Beyond Meat was a viral sensation that’s now viral in a whole different way.
The company sells artificial “meat” made from plant proteins, but a whistleblower who shared information with Bloomberg News suggests that’s not the only organic material in the fake burgers.
According to the whistleblower, the firm’s Pennsylvania factory has some serious sanitation issues, including potentially dangerous fungi and bacteria on the production line.
Pictures from the factory show storage rooms with mold growing on ingredient containers, and Bloomberg reported that multiple samples of the alleged food product tested positive for Listeria in 2022.
Internal company documents shared with Bloomberg include reports of foreign objects such as string, metal, wood, and plastic turning up in the imitation critter.
Shortly after its initial public offering in 2019, Beyond Meat’s stock price ballooned to more than $234 per share, but now the shares trade for less than $15.