Beyond Meat has issues. It does not have a smaller carbon footprint than beef. It’s also not beef which might be why fast-food burger joints have backed away from long-term relationships. And then there’s this alleged insider leak suggesting mold and listeria are loose in its Pennsylvania processing plant.
Related: New Research – You Don’t Have to Eat Less Red Meat (Usual Suspects Lose Their Minds)
Beyond Meat’s Pennsylvania processing plant could be riddled with bacteria – leaked documents claim Listeria and mold had been found in the facility 11 times in less than a year.
Listeria, a foodborne bacteria, was detected in the plant during the second half of last year and the first half of 2022, according to Bloomberg, which viewed the documents.
Beyond Meat has also been Beyond Profit, reporting significant losses earlier this year while downgrading revenue estimates. That doesn’t mean their plant is a filthy mess, and people who buy their raw product are in danger of food poisoning. Bad taste and narrative-driven delirium, perhaps, but that’s a different illness—one for which major franchises have found a cure.
Beyond Meat seemed poised to dominate the faux-meat market after announcing in early 2021 a three-year partnership with McDonald’s, as well as agreements with major fast food players like KFC, Dunkin’ Donuts and Subway, among others.
But none of the test runs have resulted in long-term success, with many of Beyond Meat’s partners either not expanding their plant-based options to more restaurants or eliminating the menu items.
No one has, to our knowledge, implicated the product in food-borne illness or sickness (other than perhaps the apparent mental illness required to embrace it). Neither the FDA (which has never inspected according to this report) nor the PA Department of Health has sighted the facility for violations though I’m not sure that means anything.
Having run restaurants for many years, I have experience with health Inspectors in several states. The product of such events can cross a wide range of personalities, observations, and outcomes. In other words, we may never know the truth about the whistleblower claims reported by Bloomberg unless there is a disinterested third-party investigation.
Politics plays a part in almost everything the government is charged with doing. I’d be shocked if, somewhere in the Pennsylvania hierarchy of political favors, someone wasn’t thinking about how good Beyond Meat could be for the State.
And how bad it would be if the place were a sh!t hole.
Just sayin’.
