Past Meat simply launched a brand new product that’s even farther from meat than ever earlier than: a protein soda. Past Immerse is the corporate’s first product that makes no try to duplicate meat in any way, marking a pointy shift in Past’s enterprise mannequin. It would seem to be it comes out of left discipline, but it surely all clicks into place as soon as you recognize simply how badly the veggie burger enterprise is understanding for Past. A pivot to protein remains to be an extended shot for an organization that’s by no means turned an annual revenue — but it surely’s an try to faucet into the one market left which may supply it hope.
Immerse is an oddity in and of itself. Not like most protein drinks, that are often chalky at greatest, it claims to be “crisp and refreshing” and is available in three fruity flavors: Peach Mango, Lemon Lime, and Orange Tangerine. Every taste then is available in two variations, with both 10g or 20g of protein, at both 60 or 100 energy per 12oz can, with 7g of fiber both approach.
As you’d anticipate from Past, Immerse is fully plant-based. The protein comes from peas and the fiber from tapioca, with stevia, “pure flavors,” and some juice concentrates and meals colorings to spherical out the ingredient checklist. Past makes positive this ticks off just a few extra of the well being meals containers, promising loads of antioxidants and electrolytes too.
Immerse’s macronutrients are virtually suspiciously spectacular. I drink a protein shake most days, and 100 energy’ price of my powder of alternative would solely web me 19g of protein and basically no fiber in any respect, delivered in a semi-palatable sludge that I need to attempt — and fail — to persuade myself tastes like a milkshake. If Immerse can truly ship higher macros, and is as “crisp and invigorating” as Past guarantees, the attraction is clear. Different individuals appear to agree. On the Beyond Test Kitchen site, the place the restricted first run of Immerse is solely out there, each launched taste is already bought out.
Maybe that shouldn’t be stunning. Protein snacks, drinks, and dietary supplements are an enormous and rising enterprise. US gross sales of ready-made protein shakes grew 71 percent between 2021 and 2025, they usually’re now an $8 billion market. A lot of that protein comes from dairy-based whey, however plant-based protein is rising too — gross sales of each drinks and powders grew 11 % from 2023 to 2024 according to the Good Food Institute, making up a $450 million enterprise in its personal proper. These numbers pale compared to the bigger “purposeful drinks” market — prebiotics, probiotics, fiber, protein, electrolytes, preworkout, postworkout, CBD, and extra — that was worth over $200 billion in 2024 and is barely anticipated to develop from right here. The drinks fridge in my native retailer is overflowing with gut-friendly kombucha, cold-pressed ginger pictures, and electrolyte-packed restoration drinks from manufacturers huge and small, with extra each time I look. Poppi, a prebiotic soda that touts the advantages of apple cider vinegar, has drawn funding from Shark Tank, spent thousands and thousands to run Tremendous Bowl adverts two years in a row, and in 2025 was acquired by Pepsi for a cool $1.95 billion (it additionally settled a class action lawsuit alleging its “gut-healthy” claims had been deceptive, however hey, it might’t all be excellent news).
If there’s one factor Past wants proper now, it’s revenue
You may see why Past desires in. It’s already acquired “pioneering experience in unlocking the ability of crops,” based on founder and CEO Ethan Brown, and is among the few manufacturers in plant-based meals that may actually declare to be a family identify. Extra to the purpose, protein drinks are clearly worthwhile — and if there’s one factor Past wants proper now, it’s revenue.
Past Meat was based by Brown in 2009 and inside just a few years was producing excited headlines suggesting that the way forward for meals was right here. In 2019, Past went public; its shares launched at $25 every however rose to $65 on the primary day of buying and selling, making it the fastest-growing US IPO since Palm Inc. in 2000. A couple of months later shares peaked at just below $240 every, giving the corporate a valuation of over $14 billion. It secured grocery store distribution with Walmart, Goal, and Kroger; provided its faux meat to McDonald’s, KFC, and Subway.
However the glory days didn’t final lengthy. Past has posted straight losses ever because it went public. Revenue generally looks like an elective afterthought in trendy capitalism, but when traders don’t see revenue, they do anticipate to see development, and that’s the place Past has stalled: after a peak in 2021, Past’s annual income has steadily declined, all the way down to $326 million in 2024. None of these quick meals offers yielded everlasting merchandise on US menus. Past’s inventory value has been in freefall for years, other than a short-lived rally as a meme stock final October. It’s presently buying and selling at under a greenback per share, putting it liable to being delisted from the Nasdaq inventory alternate, and is dealing with a class action lawsuit from its own shareholders, who allege it hid the necessity for a $77.4 million write-down of ageing property.
What went incorrect? Whereas Past Meat’s administration have little doubt made errors through the years, actually it’s merely the best profile sufferer of a collapse out there for meatless meat. The Good Meals Institute discovered that US plant-based meat gross sales had dropped 7 % from 2023 to 2024, marking the third straight 12 months of decline. “The class is smaller as we speak than it was two years in the past, 4 years in the past, 5 years in the past,” Peter McGuinness, the CEO of Past’s chief rival Unattainable Meals, told New York earlier this month. “That’s not good.”
Actually Past and Unattainable have arguably accomplished effectively by surviving so lengthy, however each are struggling. Unattainable has by no means delivered on long-rumored plans for an IPO of its personal, possible delay by Past’s public issues, however has suffered repeated rounds of layoffs; final 12 months McGuinness informed The Wall Street Journal that profitability was possible years away.
By 2025, solely 22 % of People had been attempting to scale back their meat consumption, down from 37 % three years earlier
Each corporations sit on the nexus of two main traits which might be working towards them. The primary is that meat is again on the menu. The Good Meals Institute notes a 4 % decline in gross sales of plant-based meals between 2023 and 2024, whereas the Food Industry Association discovered that meat gross sales grew virtually 5 % over the identical interval, to a document $105 billion. The variety of vegetarians and vegans has declined, with Gallup’s 2023 Consumption Habits poll estimating 1 % of the US inhabitants are vegan and 4 % vegetarian, down from 3 % and 5 % in 2018. However vegetarians had been by no means meant to be Past’s complete market — it was supposed to influence swathes of the remainder of us to eat much less meat in favor of plant-based alternate options. For some time it gave the impression to be working — by 2023, nearly half of US restaurants supplied vegan menu choices, and chopping again on meat consumption, particularly to reduce climate impact, was on the core of the cultural zeitgeist. However by 2025, solely 22 % of People had been trying to reduce their meat intake, down from 37 % three years earlier.
That might be dangerous sufficient for Past, but it surely has a second drawback: processed meals is out too. And a patty of pea protein, oils, and starches, pushed by way of an extruder and handled so that it’ll seem to bleed, is fairly darn processed. Researchers have linked ultra-processed meals (UPFs) to 32 different harmful health effects, The Lancet has labeled them a global health threat, and San Francisco is suing processed food giants. Then there’s RFK Jr., whose new dietary guidelines embody maybe the one a part of present American well being coverage I may get behind, urging People to limit highly processed foods (and, in a double whammy for Past, to eat extra meat). There’s no actual proof but of a decline in gross sales of UPFs as an entire, however anybody attempting to eat extra healthily proper now could be unlikely to be advisable Past patties. As an alternative they could be informed to eat complete meals, to stay to snacks with fewer than 5 elements, to eat extra meat however possibly reduce on beef. Past doesn’t enter the image.
This all goes some technique to explaining why Past has turned for salvation in, of all issues, soda. Subsequent time you’re passing a grocery store drinks fridge, check out the “wellness drinks” on supply. You understand two issues they virtually all have in frequent? They don’t embody meat (I hope), they usually’re fairly closely processed. Well being-conscious eaters don’t need their meals to be made in a manufacturing facility or full of preservatives, however hardly ever appear to thoughts in terms of what they drink. My Instagram feed is full of fitfluencers selling “clear” consuming and complete meals, whereas they shill branded low cost codes for processed protein powders. There’s a double commonplace at work that possible received’t final ceaselessly, however so long as it does, you possibly can see why Past Meat desires to take full benefit.
It’s unlikely {that a} protein soda, irrespective of how refreshing or fiber-packed, will flip Past’s fortunes spherical fully. However proper now it doesn’t want that: it simply wants time. Time to influence traders to stay round, time to tug the share value up by a buck or two, and possibly simply time for meals fads to vary as soon as extra and provides meatless meat a second life.
