“We believe the best way to serve the family is through a commitment to all-natural, non-GMO ingredients when building meat directly from plants. Though these tough guardrails make it harder for our scientists, we feel it is the right long run decision for Beyond Meat and our consumers,” Ethan Brown, founder and CEO of Beyond Meat, said.
“Our goal is to be on the center of the plate for the entire family,” Brown added.
Beyond Meat has stepped closer towards that goal with a 10,000-grocery store count where it is stocked in the meat cases as well as appearing on the menu at more than 10,000 restaurants. Since its debut in 2016, more than 25 million Beyond Burgers have been sold.
The privately-held company also reported earlier this year that an estimated 70% of its consumers are meat eaters, not just vegans or vegetarians.
The non-GMO verification comes just after Beyond Meat opened its new research and innovation center in Los Angeles, called the “The Manhattan Beach Project”. The center employs over 50 scientists and engineers working to recreate the meat eating experience through plant-based ingredients such as pea protein, beets for color, and coconut oil and potato starch to create “juiciness and chew”.
“Though not easy, we believe it is entirely possible to replicate the taste, texture, and appearance of meat using simple, non-GMO ingredients,” Dr. Dariush Ajami, Beyond Meat’s VP of R&D, said.