Beyond meat The company is dropping the word “meat” from its name as it moves beyond the faltering market of plant-based burgers, sausages and tenders and expands into new categories like protein drinks.
The company, renamed Beyond The Plant Protein Co. — or simply Beyond on its packaging — changed its website and social media channels this week. Beyond introduced its first beverage, A Sparkling protein drink Dubbed Beyond Immerse, it launched in January and plans to release a protein bar this summer.
Updating can be critical for a brand. US sales Vegetarian alternatives To the meat weakened and they were dragged beyond them. The company’s net revenues fell by 14% in the first nine months of 2025. Its shares fell Trading less than $1 Since the beginning of this year.
“For me, it’s an opportunity to reshape the company around very real foods that come directly from plants,” said Ethan Brown, Beyond’s president and CEO, who founded the company in 2009. “It’s about bringing all the benefits of the plant kingdom to the consumer in ways that they can easily incorporate into their lives.”
Beyond isn’t the only plant-based food company making a pivot. consumer Demand for protein are on the rise, and many companies are striving to offer more plant-based options.
Eat Just, which makes vegan eggs, introduced a protein powder made from mung beans last spring. In January, Impossible Foods announced a partnership with Equii Foods to develop protein-packed breads and pastas. Silk, a plant-based dairy brand, also unveiled a protein drink in January.
Plant-based brands, said Chris Costagli, a nutrition thought leader at NIQ I struggled In recent years, customers have checked their labels and found unfamiliar ingredients, added sugars or high sodium content.
After peaking in 2020, U.S. retail sales of plant-based meat have fallen 26% over the past two years, according to NIQ.
“There are a lot of fillers and gum and texture materials and things that give these products a more familiar feel,” Costagli said. “I think with people paying close attention to what they’re actually eating, it causes some products to falter.”
Reformulating products to make them simpler and healthier has helped some brands in the plant-based dairy market, Costagli said. He believes New products and recipes Plant-based meats can also be enhanced.
That’s what Beyond is betting on. In 2024, It has revamped its flagship burger To make it healthier. Last summer, it introduced Beyond Ground, which contains only four ingredients — fava bean protein, potato protein, psyllium husk, and water — and does not contain the word “meat” on its packaging.
Brown said the company will increasingly focus on products that showcase plants, such as chickpea sausages or bean chips. Beyond wants to “celebrate the realism” of its simplified products and ingredients, Brown said. He also hopes the new products will bring customers back to plant-based meat.
“We hope that at some point people will say, ‘Wait a minute, how did we get here, where the protein from red lentils and peas and brown rice and the oil from avocado mixed together in a burger is somehow not good for you?’” Brown said.
For now, new products like Beyond Ground and Beyond Immerse are only available online through a website the company calls Beyond Test Kitchen. Brown said the company wants to innovate and gather feedback quickly, but will eventually put its products in stores.
Beyond, based in El Segundo, California, will continue to produce plant-based burgers, chicken and other products designed to mimic meat, Brown said. It is still very popular in Europe, where Beyond burgers and nuggets are found McDonald’s menus.
Brown still believes plant-based meat will be the “most dominant option” over the next decade or two, but the company will have to get through what he calls “a period of confusion.”
“It’s not the right moment for plant-based meat right now,” he said.