Beyond Meat: Where to Buy Online and In Store, What to Look For, and What to Avoid
Beyond Meat is easier to find at some stores than others, and that gap has widened over the past two years. As the plant-based category cooled, several chains trimmed shelf space, shifted packs from the fresh case to the freezer, or dropped slower-selling items. Before you drive anywhere, it pays to know which retailers still stock the line and what to check on the label. This guide covers where to buy online and in store, the mistakes that waste a trip, and honest substitutes if your store no longer carries it.
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What Are Beyond Meat Products and Who Needs Them
Beyond Meat is a plant-based food brand that makes burger patties, ground, sausage links, and sliced strips built to cook, brown, and eat like animal meat without any of it. The base is pea protein plus faba bean protein, the seed of Vicia faba, bound with plant oils and starches that mimic the fat and bite of beef. Founder Ethan Brown launched the company in the United States in 2009, and its products remain among the most widely distributed meat alternatives in US grocery.
Who buys it? Vegans and vegetarians who want a familiar cookout food, flexitarians cutting back on beef a few nights a week, and households feeding one non-meat-eater out of five. The Good Food Institute, a nonprofit tracking the sector, reports US retail sales of plant-based meat have flattened since their 2021 peak. That is why availability now varies so much store to store.
What to Look For: Features and Buying Criteria
Check four things on the pack: protein per serving, the ingredient list, the format, and whether it came out of the fresh case or the freezer.
Protein per serving. The flagship patty has historically delivered around 20 grams, close to a quarter-pound of 80/20 ground chuck. Links, crumbles, and strips land lower, so compare the panel rather than assuming the portfolio matches it.
Ingredient list and certification. The company has reformulated repeatedly, pushing toward simplified ingredients and third-party certification. Two packs on the same shelf can be different generations of the recipe. Read the panel in your hand, not the one you remember.
Format. Patties suit grilling and skillet searing. Ground, sometimes labeled mince, works best in tacos and pasta sauce where seasoning does the heavy lifting. Links hold together on a grate. Sliced strips reheat without falling apart, the practical pick for meal prep.
Fresh case versus freezer. The most useful thing to know in a store, because the same item lives in two different departments depending on the location.
| Refrigerated case | Freezer aisle | |
|---|---|---|
| Where to look | Beside conventional ground meat, or in a vegetarian set | Near frozen burgers and breakfast items |
| Shelf life | Use by the printed date, often about 10 days | Several months sealed |
| Cost per serving | Higher, sold in twos | Lower in multipacks |
| Best for | Cooking this week | Stocking up |
Allergens. The core line has been soy-free and certified gluten free, which separates it from soy-based rivals. Formulas and production lines change, so confirm on the pack if you have a sensitivity.
Honest nutrition framing. These are ultra-processed food, with sodium and saturated fat in the same neighborhood as the ground meat they replace. What they add is fiber and zero dietary cholesterol. Buy them as a swap for a burger, not as a health food.
Alternatives to Beyond Meat
If your store dropped the line or the price stings, three substitutes cover most of the same jobs.
- Impossible Foods. Soy-based rather than pea-based. It reads juicier and more overtly meat-like, so it wins if texture is what you missed. Not soy-free, which rules it out for some households.
- Store brands. Kroger’s Simple Truth and Trader Joe’s vegan patties usually undercut the name brands by a dollar or two. Texture is a step behind, but in a taco nobody notices.
- Whole-food protein. Lentils, black beans, tofu, and tempeh cost a fraction as much per gram of protein. Our guide to black bean pasta covers another cheap swap in the same aisle.
Skip the category entirely if you are buying to cut calories or eat less processed food. A pot of lentils wins on both counts, at roughly five dollars less a meal.
Where to Buy Beyond Meat Online
Online is now the more reliable channel, because a warehouse carries items your local store may have dropped. Frozen formats ship well. Fresh ones mostly do not.
Amazon
Frozen multipacks are the thing worth ordering from the Amazon listing #ad, since insulated shipping is priced into bulk quantities and not into a single two-pack. Check whether the seller is the brand or a third-party reseller, and read the delivery window first. Frozen goods left on a porch in July are a loss.
Grocery delivery services
Instacart, Walmart delivery, and Amazon Fresh pull from local store inventory, so what you see reflects real shelf stock. That makes them a stock-checking tool as much as a delivery service. If nothing shows across three nearby stores, it is gone from your market. They also filter by vegan and vegetarian labels, useful when building a cart around swaps like dairy-free cheese.
The official site and store locator
The company site at beyondmeat.com does not sell direct. It does have a zip-code store locator, the current lineup with nutrition panels, and coupons. Treat the locator as a starting point, since it reflects distribution deals rather than the shelf in front of you.
Where to Buy Beyond Meat In Store
Most large US grocery chains still carry the core items. Depth varies more than it used to, and a store that stocked six items in 2022 may stock two now.
Target
Browse their selection at Target first, because the site shows per-store availability. Inside, check refrigerated grocery, then frozen. Smaller city-format stores often skip the category.
Walmart
Your local Walmart store is the most consistent option nationally. Supercenters carry a broader assortment than Neighborhood Markets, and the packs usually sit beside the fresh ground rather than in a separate plant-based set.
Kroger and Safeway
Kroger banners run digital coupons on this category through the app more often than any other chain, so load them before checkout. Safeway and Albertsons stores on the West Coast keep the deepest selection.
Whole Foods and specialty grocers
Whole Foods was an early stockist and still carries a wider range than most supermarkets. Sprouts Farmers Market, co-ops, and independent natural grocers are the other dependable bets. See our roundup of the best things to buy at Whole Foods if you are going anyway.
Warehouse clubs
Costco and Sam’s Club rotate bulk frozen patties in and out. When a club has them, the per-unit price is the lowest anywhere. Assortment is set regionally, so asking will not conjure it up. Restaurant partnerships rotate the same way, so check the current menu.
How to confirm stock before you drive:
- Search the retailer’s own site with your zip code, since chain-level results mean nothing at store level.
- Run the same search on a delivery app, which reads live local inventory and exposes an empty shelf a website still lists.
- Call the store and ask the grocery or frozen department, not the front end, which reads the website you already checked.
- Ask which department stocks it. Half of stock complaints are shoppers hunting the fresh case for something moved to frozen.
What to Avoid When Buying Beyond Meat
The most expensive mistake is buying short-dated fresh packs you will not cook in time.
Treating the category as interchangeable. Pea-based formulas chew differently from soy-based ones. Disliking a competitor’s version tells you almost nothing about this one.
Ignoring the sell-by date. Slow turnover in this set means marked-down refrigerated packs sit a day or two from the date. That is a bargain only if it goes in a pan tonight.
Overcooking it. These dry out past medium and turn crumbly. Pull the patty a minute earlier than you would pull ground beef.
Assuming it is lower in calories. Oils and starches replace animal fat nearly calorie for calorie. If calorie control is the goal, the panel will disappoint you.
Top Picks
These five cover the formats that stay in distribution most reliably. Prices are typical shelf ranges that move with promotions and region, so treat them as a sanity check, not a quote.
Best overall: Beyond Burger. The flagship item, and the one a store keeps when it cuts everything else. Sits closer to beef than the rest of the lineup. Roughly five to seven dollars a two-pack. Check price on Amazon
Best for grilling: Beyond Sausage Hot Italian. Holds its casing on a grate instead of splitting, and the spice blend carries real flavor. Around five to six dollars a four-pack. Check price on Amazon
Best for versatility: Beyond Crumbles. Pre-cooked and pre-seasoned, so it goes into chili or tacos straight from the bag. The easiest entry point for a skeptic. About five to seven dollars. Check price on Amazon
Best budget: Beyond Ground. Unseasoned mince in a chub pack, priced below the patties per pound and better where you add your own spice. Usually under six dollars. Check price on Amazon
Best for meal prep: Beyond Steak. Seared tips for fajitas, grain bowls, and stir-fry. They hold their shape through reheating, where most substitutes fall apart. Around six to eight dollars. Check price on Amazon
Start with a delivery-app search on your zip code, since it tells you in thirty seconds whether Beyond Meat is on a local shelf right now. If two or three nearby stores come back empty, order frozen multipacks online instead of touring supermarkets. Buy one format first, cook it the way the pack says, then decide whether to stock up. For more, browse our other food shopping guides.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Beyond Meat made of?
Pea protein and faba bean protein form the base, with coconut and canola oil for fat, methylcellulose as a binder, and beet or apple extract for color. Blends differ by item and have changed across recipe generations, so the panel on the pack is the only reliable source.
Is it ultra-processed?
Yes. Protein isolates are shaped by food extrusion, a high-heat, high-pressure process that restructures protein into fibers. That places these items in the ultra-processed food group. Processed is not automatically unhealthy, but this is not a whole-food choice.
Are the products gluten free?
The core patties, ground, and links have carried gluten-free certification, and the line has been soy-free too. Seasoned or breaded limited releases are the exception. Check the mark on the package rather than trusting the brand as a whole.
Why is it harder to find than it used to be?
Category sales flattened after 2021, and grocers reallocate shelf space to whatever turns fastest. Retailers cut item counts, moved stock to the freezer where spoilage risk is lower, and some exited the set. The brand still ships nationally. The shelf simply got smaller.
Is Impossible or Beyond better?
Neither wins outright. Impossible Foods uses soy and reads juicier and more beef-like; the pea-and-legume formula here is soy-free and leaner in mouthfeel. Buy one of each, cook them the same night, and let your palate settle it.
Can it go bad, and how should I store it?
Refrigerated packs spoil like fresh ground beef and should be used by the printed date, generally within about ten days. Frozen packs keep for months sealed. Once thawed, cook within two or three days and never refreeze. A grey surface or sour smell means bin it.
About This Guide
Reviewed by the wheretobuyguides.com editorial team. Availability shifts quickly by chain and store, and pricing moves with promotions, so confirm both with the retailer before you shop.