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PepsiCo and Beyond Meat Launch Poorly Named Joint Venture For New Plant-Based Food and Drinks (techcrunch.com) 84

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
PepsiCo, the planetary purveyor of sugary drinks, greasy chips, and (weirdly) oatmeal, hummus, and gazpacho(?) is partnering with Beyond Meat, the publicly traded plant-based protein provider, on a poorly named joint venture to hawk new plant-based food and beverages to consumers. From a report: The PLANeT Partnership (which was clearly branded by the same genius behind the comic sans font), will combine Beyond Meat's skills with protein prestidigitation and PepsiCo's marketing and manufacturing savvy to flood the global market with new snacks and drinks, the two companies said. Neither company disclosed any financial terms and other pesky details around who, what, where, and when, except to say that the the joint venture operations will be managed through the newly created PLANeT Partnership. (If the companies put as much effort into running the business as they did with naming and branding it, Impossible Foods shouldn't have much to worry about... The capitalization and branding of this thing is an affront to the English language is all I'm saying.)
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PepsiCo and Beyond Meat Launch Poorly Named Joint Venture For New Plant-Based Food and Drinks More

PepsiCo and Beyond Meat Launch Poorly Named Joint Venture For New Plant-Based Food and Drinks

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  • This sounds like it's going to be the most processed product that PepsiCo sells. Coming from plants doesn't mean that its healthy.
    Those greasy potato chips are made from plants too.

    • Ever tasted Mockolate®?

    • Processed food is processed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by goombah99 ( 560566 ) on Tuesday January 26, 2021 @11:36AM (#60993466)

      Just because it came from a plant and not an animal doesn't make it healthy. It's funny how people get hung up on the origins of things. Take the rage in "bamboo" linens, socks, and fabrics. There's no bamboo in this. It's chemically reduced to a molecular form known as rayon, which is a akin to nylon but traditionally is sourced from natural feedstock. In principle Nylon could be sourced from natural feedstocks too (and someday will be) but it's cheaper to make from petroleum sources right now.
      What's nice that we can source fabric materials from renewable resources. But calling it "bamboo" is just marketing. Rayon is not "all natural" anymore than most dark chocolate is "all natural" (learn what makes the majority of dark chocolate actually dark--- "dutch processing".)

      So on the one hand it is nice that resource intensive foods like beef might be made from plants. But the actual product will be less "natural" and more processed than a steak or milk.

      And of course this ignores that not all cattle production is wasteful. Much land is not suitable for growing crops but grazing animals can make use of it. And cows get fed all sorts of things that would not be human food but waste from making human food. They do use water but they don't destroy water-- they cycle it. Of course feed lot cows directly eating grain and farting methane and urinating in one spot are not very good for the environment and do consume resources from lands that might have been used to raise human food more efficiently. So there is something to be said for beef substitutes. But "healthy and all natural" may not be one of those-- it's just how it's marketed.

      • (learn what makes the majority of dark chocolate actually dark--- "dutch processing".)

        Yes the phrase "dutch processing" should strike fear in any patriotic American's heart whomst remember the horror.

        But really, all "dutch processing" means is "reacted with a food-grade alkaline compound" (which could be anything from baking soda to lye. lye is of course more efficient.). Many recipes use baking soda to control pH; it's fine as long as nothing goes wrong, but otoh the most dangerous part of food is the natu

    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 )
      What the vast majority of people don't understand is that a strict vegetarian diet is really survival-level only, you cannot 'thrive' on it, unless you're willing to eat lots and lots of soy, and a very, very monotonous diet of very strict, limited combinations of foods, in order to get all the essential amino acids in sufficient quantities to avoid malnutrition effects. Meanwhile in doing that you'll be eating so much fiber everyday that you'll be on the toilet several times a day, providing that is that y

      • A related phenomenon to the novelty worship is disgust with all things perceived as traditional.

        Billy-Bob Sixpack likes steak and pickup trucks, therefore I must go vegan and cycle to work uphill through a New England blizzard.

      • Tell that to the Shaolin monks, who are some of the most powerful athletes in the world, and eat a strict vegetarian diet. LInk [livestrong.com].

        Maybe you just did it wrong. But thriving vegetarian communities have existed throughout history. Your conclusions are simply mistaken, and your anecdote does not trump my evidence.

        I agree that humans are omnivores. That is an indisputable fact. That means that we can get nutrition from meat. It does not mean that we can't get sufficient nutrition from plants.

        • I didn't 'do it' AT ALL because I don't just 'do' things without checking them out first. There's no way I'm eating an even more limited diet than I already am just to ensure that I get all the essential amino acids in sufficient quantities to not suffer malnutrition. I don't care what some monks somewhere are eating; I doubt it's a highly-varied diet, I'll bet you it's as extremely limited and monotonous as I figure it would be, even more so because 'monks' are very disciplined in the first place!
          Meanwhil

          • For clarity, I am not advocating for YOU to eat a vegetarian diet. I got no business doing anything of the sort. I am, however, correcting the misinformation that you are spreading about it. Including the new misinformation you gave with no citations.

            Specifically:

            You keep insisting that a vegetarian diet lacks variety. That's False [mayoclinic.org]. Variety is, in fact, the key to meeting one's nutritional needs.

            You said that most "Vegans" end up malnourished. That's partially true [everydayhealth.com] if you are talking specifically abou

            • Your Mayo Clinic link doesn't specify any foods to eat just gives vague guidelines. *Ignored*
              'Vegan Myths Debunked' articles have a Vegan bias. *Ignored*
              The whole B12 thing? Another Vegan-biased article. *Ignored*
              'Cleveland Clinic' article? Also vague, and 99 out of 100 parents aren't going to be careful enough. Furthermore I could find enough articles about parents whose kids either were damaged, died, or had them taken away, because they were severely malnourished by brain-dead vegan/strict vegetarian

    • Not sure if the goal is healthy food for people as much as it is healthy for the planet.

  • Comic sans (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dan East ( 318230 ) on Tuesday January 26, 2021 @09:52AM (#60993076) Journal

    which was clearly branded by the same genius behind the comic sans font

    There's absolutely nothing wrong with the design of comic sans (or the person who designed it). There are tens of thousands of other fonts that also represent handwritten glyphs. The problem is people using that font in places where they shouldn't, simply because the font was made widely available by Microsoft.

  • Alternative link (Score:4, Informative)

    by aitikin ( 909209 ) on Tuesday January 26, 2021 @09:54AM (#60993084)

    Seeing as the TechCrunch one seems broken as of right now, Yahoo finance's: https://finance.yahoo.com/news... [yahoo.com]

  • At least they didn't call it Soylent! (Score:3)

    by thrasher thetic ( 4566717 ) on Tuesday January 26, 2021 @09:56AM (#60993094)
    Bullet dodged.
    • Seems like your analogy is backwards. It's meat that's made in a slaughterhouse. Beyond Meat is just plants.

      I'm not vegetarian but I don't understand the take that non-meat alternatives are 'gross.'

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bawb ( 637210 )
        Soylent Green was marketed as a plankton-based food and not a meat-based one. It was gross because it was not only made of actual meat and not plankton, but it was also raised in crowded unsanitary conditions and had a tendency to say dreadful things in public when the going got tough.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cusco ( 717999 )

      Soylent is already taken.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      Soylent is a brand of meal replacement products made by Soylent Nutrition, Inc. Soylent was introduced in 2014 after a crowdfunding campaign.

      Origin
      A Soylent package, along with the powder and resulting drink

      In January 2013, software engineer Rob Rhinehart purchased 35 chemical ingredients—including potassium gluconate, calcium carbonate, monosodium phosphate, maltodextrin, olive oil—all of which he deemed to be necessary for survival, bas

  • So they're acting like it's SUPER ironic that a junk food company would get behind a fake meat company. Read up on veggie burgers and similar products. They're unfermented soy so enjoy your blast of estrogen imitators, guys, plus they're soaked in oil, preservatives, and artificial flavors to the point where anyone calling them healthy has lost their damn minds. Seriously, look up dieticians' many reviews of the Impossible Whopper. Some have said it's literally less healthy than an actual Whopper because of

    • Re:the real truth (Score:5, Informative)

      by Brain-Fu ( 1274756 ) on Tuesday January 26, 2021 @10:37AM (#60993274) Homepage Journal

      Soy does not contain "estrogen imitators." It does contain isoflavones, which are plant-based estrogens that have weak and anti-estrogen effects. Based on the studies that have been done, they can reduce the risk of prostate cancer, and they do not make men grow breasts, lower testosterone, or feminize men in any way.

      There is a lot of misinformation floating-around the internet about soy making men feminine, and it is straight-up false, and any research at all reveals this. check [healthline.com] it [todaysdietitian.com] out [nih.gov].

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by RobinH ( 124750 )
        You must have missed the last 4 years where it was perfectly clear that evidence, science, research and critical thinking are all out, and people with the mental acuity of a 5 year old live-streaming themselves shouting "alternative facts" (aka "made-up shit") and breaking stuff is the new fashion. Welcome to the Idiocracy.
      • This post brought to you by Big Soy
  • Marketing is very important when you are selling a highly processed genetically modified [wikipedia.org] product to consumers in the 2020s. So far they have done very well persuading people that traditional meat production is more harmful than their product. However, I think they will run out of consumers willing to try a meat substitute or buy such a highly processed product. They have to manage their image very carefully or else the company will stop growing.
    • The sad thing is I actually believe that people have become overall dumb enough to fall for this nonsense. The only thing that'll probably keep them away from it is the outrageous price, since dumb people also tend to not have much money. For the rest of us: if we want to eat vegetables, we'll eat vegetables themselves, not stuff pulled out of the green-waste bin and pureed into fake meat.
  • with a large Beyond Cola.

  • Match made in heaven (Score:5, Funny)

    by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ) on Tuesday January 26, 2021 @10:18AM (#60993198)

    Fake meat paired with fake Coke.

    Yes, I'm from the South.

    • Hear, hear. 'Mexican' Coke is the only 'real' Coca-cola left (actual cane sugar, original recipe), and there's not a damned thing wrong with actual meat as part of a properly balanced omnivorous diet, and if people would get a decent amount of regular vigorous exercise then the vast majority of people's health problems would disappear.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by cusco ( 717999 )

        Peruvian Coca Cola is actually original recipe, they don't go to the trouble to refine the cocaine out of the coca leaves (the most expensive part of preparing Coke) since coca leaves are legal to consume there. (Don't know if they do in Mexico.) When my mom tried it she was shocked at the cascade of taste memories it prompted.

      • Woah, if I could manage to get up the steps of my mom's basement I'd prove you wrong!

      • I really meant that Pepsi is inferior to Coke in every way but yes, I will take a Mexican Coke over American Coke any day.

    • Now what is RC Cola going to team up with? Something about double the suger, double the caffeine, and double the bacon possibly.

  • Personally, I think I'd prefer the sim-meat over eating insects, though I'd try the insect-based stuff as long as it was visually unrecognizable as being insect-based (made with cricket flour, for example). https://allianceforscience.cor... [cornell.edu]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rhipf ( 525263 )

      Who knows you could already be eating (partially) insect-based stuff. I'm sure there are more than a few insects that make it past inspection at most processing plants. 8^)

    • You're already eating insects on a regular basis. You don't think all of the produce or other plants you eat are completely free of them or parts of them the wound up in the mix during processing did you? I'm pretty sure there are FDA guidelines about the acceptable amount of bug parts that wind up in your flour or your can of beans.

  • What I always wanted to buy "food" from.

    Have they registered at the Guinness Book of World Records for "most-processed foodoid-like product" yet?

  • Peoples Liberation Army Nutritional eating Transition

  • So... what's the problem with gazpacho?

    • So... what's the problem with gazpacho?

      The author (and apparently msmash) can't get past the fact that a soft drink manufacturer also sells plain old 'food.' This is a revelation and a cause for musings. It's hilarious!

    • The author is Arnold Rimmer.

  • I don't understand the snark (Score:5, Insightful)

    by chispito ( 1870390 ) on Tuesday January 26, 2021 @10:50AM (#60993308)
    I don't get the snark. It's as though the author is too cool yet jaded to have heard of a conglomerate before. The name's dumb but not dumb enough for an article.

  • Customer: What is this thing?

    PepsiCo: A new veg meaty food.

    Customer: That cannot be right, it is merely a patty made of sugar and salt.

    PepsiCo: So you like it, then?

  • I read it wrong .. it said protein prestidigitation. They meant protein trickery, not protein chewed in mom's mouth and gently regurgitated
  • Beyond burgers are seriously good, and we eat them here all the time. I don't think I'll ever understand where all the hate is coming from.
    • Good for your health [oup.com] Takeaway: Plant products improved several cardiovascular disease risk factors.
    • Good for the planet [umich.edu] Takeaway: 99% less impact on water scarcity, 93% less impact on land use, requires 46% less energy and generates 90% less greenhouse gas emissions.
    • Good for cows. No citation needed here, obviously.

    See here [beyondmeat.com].

    Honestly, what's not to love here?

    That

    • Nonsense.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by mad7777 ( 946676 )
        sadly, due to slashdot rules, I cannot mod you as genius-level insightful, but thank you anyway for allowing us mere mortals to benefit from your remarkably trenchant superhuman intellect! we are all humbled by your intellect.

    • Good for cows?

      Wild cows are extinct and domesticated cows have accumulated so many genetic disorders that they'll likely become extinct if we stop breeding them!

      If meat is murder, vegetarianismis genocide.

      Ps
      I'm still in favour of switching to plant based meat substitutes

      • I wouldn't worry about domesticated cows too much. The ones that get loose in Australia have managed to survive and adapt in a small number of generations. However they have a lot of wilderness to live in whereas in the US they'd just be shot as a pest.

        The plant-based stuff tastes like shit to me. Maybe it tastes good if your burger is coming from McDonalds, but if you've ever had a real burger from free range grass fed beef it doesn't even compare. If plant-based solutions take off at all they only stay

    • They do have more salt than real burgers, which isn't great for you. The impossible burgers do too. There are healthier plant-based patties out there, they just don't always resemble beef that much.

      Personally I'm not too hung up on that because eating vegetables isn't a threat to my identity and I like to try new things. Black bean patties, quinoa patties, falafel patties etc all have their own flavors and textures and are likely healthier than the beef-a-likes. I buy Esti meat-like burgers sometimes (about

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mad7777 ( 946676 )
        Amen. The salt is a real issue, but even then, I don't think they are worse for one's health than a beef patty. Anyway, if they can get meat lovers to eat these products, that is a win for everyone.
    • Why would I want to pay more for fake meat, when real meat is cheaper?

  • so I don't accidentally buy it.

  • 'Mexican' Coke, please (cane sugar) and actual meat, not shitty Pepsi and over-processed overpriced fake meat, you can keep both, kthxbye.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cusco ( 717999 )

      Give me fresh meat from a critter that has actually been wandering around eating grass and shrubs and bugs (preferably not beef, that most boring of all meats). When we're in Peru the sheep that we're cooking on Sunday was eating grass Saturday morning, and the chicken in Monday's dinner was still running around that morning. And don't even get me started on the mouthwatering qualities of roasted guinea pig...

  • MIssing something (Score:3)

    by ip_vjl ( 410654 ) on Tuesday January 26, 2021 @01:49PM (#60993928) Homepage

    Let me get this straight. So, according to the author, the competition should have nothing to worry about ... when a conglomorate that manages some of the most successful food brands ... is in a partnership to produce a product, because it has a funny name ... even though they made their billions largely on the back of sales of sugar water named "Pepsi."

  • Beyond Meat is not such a bad name, it could have been worse...

    5. Green Protein
    4. Plant Paste
    3. Soylent Meat
    2. Dirt Cow
    1. Beat the Meat

  • What did PepsiCo do to make this author so angry? Did the CEO of Pepsi have some funny business going on with his sister or something?
    • Journalist yells at cloud when they couldn't find anything else to write. Opinion pieces used to be labeled as such.

      The new 'Journalism'.

  • ...it's highly processed doesn't necessarily mean it's unhealthy, either.
    “In moderation the Beyond Meat products are fine” Which applies to pretty much anything you eat or drink, including water.
    https://www.prevention.com/foo... [prevention.com]

    And unless you're chowing down to a bowl of Beyond Meat and a refreshing glass of sugar water and nothing else, it's makes sense that you'll eat a burger like any other burger — with healthy amounts of lettuce, perhaps tomato, onion, mushrooms and other healthy addi

  • Why would people pay for it, when the real deal is cheaper?
  • "PLANeT" caused you to poop your pants? Really?

    Have the hipsters finally run out of things to feel superior about?

    One can only hope.

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