And so I think, these changes are starting to do that. And whether it’s the inclusion of premium ingredients. We got red lentils, Fava bean, Yellow Peas and brown rice, for example, avocado oil, bringing the saturated fat down to just 2 grams. So you are sitting down having a barbecue. You’ve got either an animal protein, it is 8.5 grams, or so of saturated fat or your Beyond, which has 2 grams of hard healthy, Avocado Oil and Saturated Fat. And so it’s not an either or. We have to satisfy both. And I think that that’s the magic of Beyond Meat. We’ve done that in this case. And in doing that, not only do we bring back some of those consumers that maybe were or kind of discouraged from partaking. But we also do open ourselves up to be a real solution for consumers that whether they are — I think if you saw the video we did — we had Dr. Oswald on there talking about between the ages of 12 and 14, that’s – two-thirds of American youth have early signs of high cholesterol disease or cholesterol disease rather.
So whether this is about providing your family and your children with something that’s going to benefit them over the long run, whether it’s about addressing any concerns you have about your own health. This is a really important solution for that, which is different than just saying this taste just like meat. And so we are going to emphasize that as we move forward, and it opens up, obviously, those much bigger categories that I talked about. And it’s necessary because there has been a very sophisticated campaign to suggest that our products aren’t healthy. And so we wanted to come back and as I said before iron sharpens iron has become even more clear on the health benefits. I think at some point, the opposition to all of this will overstep themselves and overstate their case.
Because at the end of the day, what they are doing is discouraging people from making a choice that could really help them become healthier. right? And at some point, that cynical approach is going to become apparent. And I think the more doctors, nutritionists and registered dietitions that come onboard and support of what we’re trying to do to improve human health. I think the more dangerous that tactic is.
Michael Lavery: Okay, thanks. I’ll pass the phone.
Operator: Our next question comes from Andrew Strelzik with BMO.
Daniel Gold: Hi, this is Daniel on for Andrew Strelzik. Thanks for taking my question. The release mentioned ongoing further slowdown in plant-based meat category trends. How do you juxtapose that with keeping the guidance? What’s like the –.
Ethan Brown: Yes, I mean I think this all gets back to you, we’ve been looking at this, trying to crack this nut for three years or four years now, right? And what’s going to bring back growth to the category. And we’ve done a ton of consumer research and analysis and just lived through it, right. And so I think these products with this Beyond Steak, whether it’s — which was — again, was the Number One new item in retail last year. or the Beyond IV was rolling out now to really strong accolades from the right communities. Or the Beyond Crumble we just launched, we are addressing the fundamental issue with the category. And so we really do believe that, that will change the growth trajectory of the category and of Beyond Meat.
Second if you look at Europe, right? And while there’s some lumpiness in the data there — let’s not forget that today, McDonald’s announced this very significant promotion around our famous meals or famous order program. And the quote from the press release on that, to me, says a lot about where this whole category is moving and where Beyond Meat is moving. And so actually, I think I printed it out, I want to share a little bit of it. It was two musicians similar to what they did here in the United States with folks like Travis Scott, et cetera. And a quote in the McDonald’s press release was this “Like most people, McDonald’s has been with us all our lives”. This is the musician speaking. So as a childhood dream come true for us McDonald’s asked us, if we wanted to create our own menus and burgers.
We both want to give up more — meat more and more often ourselves. So we wanted to create menus that offer a real great alternative, right? So here is McDonald’s promoting the Beyond McPlant and it’s called the Beyond McPlant in this press release. Actively and not only having 1 builds, but 2 builds around it as well as serving the Beyond Nuggets for the chicken McNuggets. So there’s a lot of noise around the category. It’s very early days still, I can point to at least half a dozen [indiscernible] to get to probability so that as this thing turns, we remain the category captain and we’re doing that. All the fundamental things we’re doing, whether it’s leaning out our operating costs, raising our prices to store margin, reducing our cost of goods sold to explore margin, continue to focus on getting the right products to the right consumers.
All of these things position us to continue to lead the category.
Daniel Gold: That’s really helpful. One different question just on what your outlook is on cash burn and what that cadence might look like? And kind of what would drive you to raise more cash — at like, what levels?
Ethan Brown: Sure. So I’ll answer that in a general sense then turn it over to Lubi. Yes. We continue to bring on an overall trajectory cash consumption down. This — the first quarter of the year is obviously different for us because we end up partnering more cash. I mentioned in my comments and inventory and things of that nature. But quarter-over-quarter, I think you’ll continue to see a nice reduction across the balance of the year. Then we are taking steps, as I mentioned, to bolster the balance sheet, and so that should help as well.
Lubi Kutua: Yes. Not really much to add to that. So we don’t guide to sort of projected cash burn by quarter or anything like that. But as Ethan said, all of the measures that we’re taking to really improve gross margin. And we also said that we — our operating expenses are expected to be more front loaded than back. Like all of these measures, right, we expect will translate into reduced cash consumption in the latter part of the year. So we would expect the rate of cash consumption in the balance of the year to be lower. But as Ethan also mentioned and we’ve said before, we are sort of bolstering our balance sheet is still a top priority for us. And so — that’s something that we still anticipate we will complete this year.
Daniel Gold: Great. Thank you.
Operator: Your next question comes from Peter Saleh with BTIG.
Peter Saleh: Great. Thanks for taking the question. Ethan, I want to ask on the Beyond IV, you give us a list of all the endorsements from the accredited health institutions that back your — this product. So I’m just curious, how do you really get this word out in mass to really change perception. Is there a way to showcase this at the point of sale or on the packaging or is there any other way to just think outside the box to get this message out to really enact kind of step change going forward here?
Ethan Brown: Great question. It is something I talk all the time about internally here. And so from the air game all the way down to what you see in the store. What I want our marketing to be doing is to have each of these emblems present front and center, on product literature to the extent that we can on the product packaging and so you’ll see some of that. But whether it’s the American Heart Association Recipe certification program, whether it’s the American Diabetes or Clean Label Certification, good house keep obviously, those should be front and center for the consumer because it is a signaling mechanism that cuts through the noise. We’ve worked so hard to formulate the products to achieve those. I want everyone to understand that, right.
And so we are launching a very significant campaign in terms of the messaging. Around the helpfulness of the products, and that will be as we roll into Memorial Day. We have a terrific agency working on that with us. They’ve done some fabulous work that including a Super Bowl ad this year that I think most people would really say is a great piece of work. And so we’re going to be launching that and we expect that to begin to change perception. And to beat back some of the false narrative. So I went so hard after this and really wasn’t something that was happened overnight. We had a member of our team here to create this ecosystem. And she was able to pull in the right doctors, nutritionists and folks within this community that got so much support and almost ownership right, over these changes we’re making to the product.
So there’s a lot of pride from that community and what we’ll be able to accomplish here and they’re going to be vocal on our behalf. And you can see it if we make announcements. You can see people tagging in and suggesting this is great work and things of that nature. So as we move forward, the campaign will be very clear in its messaging around these endorsements that will be very clear in its messaging around what type of health benefits this can drive. And so we’re looking forward to it.
Peter Saleh: So when you say front and center, are you talking about you can use these or will use these or plan on using these emblems on the actual packaging so that consumers see it in the — down the aisle?
