There is a time when even the most visionary companies have to deal with reality. For Beyond Meat, that moment has now arrived in 2026, when the company has decided on a change of name and strategy. The brand, founded in 2009 by Ethan Brown, the one who convinced millions of consumers that a burger made of pea and bean proteins could challenge the traditional steak, is now called Beyond The Plant Protein Co. or simply Beyond on the packaging.
Removing the word “meat” from the name is not a minor detail. It’s a statement of intent that accurately captures the state of the industry: sales of plant-based meat alternatives in the United States have collapsed 26% in the last two years, according to NIQ data, and Beyond has paid a very high price, with revenues down 14% in the first nine months of 2025 and shares trading under the dollar since the beginning of the year.
The company announced the name change a few days ago via its social channels, officially confirming the transition from Beyond Meat to Beyond The Plant Protein Company.
View this post on Instagram
The new name opens the doors to a much broader territory than that occupied so far by burgers and vegetable sausages. In January the company launched Beyond Immerse, a sparkling protein drink, and a protein bar is planned for the summer. Both products are currently only available online, through an experimental channel called Beyond Test Kitchen, designed to collect rapid feedback before arriving on the shelves of large retailers.
The problem of unknown ingredients
Why have consumers turned away from products that, on paper, seemed like a sustainable revolution? The answer, according to industry analysts, lies in the labels.
Chris Costagli, food trends expert for NIQ, explains that in recent years consumers have begun to read more carefully what they eat. And what they found in plant-based products didn’t always reassure them: thickeners, gums, texturizers, added sugars, high sodium. Ingredients that are functional in texture and flavour, but perceived as unnatural by a public increasingly attentive to the simplicity of foods.
It is a bitter paradox for a sector born with ambitions of transparency and sustainability.
Beyond has tried to respond with a concrete move: Beyond Ground, its new flagship product, contains only four ingredients – broad bean protein, potato protein, psyllium husk and water – and does not include the word “meat” on the packaging. An almost symbolic choice, which anticipates the complete rebranding.
However, the founder and CEO of Beyond does not seem like a man in retreat. Brown speaks of this moment as an opportunity to redefine the very meaning of the company:
For me, it’s an opportunity to reshape the company around real food that comes directly from plants.
The direction is to enhance the ingredients for what they are, without masking them under the appearance or flavor of meat: chickpea sausages, faba bean strips, protein drinks. Products that celebrate their plant origins instead of imitating animal ones.
A sector in transformation
Beyond isn’t the only company having to rethink its strategy. Eat Just, a producer of plant-based eggs, has launched a protein powder made from mung beans. Impossible Foods has partnered with Equii Foods to develop protein-rich breads and pastas. Silk, the well-known plant-based drink brand, has also introduced a protein line.
The market is therefore moving from the simulation of meat towards something different: plant foods that do not require comparison with anything, but build their own identity. Which is, after all, exactly what Beyond is trying to do with its new name.
In the meantime, the company is not abandoning plant-based meat territory entirely: its burgers and nuggets continue to be present on McDonald’s menus in Europe, where demand is holding up better than overseas. But Brown is realistic: “There’s no time for plant-based meat right now“.
A phrase which, pronounced by the founder of the company who more than any other embodied that bet, sounds like the end of an era, or perhaps the beginning of something new.
Sources: Beyond Burger Instagram / AP News
