• by Steve Ellwanger , February 1, 2022

A YouTube creator unwittingly revealing the first product—plant-based jerky—from the year-old partnership of PepsiCo and Beyond Meat probably wasn’t the consumer debut the companies had in mind.

Last November, self-described vegan Amber Criste posted a video to describe her positive experience with a free sample bag of Beyond Meat jerky she had obtained from a store in her town of fewer than 600 people in upstate New York.

“Highly recommend. Good stuff,” Criste said at the time.

Two weeks ago, Bloomberg News discovered the video and reported that the jerky derives from The Planet Partnership that PepsiCo Inc. and Beyond Meat Inc. announced a year ago last month.

After Bloomberg News reached out to her, Criste realized that she had executed the product reveal and posted a second video to apologize for having unknowingly disclosed the existence of the jerky.

“I accidentally, inadvertently, unknowingly leaked Beyond Meat’s, like, next big product—or at least a product that they’re coming out with on the markets soon. I didn’t mean it,” she said.

Criste referred to Beyond Meat’s jerky as a “vegan” offering several times, although the word vegan doesn’t appear on the front of the package. It lists such attributes as “slow-roasted and kettle cooked, no GMOs, no soy, no gluten.”

It’s a safe bet that the absence of the word vegan is for a good reason -- because it’s a very narrow niche to which few people can relate.

In a recent presentation for The Food Institute, Darren Seifer, who is executive director and industry analyst of food consumption at NPD Group, said the word vegan carries a “tribal” connotation.

In talking about the growth of plant-based diary and meat alternatives, Seifer said “This isn’t driving us driving us to become vegans or vegetarians by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, the needle on the percent of adults who call themselves vegan or vegetarian hasn’t moved since the creation of plant-based alternatives.”

According to Tom Vierhile, vice president of strategic insights North America at Innova Market Insights, meat snacks appear to be “a hole in the lineup and obvious white space” for PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay division.

“Frito-Lay paired up with Jack Link’s back in 2009 to launch Matador brand meat snacks, but there is little evidence that Matador has caught fire since then,” Vierhile tells Marketing Daily.

Beyond Meat’s brand recognition among consumers “allows Frito-Lay to leverage its greatest strength, which is its massive distribution arm and its ownership of vast amounts of shelf space.”

Both Beyond Meat and PepsiCo have been circumspect about what The Planet Partnership would do since it was announced on Jan. 26 last year.

“The joint venture will leverage Beyond Meat’s leading technology in plant-based protein development and PepsiCo’s world-class marketing and commercial capabilities to create and scale new snack and beverage options,” the companies said.

Marketing Daily reached out to Beyond Meat and PepsiCo about the jerky product, but neither company had responded by deadline.