Thrive Market serves up frozen meals with Beyond Meat

Online natural and organic grocer Thrive Market has launched a line of own-brand frozen meals using Beyond Meat plant-based protein under an expanded retail partnership with the alternative meat brand.

Los Angeles-based Thrive said Tuesday that the new single-serve, 10-oz. meals with Beyond Meat, available exclusively at ThriveMarket.com, include plant-based lasagna, shepherd’s pie, green enchiladas, red enchiladas and pasta bolognese.

Thrive Market Plant-Based Meals with Beyond Meat arrive “freezer friendly” at customers’ doorsteps, the membership-based retailer said. Currently, the freshly frozen meals are being sold in a 10-pack, including two flavors of each meal, for $79.99. Plans call for Thrive to soon offer the meals à la carte.

“We are really proud to continue expanding our partnership with Beyond Meat,” Jason Bidart, senior director of food merchandising at Thrive Market, said in a statement. “We started the partnership in October 2020 with the successful launch of our shelf-stable Thrive Market Chilis made with Beyond Meat. Now, with the upcoming launch of their retail items on Thrive Market, as well as the collaboration with the delicious, healthy frozen meals, we are excited to continue to work with Beyond Meat to offer our members convenient, better-for-you, plant-based food options.”

Related:How online natural retailer Thrive Market is going climate-positive

Thrive Market also plans to offer the five meal varieties with Beyond Meat individually.

Thrive noted that Beyond Meat’s expanded distribution marks the companies’ official retail partnership, with items rolling out to the online grocer’s shoppers throughout this summer. Product offerings include The Beyond Burger, Beyond Beef, Beyond Sausage, Beyond Meatballs and Beyond Breakfast Sausage.

“We’re proud to partner with Thrive Market to make delicious plant-based products that are better for people and better for the planet more accessible to all,” commented Rebecca Infusino, vice president of retail sales for Beyond Meat. “Both Beyond Meat and Thrive Market have a shared commitment to using simple, plant-based ingredients without GMOs to provide consumers with absolutely great-tasting plant-based options.”

In 2020, U.S. sales of plant-based foods and beverages climbed 27% to $7 billion, according to the Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA) and The Good Food Institute (GFI). Of the billion-dollar categories, plant-based meat saw the largest growth last year, with sales up 45%. PBFA and GFI noted that plant-based meat sales growth doubled that of conventional meat and now represents 2.7% of all retail packaged meat sales. Meat stands as the third-largest plant-based category, with 2020 sales of $1.4 billion, while plant-based meals came in at No. 4, with sales up 29% to $520 million.

Related:U.S. plant-based food retail sales jumped 27% in 2020

Rising consumer demand for plant-based meat recently led Beyond Meat to re-up its grocery retail distribution across product lines. In April, El Segundo, Calif.-based Beyond Meat announced new rollouts of Beyond Meatballs at The Kroger Co., Target and Giant Food stores; Beyond Breakfast Sausage Links at The Kroger Co. stores; and Beyond Sausage at Super Target stores. The company also expanded distribution of its Cookout Classic pack of The Beyond Burger to Wegmans, Albertsons/Safeway (selected markets), FreshDirect, Jewel-Osco, Sprouts, Stew Leonard’s and Stop & Shop. A new version of The Beyond Burger also hit grocery store shelves last week.