Banza, Beyond Meat and Follow Your Heart partner on plant-based pizzas
Banza is adding some major variety to its chickpea-based pizzas.
To do this, the company is partnering with Beyond Meat and Follow Your Heart on the creation of two new varieties.
“Chickpeas, and more broadly beans, are one of the best foods for human health and the environment,” Brian Rudolph, CEO and co-founder of Banza said. “Since launching our crust, we’ve hoped to create a vegan cheese pizza. Consumer research echoed that sentiment, along with an interest in supreme. While we aren’t comfortable using meat, we’re filling the void using a plant-based option. We created these two new varieties to give people another way to enjoy their favorite foods, all while eating more chickpeas.”
With Beyond Meat, the brand created its Supreme offering, which puts on a new spin on the traditional sausage pizza. On the other hand, with Follow Your Heart, Banza worked to create a pizza that is vegan and features plant-based cheese.
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The vegetarian Supreme offering contain a smoky San Marzano tomato sauce; a three-cheese blend of mozzarella, provolone and white cheddar; red onions, fire-roasted green and red peppers; and plant-based Beyond Sausage crumbles.
“Beyond Meat’s delicious plant-based sausage — made of simple ingredients without GMOs, soy or gluten — is an excellent complement to Banza’s better-for-you pizzas,” said Rebecca Infusino, vice president of retail sales at Beyond Meat. “Our products are a match made in pizza heaven as our brands continue to make nutritious and sustainable plant-based options more accessible to people everywhere.”
On the vegan Plant-Based Cheese pizza consumers can find a layer of San Marzano tomato sauce that has been infused with caramelized onions and roasted garlic, and plant-based Follow Your Heart mozzarella cheese.
“We are thrilled to add Follow Your Heart vegan, plant-based mozzarella cheese to Banza’s pizza crust which uses whole, plant-based ingredients like chickpeas,” Bob Goldberg, CEO at Follow Your Heart said. “We know consumers love using Follow Your Heart cheese when making their plant-based pizza creations at home, and this partnership makes it easier and more accessible than ever to enjoy delicious, plant-based foods.”
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Banza’s Supreme and Plant-Based Cheese Pizzas have begun rolling out at such national retailers and e-commerce platforms as Kroger, Market basket, Thrive Market, FreshDirect, Amazon.com and EatBanza.com.