Plant-based food product specialist Beyond Meat has expanded its long-standing relationship with Walmart, the world’s largest retailer. Following this summer’s successful launch of the Cookout Classic value pack, the El Segundo, California-headquartered faux meat company’s most affordable product offering to date, this fall Walmart plans to triple availability of the Beyond Burger from approximately 800 locations to more than 2,400 stores across the USA beginning in early October.
Beyond Meat first launched its frozen products at Walmart in 2015. Since then, the chain has expanded in-store offerings to include the Beyond Burger and Beyond Sausage in the fresh meat aisle and most recently, the Beyond Breakfast Sausage patties in the freezer aisle.
“Walmart has been a terrific partner and we’re excited to strengthen that partnership in depth and breadth as we look to offer more Beyond Meat products at more Walmart locations, furthering our commitment to increasing accessibility of plant-based meat,” said Chuck Muth, the company’s chief growth officer.
This news follows a solid year of growth for Beyond Meat, whose products are now available at approximately 112,000 retail and foodservice outlets in 85 countries. The increased distribution of the Beyond Burger at Walmart comes as the demand for plant-based meat continues to rise.
The Beyond Burger is designed to look, cook and satisfy consumers like a traditional beef burger but is made from plant-based ingredients without GMOs, soy or gluten content.
Beyond Meat’s vision is to be a global protein company capable of serving consumers’ growing demand for nutritious and sustainable protein.
Recently, the findings from a Stanford University clinical study scrutinizing Beyond Meat’s plant-based products were published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Researchers evaluated the impact of replacing animal-based meat with plant-based meat over an eight-week period on cholesterol levels (including LDL), heart disease risk factors including TMAO levels, and body weight, and found improvement in key health metrics when participants replaced animal-based meat with plant-based meat.
According to a press release issued on September 29 by Beyond Meat: “The results provide yet another data point in a growing field of research about how plant-based meat can help people live healthier lives, and we are committed to supporting further academic and scientific study into the impacts of plant-based meats on health.”
