‘Chicken-Free Chicken’ Maker Wins PETA’s ‘Company of the Year’ Award

Beyond Meat Scores With High-Tech and Tasty Meat-Free Meat That Saves Animals, Arteries, and the Environment

For Immediate Release:
December 23, 2013

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

In recognition of its success in creating realistic faux chicken, Los Angeles–based Beyond Meat has won PETA’s award for 2013 Company of the Year.

Beyond Meat’s goal is to create a chicken taste-alike that’s “virtually indistinguishable” from the real thing, and consumers seem to agree that the company has succeeded: Food Network chef Alton Brown says that Beyond Meat “has the texture of real flesh,” and Mark Bittman of The New York Times says that “you won’t know the difference between [Beyond Meat] and chicken.” The secret is a high-tech machine that uses steam, pressure, and cold water to knit plant proteins and fibers into tasty strips that have a texture and shredding ability much like chicken flesh.

It’s not just vegetarian and vegan diners who are flipping for Beyond Meat: Investors such as Twitter cofounder Biz Stone and Microsoft mogul Bill Gates support the product, which is widely viewed as the sustainable future of the food industry. Beyond Meat consumes fewer resources and expels less pollution than chicken farms do—and its product is higher in protein than chicken flesh. Chickens on today’s factory farms are fed large quantities of antibiotics and hormones to promote unnaturally fast growth, something that doesn’t happen with Beyond Meat.

“Beyond Meat’s goal is to help people avoid chicken without feeling like they’re missing out—and judging by the enthusiasm of their investors as well as food critics, the company has succeeded,” says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. “PETA sees Beyond Meat as a step toward the day when billions of chickens will no longer lose their lives to satisfy anyone’s taste for flesh.”

Beyond Meat is available at Whole Foods Market, Sprouts Farmers Market, and natural-foods stores nationwide, and Tropical Smoothie Café recently added the product to the menus of its 300 locations.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.