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Vox
2 days ago
- Business
- Vox
Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are placing big bets on the future of plant-based meat
is a senior reporter for Vox's Future Perfect section, with a focus on animal welfare and the future of meat. Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat are two of the top three US plant-based meat companies, and they're responding to ultra-processed food criticisms Meat is undergoing a makeover. Last month, the popular plant-based meat company announced a new product — Beyond Ground — that, unlike its signature plant-based burger, sausage links, and chicken nuggets, isn't meant to directly imitate meat. Instead, it has a neutral flavor that 'serves as a blank canvas,' according to the company, for customers to season however they like. Beyond Ground contains only four ingredients — fava beans, potato protein, water, and psyllium husk — and has a macronutrient profile similar to chicken (high in protein, low in fat). It's an 'effort to step outside of the confines of mimicking a particular species and just provide something that is capable of confidently standing on its own as a center-of-the-plate protein,' Ethan Brown, Beyond Meat's founder and CEO, told me. Beyond Meat 'There's this desire to connect back to something authentic…something simpler,' Brown said. 'Being a facsimile in that moment is challenging.' To that end, the company is also shedding 'meat' from its name to become, simply, Beyond. The recent moves follow similar changes the company made last year, like when it launched the Sun Sausage — a product that's closer to an old-school veggie dog than a high-tech meat imitation — and reformulated its burger to contain less sodium and saturated fat with a simpler and cleaner ingredient list. The makeover is a 'direct reaction,' Brown said, to the many attacks the plant-based meat industry has weathered over the last five years, namely that its products are overly processed and unhealthy (attacks that I would argue are largely inaccurate and unfair). Moving forward, the industry's success, he said, will depend on making products with 'really strong macronutrient content and ratios and then really simple, clean ingredients.' Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown, right, with a fava bean farmer in Munich, North Dakota, who supplies the company. Beyond Meat Meanwhile, Impossible Foods — one of Beyond's main competitors — has taken a decidedly different tack. Over the last couple years, Impossible Foods changed its green packaging to a 'bold red' design in what it called a 'meatier brand identity,' launched an 'indulgent' burger (higher in calories, fat, sodium, and protein), recruited the world's top competitive hot dog eater as a spokesperson, and is considering making a 'blended' burger composed of half cattle beef, half plant-based beef. It has also stuck by its key ingredient, soy leghemoglobin, which replicates the heme — an iron-rich molecule — found in beef and is made with genetically engineered yeast to give its burgers an especially meaty flavor. Call it a tale of two plant-based meat companies. Both Impossible and Beyond are placing bets on what will retain current customers and attract new ones to the stagnant industry. But the stakes are much higher than just increasing quarterly sales or annual revenue: Plant-based products hold potential to help Americans move away from their high levels of meat consumption, which annually condemns billions of animals to terrible suffering and fuels environmental crises. How these bets shake out will shape the future of meat, and of our planet. The very confused discourse around plant-based meat From the mid-2010s through around 2020, plant-based upstarts like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods revitalized the meat-free food sector with products that tasted much more like meat than veggie burgers of the past. Sales of plant-based meat accelerated, and it was widely perceived as a sustainable, humane, and healthy alternative to conventional meat. That this newer generation of products were developed with advanced food technology was often a selling point. It's not controversial to say that Americans would benefit from cutting back on highly processed foods, especially snacks and beverages loaded with added salt and sugar. But the classification system used to determine which foods are ultra-processed and which aren't casts such a wide net that many foods that are more or less healthy get caught in it. One of those foods is plant-based meat. Compared to conventional animal meat, plant-based meats tend to have similar protein levels, less saturated fat, and fewer calories. They also contain zero cholesterol and offer some fiber, whereas meat does not. 'These foods can be a valid and helpful way to shift toward more plant-forward diets, which are good for people and the planet,' nutrition scientist Roberta Alessandrini of the Physicians Association for Nutrition recently told CNN. Plus, the vast majority of the US meat supply comes from factory farms, which are anything but natural, minimally processed, or the pinnacle of health. Each year, billions of genetically manipulated animals are confined indoors, fed unnatural diets of genetically modified corn and soy, given a chemical cocktail of antibiotics and vaccines to stay alive, and after slaughter, their carcasses are doused with chemical disinfectants. Turkeys in a US factory consumers hold plant-based meat to a different standard. Operating in that cultural reality, it makes sense for Beyond to address its criticisms head-on by reformulating its existing products and launching new ones. But will it work? A tale of two plant-based meat companies Beyond's bet largely rests on the idea that a significant share of the US population is seeking to meaningfully cut processed foods from their diets. The company is right, in part: Polls show that many consumers aspire to eat a more minimally processed diet. But most don't act on that aspiration, and many hold more nuanced views on processed foods than the loudest voices on social media. A recent consumer survey from Purdue University agricultural researchers found that most Americans say they're concerned about processed and ultra-processed foods, but most also believe that they can be part of a healthy diet and value many of their traits: affordability, taste, shelf life, and most of all, their capacity to save them time in the kitchen. What's far more important to consumers than perceived health properties, according to Impossible Foods, is taste. Processing Meat A newsletter analyzing how the meat and dairy industries impact everything around us. Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. 'Taste is absolutely the #1 purchase driver for consumers considering plant-based meat,' an Impossible Foods spokesperson wrote in an email to Vox. 'They're specifically looking for products that most closely resemble conventional meat. In fact, industry data shows that 9 of the top 10 most purchased plant-based burgers in grocery stores are of the 'meaty' variety rather than the 'veggie' variety, which is right where our products play.' The meaty approach appears to be working for the company. In a recent blind taste test, many consumers rated several Impossible Meat products as better than or equal to animal meat. 'Even during the category's downturn, we've maintained a strong position,' the Impossible spokesperson wrote. The company hasn't disclosed its revenue, but according to the market research firm Circana, last year Impossible knocked Beyond Meat out of the No. 2 spot for US plant-based meat retail sales (50-year-old MorningStar Farms, owned by food giant Kellanova — formerly Kellogg's — is in first place). More recent data shows the two companies are almost tied for US retail sales, with Impossible slightly ahead. Plant-based meat companies are damned if they do and damned if they don't And yet. It would be a great understatement to say that despite Impossible Foods' impressive standing in blind taste tests and supermarket sales, it hasn't come anywhere within striking distance of its ambition to take over the meat market by 2035, a goal its founder once said was doable. Plant-based meat retail sales have stalled out at around 1 percent of overall US meat sales. A decade of whiplash, from meteoric rise to slow decline, has left plant-based meat firms trapped: damned if they do, and damned if they don't. They're damned if they do a great job of imitating meat with plants, which requires more food processing and ingredients than the vegetarian products of the 1990s, but puts these newer products at risk of unfair health critiques. (Meanwhile, the protein bar company David and the high-protein milk brand Fairlife, each of whose products are highly processed with ingredients unrecognizable to the average person, are printing money and largely evading criticism.) Impossible burgers cooking on a grill. Zhang Hengwei/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images But plant-based meat companies are also damned if they don't try to imitate meat, risking being relegated to the 'for vegetarians only' category of healthier but less appetizing protein offerings. 'The tension is real,' Chris Dubois, an executive vice president at Circana, told me. Beyond Meat, he said, has done a great job listening to its customers and reformulating its products to meet the demand for simpler ingredient lists, but 'the hard part is, I don't know that that's the path to win long-term.' The animal meat industry has benefited from more than a century of generous government subsidies and favorable policy regimes, while the plant-based meat industry has not, which has created a large price gap between the two. Closing that price gap, Dubois said, could help plant-based meat 'creep into people's purchases more.' That might become possible this year, as beef and chicken prices are on the rise. Making plant-based meat products more convenient by, say, having different varieties that are pre-seasoned and easy to cook, should help too, Dubois said. I think he's right on all of these fronts. But ultimately, as I've written about before, plant-based meat faces challenges that are harder to pin down, but are likely more consequential than price, taste, convenience, and macronutrient profiles. Food choices are highly influenced by familiarity, gender, and conformity with social norms and beliefs (one of those being that meat, even if factory-farmed, is natural and nutritionally necessary). In a country where extremely popular meat products like chicken nuggets and hot dogs are highly processed, it's hard to believe that 'processing' is really plant-based meat's problem in the eyes of many consumers, rather than a convenient justification for maintaining the status quo. As demonstrated by a number of psychological studies, many people go to great lengths to justify high levels of meat consumption. Making products that are delicious, widely available, easy to cook, and as close as possible in price to animal meat are just the minimum bar plant-based meat companies must meet. Beyond, Impossible, and some of their peers have made strides on all these fronts over the past decade. But to really put a dent in meat sales, they — and their allies in the animal protection, public health, and environmental sustainability movements — will need to redeem plant-based meat in consumers' eyes and clarify what they really are: moderately processed foods with similar or better nutrition to conventional meat, and with a far lighter environmental footprint that doesn't require the confinement and slaughter of animals. It's hard to break through all the noise with a message as nuanced as that. But in some countries, it's managed to work. I hope it can work here too. Correction, August 14, 12 pm ET: A previous version of this post misstated one of the ingredients in Beyond Ground. Update, August 14, 1 pm ET: This story, originally published August 14, has been updated to include more recent US plant-based meat retail sales data.
Vox
6 days ago
- Business
- Vox
Can the plant-based meat industry save itself from America's senseless food fights?
is a senior reporter for Vox's Future Perfect section, with a focus on animal welfare and the future of meat. Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat are two of the top three US plant-based meat companies, and they're responding to ultra-processed food criticisms Meat is undergoing a makeover. Last month, the popular plant-based meat company announced a new product — Beyond Ground — that, unlike its signature plant-based burger, sausage links, and chicken nuggets, isn't meant to directly imitate meat. Instead, it has a neutral flavor that 'serves as a blank canvas,' according to the company, for customers to season however they like. Beyond Ground contains only four ingredients — fava beans, potato starch, water, and psyllium husk — and has a macronutrient profile similar to chicken (high in protein, low in fat). It's an 'effort to step outside of the confines of mimicking a particular species and just provide something that is capable of confidently standing on its own as a center-of-the-plate protein,' Ethan Brown, Beyond Meat's founder and CEO, told me. Beyond Meat 'There's this desire to connect back to something authentic…something simpler,' Brown said. 'Being a facsimile in that moment is challenging.' To that end, the company is also shedding 'meat' from its name to become, simply, Beyond. The recent moves follow similar changes the company made last year, like when it launched the Sun Sausage — a product that's closer to an old-school veggie dog than a high-tech meat imitation — and reformulated its burger to contain less sodium and saturated fat with a simpler and cleaner ingredient list. The makeover is a 'direct reaction,' Brown said, to the many attacks the plant-based meat industry has weathered over the last five years, namely that its products are overly processed and unhealthy (attacks that I would argue are largely inaccurate and unfair). Moving forward, the industry's success, he said, will depend on making products with 'really strong macronutrient content and ratios and then really simple, clean ingredients.' Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown, right, with a fava bean farmer in Munich, North Dakota, who supplies the company. Beyond Meat Meanwhile, Impossible Foods — one of Beyond's main competitors — has taken a decidedly different tack. Over the last couple years, Impossible Foods changed its green packaging to a 'bold red' design in what it called a 'meatier brand identity,' launched an 'indulgent' burger (higher in calories, fat, sodium, and protein), recruited the world's top competitive hot dog eater as a spokesperson, and is considering making a 'blended' burger composed of half cattle beef, half plant-based beef. It has also stuck by its key ingredient, soy leghemoglobin, which replicates the heme — an iron-rich molecule — found in beef and is made with genetically engineered yeast to give its burgers an especially meaty flavor. Call it a tale of two plant-based meat companies. Both Impossible and Beyond are placing bets on what will retain current customers and attract new ones to the stagnant industry. But the stakes are much higher than just increasing quarterly sales or annual revenue: Plant-based products hold potential to help Americans move away from their high levels of meat consumption, which annually condemns billions of animals to terrible suffering and fuels environmental crises. How these bets shake out will shape the future of meat, and of our planet. The very confused discourse around plant-based meat From the mid-2010s through around 2020, plant-based upstarts like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods revitalized the meat-free food sector with products that tasted much more like meat than veggie burgers of the past. Sales of plant-based meat accelerated, and it was widely perceived as a sustainable, humane, and healthy alternative to conventional meat. That this newer generation of products were developed with advanced food technology was often a selling point. It's not controversial to say that Americans would benefit from cutting back on highly processed foods, especially snacks and beverages loaded with added salt and sugar. But the classification system used to determine which foods are ultra-processed and which aren't casts such a wide net that many foods that are more or less healthy get caught in it. One of those foods is plant-based meat. Compared to conventional animal meat, plant-based meats tend to have similar protein levels, less saturated fat, and fewer calories. They also contain zero cholesterol and offer some fiber, whereas meat does not. 'These foods can be a valid and helpful way to shift toward more plant-forward diets, which are good for people and the planet,' nutrition scientist Roberta Alessandrini of the Physicians Association for Nutrition recently told CNN. Plus, the vast majority of the US meat supply comes from factory farms, which are anything but natural, minimally processed, or the pinnacle of health. Each year, billions of genetically manipulated animals are confined indoors, fed unnatural diets of genetically modified corn and soy, given a chemical cocktail of antibiotics and vaccines to stay alive, and after slaughter, their carcasses are doused with chemical disinfectants. Turkeys in a US factory consumers hold plant-based meat to a different standard. Operating in that cultural reality, it makes sense for Beyond to address its criticisms head-on by reformulating its existing products and launching new ones. But will it work? A tale of two plant-based meat companies Beyond's bet largely rests on the idea that a significant share of the US population is seeking to meaningfully cut processed foods from their diets. The company is right, in part: Polls show that many consumers aspire to eat a more minimally processed diet. But most don't act on that aspiration, and many hold more nuanced views on processed foods than the loudest voices on social media. A recent consumer survey from Purdue University agricultural researchers found that most Americans say they're concerned about processed and ultra-processed foods, but most also believe that they can be part of a healthy diet and value many of their traits: affordability, taste, shelf life, and most of all, their capacity to save them time in the kitchen. What's far more important to consumers than perceived health properties, according to Impossible Foods, is taste. Processing Meat A newsletter analyzing how the meat and dairy industries impact everything around us. Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. 'Taste is absolutely the #1 purchase driver for consumers considering plant-based meat,' an Impossible Foods spokesperson wrote in an email to Vox. 'They're specifically looking for products that most closely resemble conventional meat. In fact, industry data shows that 9 of the top 10 most purchased plant-based burgers in grocery stores are of the 'meaty' variety rather than the 'veggie' variety, which is right where our products play.' The meaty approach appears to be working for the company. In a recent blind taste test, many consumers rated several Impossible Meat products as better than or equal to animal meat. 'Even during the category's downturn, we've maintained a strong position,' the Impossible spokesperson wrote. The company hasn't disclosed its revenue, but according to the market research firm Circana, last year Impossible knocked Beyond Meat out of the No. 2 spot for US plant-based meat retail sales (50-year-old MorningStar Farms, owned by food giant Kellanova — formerly Kellogg's — is in first place). Plant-based meat companies are damned if they do and damned if they don't And yet. It would be a great understatement to say that despite Impossible Foods' impressive standing in blind taste tests and supermarket sales, it hasn't come anywhere within striking distance of its ambition to take over the meat market by 2035, a goal its founder once said was doable. Plant-based meat retail sales have stalled out at around 1 percent of overall US meat sales. A decade of whiplash, from meteoric rise to slow decline, has left plant-based meat firms trapped: damned if they do, and damned if they don't. They're damned if they do a great job of imitating meat with plants, which requires more food processing and ingredients than the vegetarian products of the 1990s, but puts these newer products at risk of unfair health critiques. (Meanwhile, the protein bar company David and the high-protein milk brand Fairlife, each of whose products are highly processed with ingredients unrecognizable to the average person, are printing money and largely evading criticism.) Impossible burgers cooking on a grill. Zhang Hengwei/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images But plant-based meat companies are also damned if they don't try to imitate meat, risking being relegated to the 'for vegetarians only' category of healthier but less appetizing protein offerings. 'The tension is real,' Chris Dubois, an executive vice president at Circana, told me. Beyond Meat, he said, has done a great job listening to its customers and reformulating its products to meet the demand for simpler ingredient lists, but 'the hard part is, I don't know that that's the path to win long-term.' The animal meat industry has benefited from more than a century of generous government subsidies and favorable policy regimes, while the plant-based meat industry has not, which has created a large price gap between the two. Closing that price gap, Dubois said, could help plant-based meat 'creep into people's purchases more.' That might become possible this year, as beef and chicken prices are on the rise. Making plant-based meat products more convenient by, say, having different varieties that are pre-seasoned and easy to cook, should help too, Dubois said. I think he's right on all of these fronts. But ultimately, as I've written about before, plant-based meat faces challenges that are harder to pin down, but are likely more consequential than price, taste, convenience, and macronutrient profiles. Food choices are highly influenced by familiarity, gender, and conformity with social norms and beliefs (one of those being that meat, even if factory-farmed, is natural and nutritionally necessary). In a country where extremely popular meat products like chicken nuggets and hot dogs are highly processed, it's hard to believe that 'processing' is really plant-based meat's problem in the eyes of many consumers, rather than a convenient justification for maintaining the status quo. As demonstrated by a number of psychological studies, many people go to great lengths to justify high levels of meat consumption. Making products that are delicious, widely available, easy to cook, and as close as possible in price to animal meat are just the minimum bar plant-based meat companies must meet. Beyond, Impossible, and some of their peers have made strides on all these fronts over the past decade. But to really put a dent in meat sales, they — and their allies in the animal protection, public health, and environmental sustainability movements — will need to redeem plant-based meat in consumers' eyes and clarify what they really are: moderately processed foods with similar or better nutrition to conventional meat, and with a far lighter environmental footprint that doesn't require the confinement and slaughter of animals. It's hard to break through all the noise with a message as nuanced as that. But in some countries, it's managed to work. I hope it can work here too.
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How many hot dogs did Joey Chestnut eat? Year-by-year results for 'Jaws'
Joey Chestnut made his triumphant return to the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest in 2025 after a contract dispute kept him out of the 2024 edition of the event. Chestnut is the most prolific eater in Hot Dog Eating Contest history. He has downed well over 1,000 hot dogs during his career and has crossed the 70-dog plateau a whopping seven times in his 20 appearances at the contest. Advertisement Chestnut wasn't quite able to break his record of 76 hot dogs at the 2025 event, but he was able to easily capture his 17th Mustard Belt. Here's a look at Chestnut's year-by-year results at the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, along with his total hot dogs consumed after his 2025. How many hot dogs did Joey Chestnut eat in 2025? Chestnut ate 70.5 hot dogs at the Hot Dog Eating Contest in 2025. The total was enough for him to win his 17th Mustard Belt, as he beat second-place finisher Patrick Bertoletti, who finished with 46.5 hot dogs eaten. How many hot dogs did Joey Chestnut eat in 2024? Chestnut did not participate in the Hot Dog Eating Contest in 2024. He was embroiled in a contractual dispute with Major League Eating stemming from his sponsorship with Impossible Foods, a company that develops plant-based alternatives to various meats. Advertisement Major League Eating doesn't allow competitors to endorse rival brands, resulting in Chestnut being banned from the 2024 iteration of the event. He is returning in 2025 after reaching an agreement with Nathan's Famous, the long-time sponsor of the Hot Dog Eating Contest. How many hot dogs did Joey Chestnut eat in 2023? Chestnut ate 62 hot dogs in 2023, his most recent appearance at the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. He beat second-place finisher Geoffrey Esper by 13 dogs and buns after Esper finished the contest with 49 total hot dogs eaten. The victory gave Chestnut his 16th overall Mustard Belt. Advertisement Joey Chestnut hot dog eating contest results by year Chestnut has eaten at least 60 hot dogs at each contest dating back to 2011. That included a record 76 hot dogs eaten during the 2021 edition of the event. Chestnut has won each of the contests in which he has participated since 2007, save for one. That came when Matt Stonie earned an upset win over him at the 2015 contest. Below is a look at Chestnut's results at the event since his debut in 2005, a third-place finish behind Takeru Kobayashi and Sonia Thomas. 2025: 70.5 – First place 2024: Did not participate (contract dispute) 2023 : 62 – First place 2022 : 63 – First place 2021 : 76 – First place, world record 2020 : 75 – First place 2019 : 71 – First place 2018 : 74 – First place 2017 : 72 – First place 2016 : 70 – First place 2015 : 60 – Second place 2014 : 61 – First place 2013 : 69 – First place 2012 : 68 – First place 2011 : 62 – First place 2010 : 54 – First place 2009 : 68 – First place 2008 : 59 – First place 2007 : 66 – First place 2006 : 52 – Second place 2005: 32 – Third place Joey Chestnut career eatings Chestnut has eaten a total of 1,284.5 hot dogs in 20 career appearances at the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. That's good for an average of 64.225 hot dogs per appearance. Advertisement This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Joey Chestnut hot dog record: Year-by-year results at contest
NDTV
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- NDTV
Joey Chestnut Wins Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest With Record-Breaking Feat
Joey Chestnut has announced his return to the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, and how he did it. Mr. Chestnut managed to reclaim the title for the 17th time. He consumed 70 and a half hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes to seal the victory. It was Mr. Chestnut's 17th victory in 20 appearances at the globally broadcast event. For those who don't know, Mr. Chestnut was disqualified from the competition in 2024 after he signed a contract with the plant-based food firm Impossible Foods, according to CNN. With an average of more than 9 hot dogs per minute, Mr. Chestnut ate 11 hot dogs in the first minute of the tournament and 46 by the midway point. He outpaced the next top eater by 18 dogs. With one minute left, Mr. Chestnut had completed 64 hot dogs and was comfortably ahead by 22. "Oh my gosh, I was nervous... My goal was 70 to 77 - I really wanted a little bit more. There's next year, and I'm just happy I am here," the 41-year-old told ESPN following the victory. Take a look: Also Read: View this post on Instagram A post shared by CNN Sports (@cnnsport) Mr. Chestnut set a world record in 2021 when he finished 76 hot dogs and buns in ten minutes. In 2024, he attended a Netflix Labor Day event in Las Vegas and consumed 83 all-beef hot dogs and buns in just 10 minutes. The San Jose, California, native defeated 14 competitors from the US and other countries, including Brazil, the Czech Republic, and representatives from Ontario, England, and Australia. However, the statement about Patrick Bertoletti seems inconsistent - it's mentioned that he's the winner from 2024, but then it's stated he finished in second place. Miki Sudo once again displayed why she is the best at eating hot dogs. With 33 franks and buns eaten in 10 minutes, the women's world record holder took home her 11th title. In a close contest between second and third, Michelle Lesco (22 3/4) defeated Domenica Dee (21 1/2) to take second place. Also Read: AI Video Showing Food Items Being Fed To Themselves Gets Over 25 Million Views During a military demonstration at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, last year, Mr. Chestnut consumed 57 dogs in just 5 minutes. He described that incident as "amazing" and expressed his happiness that he was still able to enjoy lots of hot dogs on July 4.
Malay Mail
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Malay Mail
Ravenous return: Fast-chewing Chestnut wins July 4th hot dog contest
NEW YORK, July 5 — Competitive eater Joey Chestnut recaptured his title at the Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest yesterday in Brooklyn, downing 70.5 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes in the July 4th holiday classic. The 41-year-old American missed last year's event after signing a deal with Impossible Foods, whose plant-based products include hot dogs, but he was allowed to enter this year and made his Coney Island comeback a triumphant one. Chestnut won by 24 hot dogs over last year's winner, Patrick Bertoletti of Chicago, but the maestro of mastication could not break his own record of 76 hot dogs that he consumed in 2021. It marked the 17th time Chestnut claimed the 'Mustard Belt' symbolic of supremacy in the gastronomic showdown and his ninth triumph in 10 years. 'Oh my gosh, I was nervous,' Chestnut told event telecaster ESPN after his victory. 'First couple of hot dogs, I was fumbling a little bit, but I found a pretty good rhythm.' Chestnut said that despite his blowout triumph, he was hoping to make a better show of challenging his record consumption total. 'My goal was 70 to 77,' he said. 'I really wanted a little bit more. There's next year and I'm just happy I'm here.' On the women's side, American Miki Sudo won by eating 33 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes, her 11th victory in the past 12 years, with American Michelle Lesco second on 22.75 dogs and buns. Sudo, who set the women's record of 51 last year, did not compete in 2021 while pregnant, with Lesco winning that year. — AFP
