Trader Joe's beefless ground beef

July 24, 2020 10:30 AM

I have heard that some Trader Joe's products are available by other names at other stores. Is that true of Trader Joe's beefless ground beef?

I feel so silly asking this, but here I am. 2020.

I remember hearing years ago that a lot of Trader Joe's products are actually "whitelabels;" i.e., they're bought wholesale from some supplier and then packaged with TJ's branding. How might one go about figuring out what other names a TJ's product goes by?

I can't go to Trader Joe's right now for various reasons, but I really miss its "beefless ground beef." It's one of the very few fake meat products I enjoy and [used to] eat regularly. Is this same product sold under a different brand--ideally, one I might be able to get from a different grocery store or Amazon Fresh?

I'm aware of Instacart and similar services, but my experience with them has been pretty bad.

I'm in San Francisco. Thanks.

posted by roll truck roll to Food & Drink (11 answers total)

I think it might be the same as Fantastic World Foods Taco Filling, or very close. Texture is absolutely the same, might have a little more spice in the flavoring, but still mostly onion-y.
posted by juniperesque at 10:38 AM on July 24, 2020

I remember hearing years ago that a lot of Trader Joe's products are actually "whitelabels;" i.e., they're bought wholesale from some supplier and then packaged with TJ's branding. How might one go about figuring out what other names a TJ's product goes by?

This is absolutely true and a huge part of their business model, but also they never ever disclose who made what, so you have to rely on third-party blogs and stuff to figure it out. And some ingredients may be different - for example they'll switch out certain colorings/flavorings if they don't suit the TJ's brand.
posted by showbiz_liz at 10:44 AM on July 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

And to really delve into this and figure out the closest match, I'd recommend looking at one of those sites that provides the nutritional info for packaged foods, and then doing a cross-comparison between the TJ's brand and other ground meat substitutes to see what's closest.
posted by showbiz_liz at 10:51 AM on July 24, 2020

The article that Showbiz_liz links to has a link to this in it too, but a common tactic to finding Trader Joe’s alternates is to run the ingredients through theUSDA branded food database: you index the ingredient lists and it can come up with other products that are similar. This isn’t foolproof, because sometimes manufacturers will alter the product for TJs a little bit, but it helped me track down a few hard to find items that my local TJs dropped a few years back.
posted by furnace.heart at 10:52 AM on July 24, 2020 [5 favorites]

I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be Gardein Beefless Ground. The nutritional info is very similar as is the "beefless" language. But the real reason I think it is gardein is because the other frozen TJs meatless products are, in my opinion, trying to be gardein products. The TJ's chickenless manadrin orange morsels are basically the Gardein Mandarin Crispy chick'n. I think it's worth a solid try. That said, the TJs meatless meatballs are way better, in my opinion, than the Gardein ones-they do have a different flavor profile.
posted by atomicstone at 10:59 AM on July 24, 2020 [2 favorites]

That said, the TJs meatless meatballs are way better, in my opinion, than the Gardein ones-they do have a different flavor profile.

Yeah this is the thing with TJ's - they don't just buy something and then swap the label, they contract with manufacturers to make nearly-identical products specifically for TJ's.

For example, I am 100% certain that TJ's Old World Cookie Thins are just Dewey's/Salem Baking Company's Moravian cookies, which I grew up eating because they're based near my hometown. Just look at the packaging!

However, the nutrition info and ingredient lists are notably different between the originals and the TJ's version. Not remarkably different by any means, but definitely different.
posted by showbiz_liz at 11:22 AM on July 24, 2020

I always thought it was the lightlife fake ground beef. To me the taste and texture seem basically identical.
posted by goodbyewaffles at 1:39 PM on July 24, 2020

TJ's faux beef is as far as I can tell identical to "Yves Ground Round". The TJ one tastes and used to be packaged identically to the Yves product, except for the label. Also they are both made in Canada.
posted by Poldo at 2:50 PM on July 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

Yeah I think it's Yves..
posted by latkes at 4:32 PM on July 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

They do this all the time - strike secret deals with brands. They do it w/ Celestial seasonings for some of the TJ teas.
posted by egeanin at 5:14 PM on July 24, 2020

This product was available long before Gardein. I too have heard that it is Yves, and the packaging is very similar.
posted by QuakerMel at 5:54 PM on July 24, 2020