Posted on 01/05/2022 8:08:26 AM PST by Red Badger
KEY POINTS
KFC restaurants nationwide will add Beyond Meat’s plant-based chicken to menus, starting Monday for a limited time.
Fast food companies have recently tested or added plant-based items as more customers look to trim meat consumption.
KFC and Beyond Meat say they are bullish on the product despite the launch coming amid the surge in the Covid omicron variant.
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KFC restaurants nationwide will add Beyond Meat’s plant-based chicken to its menus, starting Monday for a limited time.
The launch comes after years of testing from the Yum Brands chain and Beyond Meat to create a meat substitute that mimicked the taste and texture of whole muscle chicken, like chicken breast, rather than the ground-up consistency of nuggets.
The two companies first tested plant-based chicken at an Atlanta restaurant in August 2019 — and sold out their limited supply in less than five hours. KFC then tested the new item in Nashville, Charlotte, N.C., and southern California two years ago.
KFC’s new Beyond Fried Chicken KFC
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The popular fried chicken chain is counting on customers making healthier choices to fulfill typical New Year’s resolutions. “This is really about where the customer is going; they want to eat more plant-based proteins,” said Kevin Hochman, U.S. president of KFC. “It’s January, so it’s a time of New Year’s resolutions and wanting to do something different in your diet.”
More Americans are embracing a so-called flexitarian diet in which consumers cut down on their meat consumption for health and environmental reasons. That has driven the growing popularity of plant-based substitutes.
“From a supply perspective, we feel really good about it, and it’s something we have experience with in initial trials,” said Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown.
Hochman and Brown are so bullish on the product that they’re not deterred by the current nationwide surge in the Covid omicron variant.
The partnership hits at the time of a national labor crunch, with many eateries running short-staffed. To run smoothly even with fewer workers, some chains have been reluctant to add new items or even scaled back their menus. Surges in new Covid-19 cases exacerbate those issues as workers call in sick due to positive tests or exposure to infection.
Nearly a year ago, Beyond Meat announced a formal partnership with Yum to make exclusive plant-based substitutes for Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC. Chipotle Mexican Grill rolled out plant-based chorizo Monday at its restaurants nationwide. It also is targeting customers who are trying to eat less meat in 2022.
Ramping up for launches
In preparing for launches to come in the new year, Beyond Meat poached industry veterans from Tyson Foods for its C-suite in December, adding Doug Ramsey as chief operating officer and Bernie Adcock in a new role of chief supply chain officer.
Ramsey spent three decades at Tyson, overseeing its poultry and McDonald’s businesses. Adcock also spent 30 years at Tyson with a focus on operations and supply chain management.
“We’re continuing to grow the operations team; they did a lot of work to help the team get ready in these final days,” Brown said, adding the Yum tie-up has been years in the making. “They’ve helped us prepare for this and we brought in, I think, some of the top executives in the industry.”
Beyond Meat is looking to get its stock back on track. In the last 12 months, shares have lost half their value, dragging the company’s market value down to $3.9 billion. The stock closed Tuesday down 5% at $61.62 and short sellers betting against the stock represent 37.2% of available shares, according to Factset.
On the other hand, shares of Yum have climbed 30% in the last year, bringing its market value to $40.3 billion. Strong demand for KFC’s fried chicken has helped lift the price. The chain’s U.S. same-store sales jumped 13% on a two-year basis during its third quarter.
Synergies with retail
The partnership does provide an opportunity, however, for “Beyond” restaurant sales. The company is hoping to attract more customers to its grocery store products, which sold briskly early in the pandemic, but then saw declines in subsequent quarters.
“It has great synergies with what we are trying to do in retail,” Brown said.
To promote the new menu item, YouTube star Liza Koshy will star in the plant-based chicken’s ad campaign, in the latest partnership between fast food chains and influencers. However, KFC will not be targeting vegans and vegetarians directly with its marketing because the Beyond Fried Chicken is made using the same equipment as KFC’s traditional fried chicken.
Customers can buy KFC’s Beyond Fried Chicken in six- or 12-piece orders, with dipping sauce included. Prices start at $6.99, excluding tax.
LOL. Have you tried KFC’s skinless cardboard?
“Tastes like chicken” is about to take on a new meaning!
If I wanted to eat a plant, I'd cook myself some broccoli.
DAGNABBIT!
You beat me to it!
Exactly. Vegetables shouldn’t look like meat.
What do you wanna bet that it will still be raw in the middle?
"The company's rapid expansion across the United States and overseas became overwhelming for Sanders. In 1964, then 73 years old, he sold the company to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack C. Massey for $2 million ($16.7 million today). However, he retained control of operations in Canada, and he became a salaried brand ambassador for Kentucky Fried Chicken. In his later years, he became highly critical of the food served by KFC restaurants, as he believed they had cut costs and allowed quality to deteriorate."
Thanks for that info. I didn’t know any of that. If he was alive, I’m sure he’d be livid with KFC using various actors/comedians to portray him in their commercials.
Remember when the media focused on the “pink slime.”
Can you imagine what this looks like in processing?
They are really pushing this fake meat hard lately. I am so sick of it.
Remember, the enviro-nutcases want to get rid of all cattle and other domesticated animals because of methane.
This is how they do it....................
Research shows:
Plant-based chicken substitutes are now appearing at McDonald’s and other outlets, but they may not be an improvement over real chicken. The plant-based nuggets have the same amount of saturated fats and salt as regular chicken nuggets. So far these “chicken” nuggets have the highest fat content of the plant-based meat choices. - https://www.villages-news.com/2021/09/19/are-plant-based-meats-more-healthful-than-animal-meats/#:~:text=Plant-based%20chicken%20substitutes%20are%20now%20appearing%20at%20McDonald%E2%80%99s,highest%20fat%20content%20of%20the%20plant-based%20meat%20choices.
We found that a total of 171 out of 190 annotated metabolites (90%) were different (p < 0.05) between beef and the plant-based alternative. Several compounds were found either exclusively (22 metabolites total) or in greater quantities in beef (51 metabolites total) compared with the plant-based meat alternative (all, p < 0.05). Nutrients only found in beef included allantoin (alkaloid; anti-oxidant)12, anserine (dipeptide; anti-oxidant)13, cysteamine (amine; anti-oxidant)14, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, C22:6, ω-3 essential fatty acid)15, glucosamine (hexoamines; collagen biosynthesis)16, hydroxyproline (non-protein amino acid; collagen biosynthesis)17, gamma-aminobutyric acid (non-protein amino acid; anti-hypertensive)18, spermine (biogenic polyamine; anti-oxidant)19, niacinamide (vitamin B3; neuroprotective)20, and squalene (terpenoid phenolic; anti-bacterial)21. Several other compounds were found exclusively (31 metabolites total) or in greater quantities (67 metabolites total) in the plant-based meat alternative when compared to beef (Supplemental Table 1) (all, p < 0.05). Nutrients only found in the plant-based meat alternative included 2-hydroxy-3-methylvaleric acid (pentanoic acids; flavor)22, 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid (phenolic; anti-oxidant)23, aconitic acid (carboxylic acid; flavor)24, ascorbate (vitamin C; anti-oxidant)25, beta-sitosterol (phytosterol; anti-carcinogenic)26, campesterol (phytosterol; anti-carcinogenic)26, loganin (terpenoid phenolic; anti-inflammatory)27, melezitose or similar disaccharides (flavor)28, monolaurin (glyceride; anti-microbial)29, phenylacetic acid (phenylacetates; anti-oxidant)30, sorbic acid (unsaturated fatty acid; food preservative)31, sulfurol (phenolic; flavor)32, syringic acid (phenolic; anti-oxidant)33, trilaurin (glyceride; anti-microbial)29, and tyrosol (phenolic; anti-oxidant)34. - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-93100-3#Sec2
If God didn’t want us to eat animals, why did He make them all out of meat?......................
False chicken titties ping.
Not only, but commanded them to eat meat, and which the Lord Jesus Himself exampled as well as eating fish, the latter being my favorite, praise God.
Plant based was the reason to go to KFC
Once bucket is empty; “You can hide your weed in there”
/s
Their chicken sucks. The last fast food chicken I liked was Roy Rogers (dating myself). Nowadays I look for small local places. Kinda like the restaurant scene in The Blues Brothers.
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