Beyond Meat is off the menu at Canada's largest coffee chain

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,256   +192
Staff member
The big picture: The move could be a bad omen for the artificial meat industry, perhaps signaling that consumers aren’t as willing to let go of their animal-based diets as originally anticipated. If that’s the case, it would indicate that we are looking at more of a fad or trend than a sustainable shift in consumer behavior.

Plant-based options from Beyond Meat are off the menu at Canada’s largest quick service restaurant chain after just a seven month run.

Bloomberg reports that Tim Hortons originally sold both the Beyond Burger and a Beyond Meat breakfast sandwich featuring the company’s imitation sausage. In September, however, operations were scaled back and Beyond Meat products were limited to the provinces of British Columbia and Ontario.

Now, Beyond Meat is off the menu nationwide.

In a statement e-mailed to Bloomberg, a Tim Hortons spokesperson said they introduced the products as a limited time offering. “We are always listening to our guests and testing new products that align to our core menu offerings. We may offer Beyond Meat again in the future,” the spokesperson added.

A rep for Beyond Meat confirmed the fact that the promotion was only for a limited time and that the two companies may work together again in the future.

That said, there’s probably no reason to sound the alarm bells just yet. Artificial meat products seem to be doing well at other restaurants including KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, Carl’s Jr. and Burger King, just to name a few.

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Yeah I still dunno about this stuff. Some of the people that eat this gave so much flak about how meat is bad blah blah blah...I mean, how do they process and make this stuff? What chemicals and/or preservatives are added to this?
 
I'm putting this in the "fad" category.

For those I know who have tried it, it was a one-time novelty experience. They've all switched back to real meat.

Not to mention the meatless burgers aren't necessarily more healthy anyway. They're heavily processed and have high saturated fat content. They're VERY high in sodium.
 
As I see it, this is a fad. From the best of my understanding, the best source of protein is real meat.

Also, there is quite a bit of misinformation and competitive, in a bad way, information out there on food production methods. As I see it, the large factory meat farms are the worst when it comes to waste, however, small farms that implement sustainable practices fare significantly better.

According to this https://phys.org/news/2020-01-global-population-food-production-lacks.html there is also a lack of focus on people's eating habits when it comes to food production, though this article also lends a nod, incorrectly, IMO, to a vegetarian diet.

That said, a recent article in Forbes reports on a study that estimates that Americans waste up to 40% of their food. https://www.forbes.com/sites/lanaba...-us-households-waste-every-year/#2141837a7dc8 My wife and I were talking about this the other day, and she told me that people have come up to her while she is shopping and ask her something along the lines of "how can you use a list to shop?" which she thinks indicates that many people shop for food on an impulse buy basis and likely buy way more than they need subsequently leading to throwing out food that has spoiled.

Due to health concerns, my wife and I strictly measure all the food we eat. It is not an easy process, however, we both feel that it leads us to significantly better health. In doing so, we tend to buy only what we need and only what we will eat before it spoils. I would be surprised if we waste even one percent of the food we buy each year.

Honestly, I would not touch these fake meat products.
 
Yeah I still dunno about this stuff. Some of the people that eat this gave so much flak about how meat is bad blah blah blah...I mean, how do they process and make this stuff? What chemicals and/or preservatives are added to this?

Its worse for you, but better for the environment.

I'm more interested in artificial meat, rather than a better meat substitute. Its meat, real meat, just grown without the animal involved. What we're able to produce now would be considered 'designer', since its meat that gets grown to the most desirable qualities, but its also several thousand dollars a pound because they can only grow it in very small volumes (growing the veins necessary to grow a single, large piece of meat is tricky, essentially)
 
Maybe everyone here got a different idea about the point of this product but I was under the impression that the meatless burger was about:

1. Making money on a unique product.
2. Reducing dependence on cattle farming which is a very inefficient way to produce protein.

Soy based protein is much more space and resource efficient than beef and if you're gonna go meat, then chicken and pork are more space and resource efficient than beef.

Which ignores one rather huge thing: The land used to produce beef. An argument in cattle's favor is that cattle are grazed on land which cannot be used for farming and which cannot be used as effectively for chicken or pork. I'm reasonably sure about the first as I've talked to the crop farmers in our family about that and the second is reasonable as cattle is usually grazed on lower quality undeveloped grassland, while you cannot do that with chicken or pork. In fact I rather trust economics to solve any discrepancies there as if it's more lucrative to develop pastureland to chicken and/or pork then that probably will happen.

People love money, ya know.
 
Not to mention the meatless burgers aren't necessarily more healthy anyway. They're heavily processed and have high saturated fat content. They're VERY high in sodium.

Maybe it can be beneficial for those who don’t get enough sodium..?

At least the beyond meat burgers have less sodium than jilly juice

And that fat content can be beneficial for those on a keto diet
 
As I see it, this is a fad. From the best of my understanding, the best source of protein is real meat.

Also, there is quite a bit of misinformation and competitive, in a bad way, information out there on food production methods. As I see it, the large factory meat farms are the worst when it comes to waste, however, small farms that implement sustainable practices fare significantly better.

According to this https://phys.org/news/2020-01-global-population-food-production-lacks.html there is also a lack of focus on people's eating habits when it comes to food production, though this article also lends a nod, incorrectly, IMO, to a vegetarian diet.

That said, a recent article in Forbes reports on a study that estimates that Americans waste up to 40% of their food. https://www.forbes.com/sites/lanaba...-us-households-waste-every-year/#2141837a7dc8 My wife and I were talking about this the other day, and she told me that people have come up to her while she is shopping and ask her something along the lines of "how can you use a list to shop?" which she thinks indicates that many people shop for food on an impulse buy basis and likely buy way more than they need subsequently leading to throwing out food that has spoiled.

Due to health concerns, my wife and I strictly measure all the food we eat. It is not an easy process, however, we both feel that it leads us to significantly better health. In doing so, we tend to buy only what we need and only what we will eat before it spoils. I would be surprised if we waste even one percent of the food we buy each year.

Honestly, I would not touch these fake meat products.


Well said.

What is a large portion of the food waste? These (nearly all) restaurants that serve a dish that will feed 3 people. They feel the need to serve you a huge amount of food to justify the skyrocketing amounts they charge. It gets thrown away. Then you have people who feel they need to clean their plate to not waste food and thus we have the obesity epidemic. Congratulations, restaurants, for being the main culprit of these core problems.

As far as using a shopping list, to each his own. I only bring a list if I'm planning a trip or making something unique. Otherwise I already know what I like and get what I know I will eat. I don't really plan out meals and not a creature of habit. There are times where I lose interest in something I planned on cooking and it goes to waste. Other times so many things get booked up that I am not at home to eat it. Since I live by myself I often have to cook an entire family's worth of food and eat the same thing for a week...
 
Maybe it can be beneficial for those who don’t get enough sodium..?

At least the beyond meat burgers have less sodium than jilly juice

And that fat content can be beneficial for those on a keto diet

Meals high in sodium are bad no matter what, even if you haven't had it all day.

A keto diet requires healthy fats not this saturated BS they have.

People saying this is better than the real meat counterparts have no idea what they are really consuming
 
Can't wait til someone develops some sort of goofy disease and a law firm blames it on "meatless" burgers. Sue in a BEEF state and they will win LOL.
Then, we will be bombed by ads on TV "If you or a loved one consumed meatless products, and developed
the 492ditxtk33 disease, YOU may be entitled to SUBSTANTIAL financial compensation."
 
I saw the marketing for this stuff first hand and it really makes no sense. Who are you selling it to? Putting it on the menu for a bunch of broke rednecks (Tim Hortons core customer base) yeah you aren't going to sell any. It's food you can buy with the change you found in the couch. Still healthier for you than an animal corpse though. The three main ways to appeal are through environmentalism, animal rights and personal health. Just putting it on the menu when you've never catered to these customers is not a recipe for success and doesn't say anything about plant based meats in general. Timmy's lost their way after the americans bought the business, there's a long list of failures since then.
 
No problem .... at my age it's chicken or fish only .... that way I don't have to worry the day that cows break free and take up arms against the industry! LOL
 
We need to focus on eating nose to tail before we hop on the meatless bandwagon. Most of the people under 40 thing a wing is the half a wing they give you at Wing Stop or BWW, and get charged as it was a whole wing. A whole chicken wing consist of 3 parts. You might not like the tips on them but you can use them to make broth. I'm willing to bet 99% of the people on here never in their life ate pork neck bones or rib tips.
 
I prefer vege burger with home-made mashed potato mixed with diced carrots and peas with salt and pepper seasonings and made into patties instead.
 
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While I can't stand beyond meat, let's not forget that this specific "announcement" isn't really relevant to the future of the product.

Tim Horton's makes most of their profits from their coffee and desserts... Timbits, doughnuts, bagels...

So having "beyond meat" really was just a novelty.
 
Based on what I was served at a Tim Hortons in Vancouver, they should stop serving coffee too. First time in my life I tipped a coffee out after one sip.
 
I'd rather get my nutrients from normal meat, as humans were always intended to.

I respect anyone who wants to go the vegan route as a lover of animals myself (cows and chickens included), but for me, it's just not the right choice.

With that said, I'm not against this stuff existing as an option. It's always sad to see more consumer choices evaporate, but I suppose there are plenty of other places to grab this stuff.
 
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