Del Taco recently formed a partnership with meat alternative company Beyond Meat to offer plant-based beef in its tacos for $2.49. The jump into plant-based meat by Del Taco has been a tremendous success with two million Beyond tacos sold within two months – making it one of the most successful product launches in Del Taco’s history. This increased Del Taco revenue of $114.2 million by 1.5% compared to $112.6 million for the first quarter of 2018.

The success of these Beyond tacos was enough for the company to launch more Beyond Meat products such as the Beyond 8-Layer Burrito and the Epic Beyond Cali Burrito. Del Taco jumped on the bandwagon of the popularity of veggie burgers and fake meat that has been on the rise among consumers. These products are also becoming tastier and harder to distinguish from the typical animal product, and Beyond Meat aims to replace bean-based veggie burgers with their plant-based meat products. Moreover, every burger replaced with a Beyond burger has a broader impact on CO2 emissions, the need for antibiotics, and the demand for factory farming, which are becoming much apparent as this industry grows.

However, companies like McDonald’s and Taco Bell were skeptical and refused to jump onto the bandwagon just yet as they believed this could just be a trend. On the other hand, Beyond Meat thinks that they have figured out the “future of protein” and the sales figures from the product launches suggest that it could very much be it.