Past Meat is dropping “meat” from its identify because it strikes past the struggling marketplace for plant-based burgers, sausages and tenders and expands into new classes like protein drinks.
The corporate, rebranded as Past The Plant Protein Co. — or just Past on its packaging — modified its web site and social media channels this week. Past launched its first beverage, a glowing protein drink known as Past Immerse, in January and plans to launch a protein bar this summer season.
The refresh might be crucial for the model. U.S. gross sales of plant-based alternate options to meat are flagging and have dragged Past down with them. The corporate’s web income dropped 14% within the first 9 months of 2025. Its shares have been buying and selling under $1 because the begin of this yr.
“For me, it is an opportunity to reshape the company around very real food that is directly from plants,” mentioned Past President and CEO Ethan Brown, who based the corporate in 2009. “It’s about delivering all those benefits of the plant kingdom to the consumer in ways that they’re going to be able to easily integrate it into their lives.”
Past just isn’t the one vegan meals firm making a pivot. Shopper demand for protein is skyrocketing, and a number of other corporations are scrambling to serve up extra plant-based choices.
Eat Simply, which makes plant-based eggs, launched a protein powder made with mung beans final spring. In January, Inconceivable Meals introduced a partnership with Equii Meals to develop protein-packed breads and pastas. Silk, a plant-based dairy model, additionally unveiled a protein drink in January.
Chris Costagli, a meals thought chief at NIQ, mentioned plant-based manufacturers have struggled in recent times as clients scrutinized their labels and located unfamiliar elements, added sugars or excessive sodium content material.
After peaking in 2020, U.S. retail gross sales of plant-based meat have plummeted, falling 26% during the last two years, in keeping with NIQ.
“There’s a lot of fillers and gums and texturizers and things that give those products a more familiar feel,” Costagli mentioned. “I think as people have been paying closer and closer attention to what they’re actually ingesting, it’s causing some products to stumble.”
Costagli mentioned reformulating merchandise to make them less complicated and more healthy has helped some manufacturers within the plant-based dairy market. He thinks new merchandise and recipes might additionally enhance plant-based meats.
That’s what Past is betting. In 2024, it revamped its flagship burger to make it more healthy. Final summer season, it launched Past Floor, which accommodates simply 4 elements – faba bean protein, potato protein, psyllium husk and water – and doesn’t have the phrase “meat” on its packaging.
Brown mentioned the corporate will more and more concentrate on merchandise that showcase vegetation, like chickpea sausages or faba bean strips. Brown mentioned Past needs to “celebrate the realness” of its merchandise and its simplified elements. He additionally hopes the brand new merchandise will lead clients again to its plant-based meats.
“Hopefully, at some point people will say, ‘Wait a minute, how did we get here, where protein taken from red lentils, peas and brown rice and oil taken from avocado and mixed together into a burger is somehow not good for you?’” Brown mentioned.
For now, new merchandise like Past Floor and Past Immerse are solely accessible on-line via a web site the corporate has dubbed Past Take a look at Kitchen. Brown mentioned the corporate needs to to innovate and accumulate suggestions rapidly, however will finally put its merchandise in shops.
El Segundo, California-based Past will proceed to make plant-based burgers, rooster and different merchandise designed to imitate meat, Brown mentioned. They continue to be fashionable in Europe, the place Past’s burgers and nuggets are discovered on McDonald’s menus.
Brown nonetheless believes plant-based meat can be a “much more dominant choice” over the subsequent decade or two, however the firm has to navigate what he calls “a period of confusion.”
“It’s just not the moment for plant-based meat right now,” he mentioned.
