What Is Beyond Sausage?
Beyond Sausage is Beyond Meat's plant-based take on classic dinner sausage links, built to mimic the snap, juiciness, and grill-mark char of pork bratwurst without any animal products. It launched years ago as one of Beyond Meat's earlier products alongside the Beyond Burger, and it's stuck around because it fills a gap most vegan sausage brands don't: a fresh (not frozen-and-thawed-mushy) link with a real casing "snap" when you bite into it.
The lineup currently comes in three flavors: Original Bratwurst, Hot Italian, and Sweet Italian. All three ship in 14-ounce packs of four links, sold refrigerated or frozen depending on the store, and they're positioned for grilling, pan-searing, or slicing into pasta and sheet-pan dinners. Beyond Meat markets it as a like-for-like swap for pork bratwurst and Italian sausage, right down to a similar fat content and a browned, slightly greasy sear when it hits a hot pan.
This review covers what's actually in the package, whether it holds up to the vegan claim, how it performs against other plant-based sausage brands on the shelf, and whether it's worth the price over cheaper alternatives.
Ingredients
Beyond Sausage's ingredient list leans on pea and rice protein rather than soy or wheat gluten, which is part of why Beyond Meat can market it as soy-free and gluten-free. The core ingredients are:
- Water
- Pea protein
- Avocado oil
- Rice protein
- Natural flavors (including celery-derived flavor)
- Methylcellulose (a plant-derived binder that helps the sausage hold its shape and firm up when cooked)
- Potato starch and modified food starch
- Salt, spices, and paprika or annatto for color depending on the flavor variety
- Yeast extract and vinegar for savory depth
The casing is one of the more interesting details: it's not the traditional collagen casing used on real pork sausage, and it's not the cellulose casing some vegan sausage brands use either. Beyond Meat uses an alginate casing derived from algae, which is what gives the links their snap when you bite in without relying on any animal-derived material. Shoppers who want to double check any packaged ingredient against a running list of animal-derived additives can cross-reference it with the spvegan.com ingredient checker before buying.
Is Beyond Sausage Vegan?
Yes. Beyond Sausage is 100% plant-based and contains no meat, dairy, eggs, or other animal-derived ingredients. Beyond Meat states the product is free of GMOs, soy, and gluten, and the casing — often the first thing vegans ask about with sausage-style products — is made from algae-based alginate rather than the animal collagen used in traditional sausage casings. The product also carries kosher and halal certification, which further confirms there's no hidden animal-derived processing aid in the mix.
The one thing worth flagging isn't a vegan-status issue but an allergy one: pea protein is a legume, and Beyond Meat notes that people with severe legume or peanut allergies should be cautious, even though the product itself contains no peanuts or tree nuts. If you're vegan and allergy-free, there's nothing in this ingredient list that should give you pause.
Nutrition Facts Comparison
Here's how one link of each flavor stacks up against two of the other major plant-based sausage brands on the market, Field Roast and Tofurky. Numbers are per single link/serving as listed on each brand's official nutrition panel.
| Product (1 link) | Calories | Total Fat | Saturated Fat | Sodium | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beyond Sausage (Original Brat) | 210 | 13g | 2g | 480mg | 17g |
| Field Roast Bratwurst | 230 | 11g | 2g | 600mg | 23g |
| Tofurky Italian Sausage | 240 | 13g | 1g | 410mg | 24g |
Beyond Sausage lands in the middle of the pack: it has fewer calories than either competitor and less sodium than Field Roast, but it also has noticeably less protein than both Field Roast and Tofurky, which lean on wheat gluten and tofu for a meatier protein count. If protein-per-link is your priority, Field Roast or Tofurky edge it out. If you're watching sodium and calories more closely, Beyond Sausage and Tofurky are the better picks.
Taste and Texture
This is where Beyond Sausage earns its reputation. The alginate casing genuinely snaps when you bite into it — something most vegan sausage products, which use a softer cellulose or fibrous casing, don't replicate well. Pan-seared or grilled, the exterior browns and blisters the same way pork bratwurst does, and there's real visible char if you get the pan hot enough.
The interior texture is denser and slightly more uniform than ground pork sausage, without the little pockets of fat you'd get from real meat, but it's not mushy or pasty the way some pea-protein products can be. The Hot Italian variety has a genuine kick from the spice blend rather than tasting like heat was bolted on afterward, and the Sweet Italian leans on fennel and a touch of sweetness that reads close to the real thing. Original Bratwurst is milder and works well sliced into a bun with grilled onions and mustard, or chopped up for a skillet hash.
The main knock: like the original Beyond Burger, the fat content means there's real grease rendering out in the pan, and the flavor, while good, still reads as "plant-based sausage" rather than being fully indistinguishable from pork — mostly in a slightly different aftertaste that shows up a few bites in. It's closer than most competitors, but it's not a perfect illusion.
Beyond Sausage vs. Other Vegan Sausage Brands
| Brand | Casing Snap | Protein Source | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beyond Sausage | Strong (algae-based casing) | Pea and rice protein | Grilling, closest snap to real pork casing |
| Field Roast | Mild, softer bite | Wheat gluten (seitan-based) | Highest protein, meatiest chew |
| Tofurky Italian Sausage | Mild, softer bite | Tofu and wheat gluten | Lower sodium, budget-friendly |
Field Roast and Tofurky both rely on wheat gluten, which means they're not an option for anyone avoiding gluten, and their casings are noticeably softer than what Beyond Sausage delivers. Beyond Sausage is the better choice specifically for anyone who wants that pop-when-you-bite-it experience on the grill, or who needs a soy-free and gluten-free option. Field Roast and Tofurky win on protein and, in Tofurky's case, price.
How to Cook Beyond Sausage
Beyond Sausage is sold fresh (not pre-cooked), so it needs to reach a safe internal temperature before eating, same as you'd treat any raw sausage. Beyond Meat's own instructions call for cooking to an internal temperature of 165°F, which typically takes 8 to 12 minutes on a grill or in a pan over medium heat, turning occasionally so the casing browns evenly on all sides rather than splitting from too much direct heat in one spot.
A few things make a noticeable difference in the final result. Starting the links in a covered pan or on indirect grill heat for the first few minutes helps them cook through without the outside burning before the inside is done, then finishing over higher heat for the last minute or two gets the char and snap most people are after. If the package was frozen, thawing it in the refrigerator overnight rather than cooking straight from frozen produces a more even sear. Slicing the links on a bias after cooking, rather than serving them whole, also helps mask the slightly denser interior texture and makes them look more like sliced Italian sausage in a pasta dish or sheet-pan dinner.
Nutrition Context: Is It Actually a Healthy Choice?
It's worth separating "vegan" from "healthy" here, since the two get conflated a lot with plant-based meat. Beyond Sausage is a processed product built primarily from isolated pea and rice protein plus added oils and starches, not whole-food ingredients. Beyond Meat's own marketing leans on the zero-cholesterol and reduced-saturated-fat comparisons to pork sausage, both of which are accurate, but the sodium content (480mg per link, about 21% of a day's recommended intake) is still on the higher end, especially if you're eating two or more links in a sitting.
For anyone using Beyond Sausage as an occasional grilling swap rather than a daily protein source, none of this is a dealbreaker. But it shouldn't be mistaken for a "health food" just because it's plant-based — it sits in roughly the same nutritional category as the pork sausage it's replacing, with the main upside being the removal of cholesterol and animal fat rather than an overall lighter nutrition profile.
Where to Buy and Price
Beyond Sausage is widely available at Walmart, Target, Kroger, Whole Foods, Sprouts, and most major grocery chains in the refrigerated or frozen meat-alternative section. A 14-ounce pack of four links typically runs somewhere between $6.50 and $9, depending on the store and whether it's on promotion, putting it at roughly the same price point as premium pork sausage and slightly above Tofurky's Italian sausage line.
Who Should Buy Beyond Sausage?
Beyond Sausage makes the most sense for people who grill regularly and specifically miss the casing snap of a real bratwurst or Italian sausage — that's the feature no other mainstream vegan sausage brand has matched as closely. It's also a solid pick for anyone avoiding soy or gluten, since most competing vegan sausages lean on wheat gluten as their protein base.
It's a weaker pick if protein-per-serving is your main metric, since Field Roast and Tofurky both deliver 6–7 more grams of protein per link. It's also not the cheapest option on the shelf, so if budget is the deciding factor, Tofurky is usually a few dollars less per pack.
Final Verdict
Beyond Sausage delivers on the one thing that's hardest to fake in a plant-based sausage: the casing snap. Combined with real grill char and three flavors that each taste distinct rather than like variations on the same base, it's one of the more convincing plant-based meat products on the market. It loses some ground on protein content compared to seitan-based competitors, and the price isn't a bargain, but for anyone specifically chasing the bratwurst-on-the-grill experience, it's worth the extra dollar or two.
Rating: 8/10 — the best casing snap in the category, solid flavor variety, and a clean soy-free, gluten-free ingredient list, held back only by a middling protein count and a price that's a step above the cheapest competitors.
