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Comment by znpy | Hacker News Reader

It was never going to work.

Proprietary food, that you can only buy from one company?

Of course it was doomed to fail. It’s not even about veganism, it’s a cancerous idea.

Proprietary food.. that you can only buy from a single company are all doomed? Might I offer an example that, under some definitions, has not failed despite that strategy. The McRib.

I was going to offer the twinkie but I guess hostess declared bankruptcy, so maybe you're right.

It's not an unreasonable statement though that for the concept to work it has to "jellybean" though: many manufacturers, many variations, same basic product, ubiquitous availability.

Where it sits as a "premium" good doesn't really work as a value proposition.

If that was a good argument, neither Quorn nor Linda McCartney Foods would have been successes.

They're both doing fine.

And Huel.

Likewise beyond just substitutes, all specific sodas, sweets, biscuits*, most breakfast cereals, etc.

* I'm British by birth, I don't mean those scones Americans have with "gravy".

> Proprietary food, that you can only buy from one company

Huh? Isn't that most of it, except for basic grocery ingredients?

> Isn't that most of it, except for basic grocery ingredients?

Only if you live in the us.

Nevermind all of the specialty foods across the globe. Products made from basic ingredients and labeled to sell are everywhere. What exactly are you referring to?

I don't. I don't know where you live, but unless it's on a farm, branded foods are obviously not a US-only phenomenon. Anything even remotely processed will be based on proprietary recipes. Regular meat burgers and sausages are just as "proprietary" as Beyond Meat ones, let alone foods like candy bars or snacks. Do you think Snickers bars are not proprietary?

Bread, cheese etc have names that says what it is that is unrelated to brand. That is the normal way for most products, a minority of products in the grocery stores I visit are brand only, most things you can get essentially the same from another brand. Exception would be sodas and candy and such, but that is a tiny fraction of what people buy.

Its like when I go to a pizza place I can get the same pizzas regardless where I go even though they are all independent, the recipe for most things people eat in the world are not secrets, its stuff anyone can make and sell.

Regular burger saying "burger" on the package is not any different from Beyond Burger saying "plant-based burger" on the package. The exact recipe is a secret, but the general methodology is not. Just like with almost all processed foods.

> The exact recipe is a secret,

Again, only if you live in the US i guess. Here in europe each producer is legally required to disclose all the ingredients (along with their percentage) in the item description.

I usually pick packs of burgers and i can discard the ones with potato flakes in them. I can even go to a butcher and have meat ground before my eyes.

Can't do that with beyond burgers... Proprietary food.

> Regular meat burgers and sausages are just as "proprietary"

This line is a good candidate to be crowned the dumbest thing i'll be reading this year.

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