (#62223171)

    the salt is very bad for them.

    • 1440 mg of sodium in six nuggets isn't healthy for humans either. That's nearly the equivalent of a packet of salt per piece, and if you just pour salt down your gullet, you won't get all those fats and simple sugars.
      • by olddoc ( 152678 )
        I agree that is an unhealthy amount of salt! Is it even a tasty amount of salt? There are so many foods that don't taste like food, they taste like salt.
  • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Monday January 31, 2022 @08:45AM (#62223181)

    I like the comment in the summary: "I'm frankly not totally sure that I'd be able to tell the difference between them and one of KFC's discontinued nugget recipes in a blind taste test."

    So one thing without taste covered in salt tastes exactly the same as another thing without taste covered in salt. :-) Honestly I think the surprise here is that KFC has real chicken. You'd never have guessed from the slop they serve you.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Mechanically recovered head meat is why I only eat chicken I know the origin of.

  • by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Monday January 31, 2022 @09:00AM (#62223209)

    "The actual "Beyond" component of Beyond Fried Chicken tastes, well, like chicken."

    (Mother Nature) "Uh, that's not exactly a challenge...in case you hadn't noticed."

    • Fast food chicken nuggets are already so heavily processed that they arguably don't even taste like actual chicken, so the fact that the "Beyond" nuggets supposedly taste the same isn't that impressive.

  • by dada21 ( 163177 ) <adam.dada@gmail.com> on Monday January 31, 2022 @09:22AM (#62223263) Homepage Journal

    Of course they're "looking into it".

    Paid shill for wealthy lords and barons?

    • Gizmodo is state propoganda

      Is KFC part of the deep state now? Last i heard they don't sell pizzas so I assumed not. Perhaps they're using Jewish space lasers to cook the chicken and get the outside nice and crispy. I'm not sure if orbital or indeed any laser based cooking is treyf or not.

  • by Anonymous Coward
    Beyond Meat products are packed full of sugars and starches. They're less protein substitute and more road to type II diabetes.
  • So, if I eat this? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by nicolaiplum ( 169077 ) on Monday January 31, 2022 @09:43AM (#62223337)

    This is good for the planet and even worse for me than the actual chicken KFC.

    Got it.

    In fact, this sounds revolting, even worse than usual KFC. Incredibly fatty amorphous "maybe chicken" crap. Is this the best US food industry can bring us?

    Small wonder 90% of Americans have an unhealthy diet: https://arstechnica.com/scienc... [arstechnica.com]

  • If people don't want to eat meat then just don't go to KFC. I guess this keeps KFC as an option for people that eat out as a group when there might be some that choose to not eat meat. I recall going to a restaurant to eat during a field trip for a class while at university where one student was a vegetarian. We went to some expensive soup and sandwich place and this poor guy paid something like $15 for a peanut butter sandwich. That was his choice, although had we chosen a different restaurant he may h

    • by serviscope_minor ( 664417 ) on Monday January 31, 2022 @11:38AM (#62223637) Journal

      If people don't want to eat meat then just don't go to KFC

      This is just dumb. KFC want those people's money and those people appear happy to spend it. Why on earth should they listen to you in this regard?

      Humans evolved to eat meat.

      Humans are omnivores, not obligate carnivores. We've evolved so that we can eat meat not so that we have to.

      If there's a concern on killing another living creature to live then just get over it. You kill living bacteria and viruses with every breath.

      Those aren't even close to sentient.

      Eating salted pea protein and corn syrup instead of meat is even worse for one's health.

      Oh you're right, those are the only choices.

      What is the problem being solved here?

      Some people don't want to eat meat, and KFC is happy to take their money in exchange for something they are happy to eat. It's not complicated.

      A problem I'm seeing is caving in to the mental illness of vegetarianism.

      On the other hand it's totally mentally healthy to be so heavily and angrily invested in what other people eat.

      • Some people don't want to eat meat, and KFC is happy to take their money in exchange for something they are happy to eat. It's not complicated.

        But why make vegetables taste like meat? I don't try to make strawberries taste like bratwurst.

        • That should be "I don't try to make bratwurst taste like strawberries". If people want the taste of meat then eat meat. If they don't want to eat meat then why go to such effort to make something that is not meat taste like meat? I'm not seeing people try to make meat not taste like meat.

        • But why make vegetables taste like meat?

          Why not?

          If people want the taste of meat then eat meat. If they don't want to eat meat then why go to such effort to make something that is not meat taste like meat?

          Lots of people like the taste of meat but don't like the various things involved in eating meat. You like the taste, but don't pretend that your personal preferences are somehow "rational", because they aren't. They're just preferences.

          Eating bacon is never a logical choice, but I do it anyway.

          I don't tr

    • by skam240 ( 789197 )

      I don't think your "can't be grown in one place" claim is accurate as it certainly doesn't hold up for California at the very least.

      Furthermore pretty much everyone's diet nowadays is shipped in from all over (at least in first world nations) This is true whether you're eating processed food or meat and veggies. Sure, you can purposely shop local but even here in California where anything but tropical plants grows you'll find your diet quite limited only doing local only

    • by Andrio ( 2580551 )

      Holy shit, where do I even begin with this? You seem convinced that vegetarianism is bad for one's health. Is that why there are 1.5 billion healthy vegetarians in the world? Or how about that plant-based diets are associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in a general population. [ahajournals.org] Or how about the fact that our closest ancestors, the great apes, eat almost entirely plant-based diets?

      Let me explain to you the problem this fake meat is fixing. It's a problem of physics. Virtually

      • Study is BS, it compared vegetarian diet with Standard American Diet. Well, no sh*t Sherlock, everything is healthier than Standard American Diet. Vegan is, so is carnivore or keto. And comparison to apes is BS too. Are you an ape? Well I'm not, and the thing that differentiates humans from apes is our adaptation to a new environment: the savannah, while apes live in jungle. And every difference from apes is that: lack of fur, upright posture, bigger brains, everything. And that also includes metabolic adap
  • by awwshit ( 6214476 ) on Monday January 31, 2022 @11:21AM (#62223593)

    Does anyone actually want fake meat? I'd rather not eat meat than eat fake meat. And are these fakes any healthier? I doubt it.

    • Re:wanna be meat (Score:5, Informative)

      by serviscope_minor ( 664417 ) on Monday January 31, 2022 @11:40AM (#62223639) Journal

      Does anyone actually want fake meat?

      "In 2020, Beyond Meat, Inc. generated approximately 406.8 million U.S. dollars in revenue worldwide."

      hmm I'm gonna go with yes.

      • Re:wanna be meat (Score:4, Informative)

        by awwshit ( 6214476 ) on Monday January 31, 2022 @02:42PM (#62224357)

        And somehow Beyond Meat is still losing money. Some people will buy anything you advertise. I know several people that have tried Beyond Meat products, I don't know anyone that actively chooses Beyond Meat products on an on-going basis over traditional products. They don't want to pay extra for an imitation. These products are a trade-off between personal health and climate change. Fast food chains selling imitation meat are doing nothing more than trying to green-wash their image. But the imitation meats are highly processed and high in saturated fats, which is pretty much more of the same for fast food generally.

        https://www.health.harvard.edu... [harvard.edu]

        • Regardless of profit people demonstrably want the product.

          I have one once in a while, there's a local "plant based" restaurant that I like. It's nice being able to get a pretty serviceable cheeseburger without having to worry if I've gone over my cheese allocation for the week and will have a long and uncomfortable spell on the bog.

          I usually prefer hamburgers, but not always.

    • I have a question for you: If you for whatever reason don't eat meat (religion, environmental, cute fluffy animals, or whatever ideology you have), why would you additionally intentionally try to limit the variety of taste sensations you can experience?

      Maybe someone doesn't like the idea of killing animals or the animals generating methane, but really love the taste of a well cooked chicken. Why shouldn't they try to fake that taste if they can do it in a healthy and nutritious manner (though given the shit

      • You are free to enjoy your tofurkey or whatever imitation meat makes you happy. I know environmentalists, and vegetarians, and vegans, and people with health issues, that choose not to eat meat. I don't know a single one that picks these imitation meat fast food products on an on-going basis. There must be a market for it or KFC would not bother. But do you know anyone that actively chooses these products? Know anyone that finds the imitation products superior in any way to their natural counterparts (bes

    • by labnet ( 457441 )

      During our recent food shortages, fake meat was about the only meat like thing left on the shelf!

  • The number of real-world things that Red Green invented for a laugh just keeps growing.... This time, see "The Not-Chicken Franchise" [youtube.com].

  • ... Beyond Crickets or Beyond Mealworms.

  • I'm going to wait for Beyond Soylent Green myself.

    I just hope the ad campaign uses a CGI Charles Heston exclaiming "Beyond Soylent Green is plaanntsss !!
  • Subject says it all. The best green protein would be by recycling people into Soylent Green.

    Now on the subject of what Soylent Red or Soylent Yellow is made of, well, I either forgot or never knew.
  • by fredrated ( 639554 ) on Monday January 31, 2022 @01:33PM (#62224097) Journal

    Because the meat eater threw it there when he discovered it has no meat.

Somebody ought to cross ball point pens with coat hangers so that the pens will multiply instead of disappear.

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