What Is the Beyond Meat Beyond Burger?
The Beyond Burger is the plant-based patty that put Beyond Meat on the map back in 2016, and it's still the product most people mean when they say "that fake meat that actually looks like it's bleeding." It's sold frozen in most major U.S. grocery chains — Walmart, Target, Kroger, Whole Foods, Publix, and most regional chains — usually as two 4-ounce patties per box, though Beyond has recently pushed a larger 6-patty value pack into Walmart to bring the per-patty price down.
The version on shelves right now is built on what Beyond Meat calls the Beyond IV platform, a fourth-generation reformulation the company rolled out starting in spring 2024. It's the most significant recipe change the Beyond Burger has gone through since launch: the fat base moved from a coconut oil/cocoa butter blend to avocado oil, saturated fat dropped by roughly 60%, sodium came down about 20%, and the protein blend picked up red lentil and faba bean protein alongside the original pea and brown rice protein. In other words, if you tried a Beyond Burger a few years ago and were unimpressed, the current version is a genuinely different product, not just a repackaging.
Ingredients
Beyond Meat doesn't publish a single frozen-in-time ingredient statement for the Beyond Burger — it gets tweaked as the company reformulates — but the current Beyond IV recipe is built around these components:
- Protein blend: pea protein, red lentil protein, faba bean protein, and brown rice protein
- Fat: avocado oil (replacing the older coconut oil/cocoa butter combination)
- Binders and texturizers: methylcellulose and potato starch, which give the patty its ability to hold together and "sear"
- Flavor and color: natural flavors, beet juice extract (for the pink, "bleeding" look raw and the browning color when cooked), and pomegranate extract
- Seasoning: salt, potassium chloride, vinegar, and concentrated lemon juice
- Added vitamins and minerals: a fortification blend including B vitamins, zinc, and iron
Notably absent: soy and gluten. Beyond Meat markets the Beyond Burger as non-GMO Project Verified, soy-free, and gluten-free, which makes it one of the more allergen-friendly options in the plant-based meat aisle compared to soy-based competitors. If you're checking a specific product against your own dietary restrictions, the spvegan.com ingredient checker is a faster way to scan a label than reading it ingredient-by-ingredient in the store.
Is the Beyond Burger Vegan?
Yes. The Beyond Burger is 100% plant-based with no animal-derived ingredients anywhere in the formulation — no dairy, no eggs, no gelatin, no honey. Beyond Meat has always positioned this product as vegan-first rather than "flexitarian-adjacent," and the current Beyond IV recipe hasn't changed that. It's also certified kosher, which is a useful secondary signal that the supply chain has been audited for animal-derived cross-contamination.
The one thing worth flagging isn't about the patty itself but about how it's served: restaurants and home cooks sometimes cook Beyond Burgers on the same grill or in the same pan as real beef, and fast-food chains that carry it (historically Carl's Jr., A&W, Dunkin', among others depending on region and year) don't always guarantee separate cooking surfaces. If cross-contact matters to you, ask before ordering it prepared outside your own kitchen.
Nutrition Facts: Beyond Burger vs. the Competition
Here's how one Beyond Burger patty stacks up against Impossible Burger, Beyond Meat's own Beyond Beef ground, and a standard 80/20 ground beef patty. Figures are per approximately 4-ounce (113g) serving; beef figures are typical USDA values for a cooked patty and will vary slightly by cut and cooking method.
| Nutrient (per ~4 oz patty) | Beyond Burger (Beyond IV) | Impossible Burger | 80/20 Ground Beef (cooked) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 230 | 240 | ~290 |
| Total Fat | 14g | 14g | ~21g |
| Saturated Fat | 2g | 8g | ~8g |
| Cholesterol | 0mg | 0mg | ~80mg |
| Sodium | 310mg | 370mg | ~75mg |
| Total Carbs | 8g | 9g | 0g |
| Protein | 21g | 19g | ~23g |
| Iron | 4mg (20% DV) | 4.2mg (25% DV) | ~2.7mg |
The headline number here is saturated fat. The old Beyond Burger recipe was closer to Impossible's 8g per patty because it leaned on coconut oil; the Beyond IV switch to avocado oil cuts that to 2g, which is a meaningfully different number if you're watching saturated fat for heart-health reasons. It's also the reason Beyond Meat has been able to pick up American Heart Association Heart-Check and American Diabetes Association recognition on this specific product, something the earlier formula didn't carry. Sodium and cholesterol both look better than beef on paper too, though "zero cholesterol" on a plant product is a low bar — no plant food has cholesterol regardless of formulation.
Taste and Texture
This is the category where Beyond Meat has actually been doing real work rather than just marketing copy. Independent taste-testing since the Beyond IV rollout has generally described the new patty as juicier and less "bean-forward" than earlier versions, with a firmer, more fibrous bite that holds up better on a grill instead of falling apart into crumbles. Beyond Meat's own testing claims a large majority of tasters preferred the new recipe's flavor to the old one, which lines up with the general trajectory of plant-based meat over the past few years: less "vegetable patty pretending to be a burger," more genuine attempt at replicating beef's fat rendering and char.
It still isn't a perfect stand-in. The fat renders differently than beef fat does — you get a slick, oily quality rather than the crackling sear of animal fat — and the aftertaste, while much subtler than older veggie-burger formulas, is still detectable if you're eating it plain rather than dressed with cheese, sauce, and toppings. Where it does its best work is exactly where you'd expect: a fully loaded burger with bun, condiments, lettuce, and cheese, where the differences from beef get smoothed over. Eaten straight off the grill with nothing else, the gap to real beef is more noticeable.
Beyond Burger vs. the Alternatives
| Beyond Burger | Impossible Burger | Beyond Beef (ground) | 80/20 Ground Beef | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Grilling as a patty | Recreating fast-food-style char/juiciness | Tacos, chili, meatballs, loose recipes | Anything, but higher saturated fat |
| Saturated fat | Lowest of the plant-based options | Higher (coconut oil-based) | Moderate | High |
| Soy-free | Yes | No (contains soy) | Yes | N/A |
| Texture out of the package | Pre-formed patty | Ground, shape it yourself | Ground, shape it yourself | Ground, shape it yourself |
| Typical price per pound | Mid-to-high, coming down with new value packs | Similar to Beyond, sometimes higher | Similar to Beyond Burger | Usually cheaper per pound |
If you specifically need soy-free, the Beyond Burger has a real edge over Impossible, which uses soy protein and soy leghemoglobin as its signature "bleeding" ingredient. If your priority is the closest possible flavor match to fast-food beef, Impossible has historically had a slight edge in blind taste tests, though the gap has narrowed considerably since Beyond IV launched.
Price and Where to Buy
The Beyond Burger is widely available frozen at most major U.S. grocery chains, typically in a 2-patty (8 oz) box, with 4-patty and larger multi-packs also common. As of late 2025, Beyond Meat began pushing a larger 6-patty value pack into Walmart specifically to lower the effective price per patty, part of a broader push to close the price gap with conventional ground beef. Pricing varies significantly by region and store, and the per-pound cost is still generally higher than conventional 80/20 ground beef, though the gap has been narrowing with these larger formats.
Who Should Buy the Beyond Burger
It's a strong pick if you're vegan or vegetarian and want a burger-night option that behaves like a real patty on the grill rather than a mushy veggie burger. It's also a sensible choice if you're specifically trying to cut saturated fat without giving up burgers entirely — the Beyond IV numbers are genuinely competitive there, not just marketing spin. It makes less sense if soy isn't a concern for you and you're chasing the single closest possible flavor match to beef, in which case it's worth doing your own side-by-side against Impossible. And if budget is the deciding factor, conventional ground beef is still typically the cheaper per-pound option even with Beyond's new value packs.
Final Verdict
The Beyond Burger's Beyond IV reformulation is a legitimate step forward, not a cosmetic update. Cutting saturated fat by more than half while improving juiciness and texture is a harder engineering problem than it sounds, and Beyond Meat mostly pulled it off. It's not a flawless beef replica — the fat still renders differently, and eaten plain the difference is noticeable — but dressed as an actual burger with the usual toppings, most people would eat it without complaint. Between the vegan status being unambiguous, the soy-free/gluten-free profile, and a nutrition panel that now genuinely competes with beef on saturated fat and cholesterol, this is one of the more well-rounded products in the plant-based meat aisle right now.
Rating: 8/10 — a real improvement on an already-solid product, held back slightly by price and a fat texture that still isn't quite beef.
