Better Than Beef™ Plant-Based Burger
Helping Shape The Future of Food.
Who We Are:
We're a family of food innovators with beginnings in the 1940's—makers of meat and plant-based burgers, bowls, burritos, bites, crumbles, meatballs and more for some of the world's most recognized and successful food brands. Find the Don Lee Farms® brand of plant-based and meat proteins at your local club and supermarket.
We're proud of our family's history. Today, we're helping shape the future. We're a leading plant protein producer and advocate of sustainable organic farming and ranching. We prohibit nearly all artificial ingredients and preservatives from our foods.
Since 2012
Since 1984
Since 2018
Since 2014
1 st
Named the top plant-based news story of 2018
by leading plant-based magazine.
1 st
Leading maker of organic veggie burgers.
1 st
The first maker of organic plant-based burgers.
Costco Connection:
Featured in Costco's Magazine
In Costco since the early 1980's, Don Lee Farms has continuously innovated in the meat proteins and plant-based food categories. Costco featured Don Lee Farms Organic Chipotle Black Bean Burger in Costco Connection along with a delicious recipe for a Chipotle Black Bean Breakfast Scramble.
Larry founded Larry's Foods in the 1940's, making sandwiches during and after World War II. Donald, one of Larry's sons, joined the family's entrepreneurial operation in the 1970's, becoming production manager at their plant in Gardena, California. The company expanded their capabilities, becoming one of the first to make, flash freeze and deliver fully cooked burgers to national supermarkets and school districts. Larry sold the pioneering company almost a decade later, giving Donald an opportunity to continue the family legacy and start his own.
Donald founded Don Lee Farms in 1982 in a small rented building in Marina Del Rey, California.
By the the mid-1980’s, the business expanded and established its current headquarters in Los Angeles, adding a production facility and an additional warehouse facility nearby.
In the 2000's, Donald's sons, the third generation in the food industry, joined. During that decade, the company developed decades-long partnerships with school districts, club stores and some of the world's biggest and most successful food brands. The family celebrated their company's 20th anniversary and launched first-to-market vegetarian and plant-based foods.
In the 2010's, Don Lee Farms expanded its national footprint with an additional production facility in the Dallas, Texas area, achieved Organic Certification and launched private-label and branded products in over 10,000 markets in 15 countries.
Our Family Story:
Our Highest Priority:
Food safety and the health and safety of our employees is our highest priority. We’re committed to making safe and wholesome foods using data-driven food safety programs and processes. Our food safety system is driven by technology, three decades of experience and a large food safety and quality assurance staff working with our facilities and on-site regulators. Our facilities operate under USDA, FDA and CDC guidelines.
In The Press
