On Tuesday, the food company known for chickpea-inspired creations like pasta, pizza, rice e mac cheese, announced the release of a new eggless vegetarian pizza option — but this one using plant-based Beyond Sausage Italian Crumbles. The new pizza is called Banza Supreme.
The latest entry to the frozen food section is made with additional toppings, including New Jersey tomato sauce, a three cheese blend of dairy-based mozzarella, Provolone and white cheddar. The creation is topped with red onions, red peppers, green and red peppers.
The Banza Supreme enables consumers to enjoy the taste of a plant-based pizza with the added nutritional and environmental benefits of plant-based protein a Beyond Meat Spokesperson told Yahoo Finance in an email.
This new Banza Pizza offers a practical and convenient way for people to try Beyond Meat, and we think fans will be excited over the combination of our plant-based sausage atop Banza's better crust, the spokesperson added.
The permanent offering is rolling out across the U.S. to retailers and e-commerce platforms including Kroger KR Amazon AMZN and Thrive Market, among others.
Banza launched its crust pizza topping, which was a first in the market, in October 2020. It featured four varieties: four cheese, Margherita, roasted vegetable and plain crust.
The alternative food space gives rise to successes such as fake milk, oat milk and other healthy alternatives. And companies like Oath Pizza have reaped the rewards: since the launch, the company expanded its retail footprint by more than 300% and increased into restaurants like Banza.
In less than a year, our crust is running faster than any other frozen pizza crust in the grocery, Brian Rudolph, Banza CEO and co-founder, told Yahoo Finance in an email.
He added: 50% of consumers buying Banza pizza in grocery stores are new to the frozen pizza category, showing that our chickpea pizza crust is filling a gap. It will use San Marzano tomato sauce, caramelized onions and mozzarella, topped with plant-based mozzarella, which is fragrant and colorful.
Incorporating more plant-based sources of protein, such as chickpeas, is one of the best ways to improve human health and reduce our carbon footprint, he explained.
We aren't comfortable eating animal-based meat. When consumer research revealed that a supreme pizza was one of the top flavors missing from our line, we developed a version that aligns with our brand values, Rudolphs added.
Beyond Meat is increasingly active in the pizza industry. In November 2020, Beyond Meat began Beyond Pan Pizzas with Pizza Hut YUM in New York City including Beyond Italian Sausage Pizza and the Great Beyond Pizza, which have since been discontinued. In early August, Pizza Hut and Beyond Meat announced the next evolution of an ongoing partnership, Beyond Pepperoni.
Available at nearly 70 Pizza Hut locations Beyond Meat says the Beyond Pepperoni Entree is only available for a limited time, with smaller tests in the works ahead of national rollouts.
Shares of Beyond Meat are down more than 10 percent year-to-date.
Brooke DiPalma is a producer and reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at Bdipalma or email her at BrookeDiPalma YahooFinance.com.