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McDonald's is adding plant-based burgers to the menu

• belltaco 6y ago
  >somewhat unsurprisingly, will be called "McPlant." Is it just me that didn't find the name obvious, and perhaps not a good one? Many people have an aversion to something if it's called plant, healthy or natural. I think Impossible Foods was right in marketing their products for meateaters rather than vegans.
  • toomuchtodo 6y ago
    People who shop the dollar menu are a different customer than someone who will pay a premium for a meat substitute.
    • reaperducer 6y ago
      "Premium" is the key word here. There was an article in one of the business magazines about a year ago about why so many fast food companies are adding meatless options. It's not about health. It's not about choice. It's not about the planet. It's about money. The menus need high-priced items and low-priced items to appeal to different types of customers. Most fast-food joints need a basic product they're known for, and a premium product that costs the consumer more and has a larger profit margin, that the average consumer might occasionally try. The fast food companies can charge more for a meatless product, and reap bigger profits. A little greenwashing doesn't hurt, either.
      • mprovost 6y ago
        Once the meatless companies scale up their supply chains and production lines, they predict that they'll be cheaper than meat. So in the future the meatless option will be the "dollar menu" and you'll have to pay a premium for the real deal. Of course that also depends how the subsidies to the meat industry keep up as demand drops.
  • reaperducer 6y ago
    McDonald's already has the omnivore market. It's trying to bring in the herbivores, so McPlant makes it obvious.
    • elicash 6y ago
      There are omnivores like me that are excited about plant-based burgers yet feel silly ordering a "McPlant." I'm so self-conscious that if I'm at a Denny's I won't order a "Moon Over My Hammy." I'm aware the person taking the order doesn't care and hears these menu names a thousand times a day and still have that aversion. Are there more than a tiny number of us? I don't know. That said, this is another benefit of the kiosks.
      • banana_giraffe 6y ago
        Last time I was at a McDonald's, it was easy, even preferred, to order from a giant touch screen, so perhaps there's less friction on silly names than there used to be. (Reminds me of a report I read ages ago about the "Ziosk" on-table ordering devices causing customers to be more likely to order desserts and other "guilty pleasure" foods.)
        • walshemj 6y ago
          When my Local Mc Donalds screens broke down it was a disaster as most of the crew did no know how to work with out it. I am actually surprised how bad many Mac Donald's are at Time and Motion - or maybe its the UK Franchises
      • caymanjim 6y ago
        I'm the same way. If a menu has "Eggs Benny" on it, I'll order "Eggs Benedict" because I can't bring myself to say cutesy things. I know it's my hangup. I'll change orders before I say something like that, most of the time.
        • abawany 6y ago
          I similarly refuse to use Starbucks' cute-isms for cup sizes (Venti, etc.) but I won't have any trouble ordering a McPlant - it might even provide me another reason to visit a McD beyond the wireless-for-the-price-of-a-coffee reason.
  • Alex3917 6y ago
    > Is it just me that didn't find the name obvious, and perhaps not a good one? It's easy to imagine some sort of stylized green leaf on the wrapper, would would fit well with their other iconography. To understand why it's a good name, you need to imagine it in the visual context of their design language.
    • deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  • untog 6y ago
    > Many people have an aversion to something if it's called plant, healthy or natural. I don't think that's true, particularly "natural". People have been labeling everything they can "natural" for years in order to boost sales. But it's interesting that McDonalds is being so explicit. Perhaps Impossible and Beyond Meat have already done the hard work of exposing people to these products and now McDonalds hopes to swoop in without dealing with any of the product confusion? Either way I'm interested to try them. I've had a few of the Dunkin Donuts Beyond Meat breakfast sandwiches and they're fantastic.
    • JoeAltmaier 6y ago
      Yes! Beyond Meat is definitely a 'cut above' the other one. And McD's started by collaborating with Beyond Meat. If that means anything, I look forward to a great McPlant!
  • dheera 6y ago
    I fully agree with this. The goal really should be to cut down on the carbon impact in the long term with a product that is hopefully also tastier and healthier, that will entice a large fraction of the country to increase the plant-based fraction of their diet. Not just offer a veggie burger for "poor liberals and vegetarians" who have nothing else to eat at McDonalds. I really hope they don't screw this up by producing a crappy Costco-quality veggie burger. Impossible and Beyond are doing great on the taste front, Burger King already engaged Impossible, and I'm not sure how much research it will take McDonald's to catch up.
  • danpalmer 6y ago
    > Many people have an aversion to something if it's called plant, healthy or natural. Moreover, to many "McPlant" will sound like a healthy alternative, when in reality many plant-based meat replacements are a similar number of calories or higher than meat, and are unlikely to be healthier in general.
    • shafyy 6y ago
      Many plant-based meats are healthier than animal-based meats, just because they don't contain cholesterol and usually few saturated fats. Somewhat related, they also hae a lower chance of giving you foodborne dieases. Sure, they're still burgers and not kale salads.
    • iknowstuff 6y ago
      Can we decouple the idea of "healthy" from calories? Calorie density doesn't make a meal unhealthy.
      • thehappypm 6y ago
        In a very real sense, calories are the only thing that make a meal unhealthy, too, though.
      • suprfnk 6y ago
        > Calorie density doesn't make a meal unhealthy. That's right. > Can we decouple the idea of "healthy" from calories? Not completely. While calories themselves don't make a food healthy or unhealthy, healthy foods definitely skew towards low caloric density, and unhealthy foods definitely skew towards high caloric density. No causation, very strong correlation.
      • grecy 6y ago
        > Calorie density doesn't make a meal unhealthy Can you list a five things that are calorie dense that are healthy, and five things that are not calorie dense that are unhealthy?
        • 6y ago
  • fullshark 6y ago
    Mcsomething it had to be. The question is what is the something. McVeggie doesn't work, because veggie burgers became synonymous with the last generation of plant based burgers. McPlant does sound awkward right now but with the full backing of mcdonalds marketing / their resturant footprint it will roll of the tongue within a few months of launch.
    • lisper 6y ago
      > Mcsomething it had to be. I would have gone with "McMiracle Burger" (as a riff on "Impossible Burger").
      • colesdefectum 6y ago
        McPossible Burger would have worked.
        • JonathonW 6y ago
          If they wanted to get sued for trademark infringement. (McDonalds is working with Beyond Meat, one of Impossible Foods' largest competitors, for their plant-based meat substitutes; deriving their product name from a competitor's product is almost certainly a bad idea.)
    • elicash 6y ago
      Did it actually need to be a different menu item? I'm just throwing this out there, but maybe there was an equivalent to what "Supersize" meant for going larger in size instead that's geared towards plant-based versions of each burger. So maybe I still want a Big Mac, but I want it with these plant-based burgers but still with the extra slice of bread and the special sauce. I don't have a name for this as clever as Supersize, but it seems feasible.
      • shafyy 6y ago
        This is actually a good point. Kind of like how BK does it with the Impossible Whopper. It's still a Whopper, but with plant-based meat.
  • ogre_codes 6y ago
    > Many people have an aversion to something if it's called plant, healthy or natural. I don't think this is the issue. Nobody would eat something called "McMeat", it begs the question "What kind of meat?" and usually the assumption is the worst. When I hear "McPlant", what comes up in my head is eating a tree or grass. If you leave it to people's imagination, often what comes to mind is the worst not the best. This is the genius of "Impossible Burger". They manage to suggest it's great and sidestep the inevitable question of what is in it. They are literally suggesting the opposite, that they found the holy grail of food, great tasting and healthy. Though I have the same feelings when I read "McRib" as well and it's making another comeback so maybe I'm off base here.
    • ChrisArchitect 6y ago
      The McRib is coming back again? (insert guy looking at girl meme, with McPlant being overlooked for McRib is Back)
      • I-M-S 6y ago
        It is in the US in December
      • deelowe 6y ago
        It always comes back.
      • jraby3 6y ago
        Yes. I read on Reddit that pork prices are at a low and McDonald’s takes advantage by bringing out the McRib.
    • coryfklein 6y ago
      > I have the same feelings when I read "McRib" Me too! That name invariably forces a cringe as I imagine biting down on a rib bone secreted away between two buns.
      • RandallBrown 6y ago
  • klenwell 6y ago
    What's interesting is that McDonald's has tried something like this this before and, it has been argued, effed it up due to naming. For an interesting account of their first failed attempt, 30 years ago, I highly recommend this New Yorker article, The Trouble with Fries (2001): https://web.archive.org/web/20081218211703/http://www.gladwell.com/2001/2001_03_05_a_fries.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20081218211703/http://www.gladwe... It's Malcolm Gladwell so take it with a packet of salt I suppose. I think it's Gladwell at his best and I often find myself referring back to it whenever the topics of fast food or marketing come up. On the naming: The McLean was a flop, and four years later it was off the market. What happened? Part of the problem appears to have been that McDonald's rushed the burger to market before many of the production kinks had been worked out. More important, though, was the psychological handicap the burger faced. People liked AU Lean in blind taste tests because they didn't know it was AU Lean; they were fooled into thinking it was regular ground beef. But nobody was fooled when it came to the McLean Deluxe. It was sold as the healthy choice--and who goes to McDonald's for health food? Times have changed, but I think there's still a lot to be said for this suggestion at end of article: But transparency can backfire, because sometimes nothing is more deadly for our taste buds than the knowledge that what we are eating is good for us. McDonald's should never have called its new offering the McLean Deluxe, in other words. They should have called it the Burger Supreme or the Monster Burger, and then buried the news about reduced calories and fat in the tiniest type on the remotest corner of their Web site.
    • maxsilver 6y ago
      I think the times have really changed since 30 years ago. McDonalds sells Fruit and Lattes and Salads and Wraps now (or did until the pandemic started) and while none of those were a top seller, they all moved units. Healthy (or at least, the illusion of healthy) is in, even at McDonalds. As long as the burger tastes good, and isn't gross or labour-neglected or similar (like their salads and wraps occasionally were), then I suspect the Plant-based Burger to do reasonably well. Anecdotally, I'm at McDonalds about once a week, and I'd try it at least once.
    • Out_of_Characte 6y ago
      "buried the news about reduced calories and fat in the tiniest type on the remotest corner of their Web site." Exept how do you reach your target audience now? Vegans wont be checking the remotest corner of the mcdonalds website every sunday. Worst of all, you'll probaly piss off meat eaters who might feel deceived, your main customer.
  • xnx 6y ago
    Remember all the mockery around the name "iPad"? First impressions are often wrong.
    • Someone1234 6y ago
      The mockery was mostly about how obvious/lazy/predictable people felt the name was. I don't understand why you think that disproves anything? The iPad was a success, but the name can still be obvious without the product being bad.
  • amanzi 6y ago
    "McPlant" is a fairly horrible sounding burger! Burger King here in NZ have plant-based burgers called the Rebel Whopper which is quite a catchy name. Technically, it can't be classified as vegetarian though, because it's cooked on the same grill as the beef burgers. Not sure if the McPlant will be cooked on different grills or not?
    • JoeAltmaier 6y ago
      What on earth? Why would that matter? Does somebody lose their vegan powers if a particle of fat gets into their burger?
      • senkora 6y ago
        People can be irrational when it comes to their diets, but that doesn’t make them wrong. Some people care and some don’t. Restaurants tend to take the strictest interpretation of a diet because that minimizes angry customers.
        • JoeAltmaier 6y ago
          Yeah and I don't like kale in my food. Clearly I'm not wrong, because apparently nobody is. But a busy restaurant is not the place to make a fuss over where a particular dish was cooked. I don't get to insist on a separate pot to make my meal, because it might get polluted by kale. It is wrong, it a real sense, to have unreasonable personal rules about a restaurant kitchen.
          • amanzi 6y ago
            Yes but if you tell the restaurant to not put kale in your food, and they go ahead and cook it in kale juice anyway, you'd be a bit annoyed right? Burger King aren't complaining about it - they are still promoting the plant-based aspects of the burger, but aren't claiming that it's a vegetarian meal. Nobody is making a big deal about it.
          • 3131s 6y ago
  • EForEndeavour 6y ago
    I can't remember the last time I gave McDonald's money, but I'd try a plant-based item if they named it the McBean or the McGraze.
  • jamyot 6y ago
    I agree McPlant is quite boring, and honestly, a little unappetizing. Although I'm happy they are (finally) offering a vegetarian burger, with all the time they waited to release one, they could have put more thought into the name.
  • firethief 6y ago
    It couldn't be that stupid-sounding by accident. I think the name is a defense against people feeling like it's a pretentious thing to order at McDonald's.
  • jacobwilliamroy 6y ago
    Agreed it is a terrible name. Honestly I think food companies have no idea how to do vegan options. They keep trying to compete directly with meat and dairy and the results are just kind of unsettling. Just the phrase "no-meat meat" by itself is mildly horrifying. I prefer my food to be recognizable, describable. Taco Bell did a good job: they just give you a burrito full of beans. The only problem was they have no idea how to cook vegetables with seasonings so the bean burrito is just bland and nasty. For McDonald's, make an actual vegan sandwich: spinach, cucumbers, sprouts for texture, some kind of sauce, tomatoes, a dash of salt and pepper. Vegan food is just like meat-based food: if the recipe is good, and the cook does a good job, it tastes good.
  • glitcher 6y ago
    McPlant sounds more like the name of a skate trick :)
• amelius 6y ago
  Soy based?
• chucky 6y ago
  In several countries in Europe, McDonald's has served plant-based alternatives for years. In Sweden they serve the McVegan, for example: https://www.mcdonalds.com/se/sv-se/product/mcvegan.html https://www.mcdonalds.com/se/sv-se/product/mcvegan.html
  • reaperducer 6y ago
    McDonald's had an all-veggie burger back in the 80's in the United States, but it went away. I don't know if it was nationwide, or regional. It came out around the same time as the McDLT, which was awesome. (As an aside, one of the things that has always bugged me about McDonald's is its menu inconsistency from market to market. The franchisees have too much power, IMO. I have to drive a few hundred miles each year to get McRibs because the local franchise owners won't carry it. And McRibs don't freeze well.)
    • dbspin 6y ago
      In the 90s Burger King had an incredible 'meat like' vege burger here in Europe. As a freshly vegetarian teenager at the time it was my go too 'faux flesh'. For some unknown reason they cut it from the menu in favour of their rather awful 'bean burger'.
  • mping 6y ago
    We have the McVeggie over here (Portugal) which are meh, but I recently discovered Linda McCartney's veggie burgers and I have fooled a couple of people thinking it was meat. They are very very good IMHO.
    • Gys 6y ago
      Interesting! Where do you buy those in Portugal?
      • mping 6y ago
        You have some stores around Lisbon, there is one in Estrela. You can also google it and some major chains say they have it but I haven't tried ordering online.
• dehrmann 6y ago
  Let's see if they take beef flavor out of their fries.
  • chris_st 6y ago
    Or will they just put it into their "burgers"? Seems like the kind of thing they'd do. For the uninitiated: McD's used to fry their fries in lard, and then changed in the 90's to vegetable oil to lower cholesterol, etc. But they still (secretly) used beef flavor, from animals, and lost a $10M lawsuit from vegetarians and Hindus. But they didn't change the recipe [1]. 1: https://www.eatthis.com/mcdonalds-french-fries-taste-different/ https://www.eatthis.com/mcdonalds-french-fries-taste-differe...
    • wincy 6y ago
      It wasn't lard, it was beef tallow. Lard is specifically pig fat.
      • chris_st 6y ago
        Thanks, I didn't know that!
  • xnx 6y ago
    It would be nice if they made some McPlant fries!
  • wincy 6y ago
    I wish they'd start using beef tallow again. I recently made a few batches of store-bought fries deep fried in tallow and it was one of the best things I've ever tasted. There's something primally satisfying about the taste of animal fats vs plant-based fats.
    • Nbox9 6y ago
      That’s one opinion. I personally am put off by the tastes and smells of animal fats and proteins. Perhaps it’s because I consider animal products to be very unhealthy and environmentally harmful. The percentage of people in developed countries that are either vegetarian or vegan is increasing and McDonals is clearly trying to service this demographic.
• falcolas 6y ago
  I had a "Beyond Burger" the other day. It was larger than you'd ever get from either BK or McD's, but it was still a licensed product. The flavor was pretty good (if a bit too "meaty" as it were), but the texture was very wrong. There were sizable globs of rubbery material in them which was a bit disturbing (think Pearl Tea style tapioca, only 2-3x more resilient). It was as if globules of gristle had made it into the final product, bypassing the grinder.
  • HaloZero 6y ago
    I've found it works substantially better as ground meat because you don't get that squishy texture. We've added it to pasta, tacos, and various things now and it's worked out well. Just add some turmeric, chili powder and cook in some cumin seeds.
  • sevencolors 6y ago
    I think they must not be cooking it correctly. I've had the Beyond Burger patties and ground meat. If you only warm it up some of the "gristle" feels like plastic bits. Yuck. If you low and slow cook it, seems like it integrates better And salt and spices help too, I feel they purposely under season it
  • twostorytower 6y ago
    They came up with a new formula somewhat recently and I had the same experience. I think it's just awful. Impossible Burger has been a consistent, very burger like experience.
  • antpls 6y ago
    I bought a frozen "impossible burger" (although I don't remember if it was beyond burger or impossible burger). It was not a good experience. When uncooked it looked like cat can food, when cooked it still smelled like cat food. I have a feeling those are the same ingredients than cat food. I would rather eat an official and assumed vegan burger rather than one of those "fake" meat burger
    • sct202 6y ago
• corry 6y ago
  Here in the Kitchener-Waterloo region of Ontario/Canada, the local McDonalds ran with Beyond Meat burgers for about a month (maybe April-ish)? From what I could tell, it was very successful (often sold-out, and anecdotally the workers told me that it was the most popular new thing they'd seen in a long time). For my family, we went from not having eaten McD's for years to getting it occasionally. However, they stopped it suddenly. So the fam now goes to A&W since they have Beyond. Anecdotal evidence that doing meatless right in fast food can be a driver of growth, higher margins, and bring back a key demographic that otherwise wouldn't dream of setting foot in there.
  • ttul 6y ago
    The A&W Beyond burger is amazing.
  • abawany 6y ago
    Yes, I was thrilled to see that A&W had Beyond Burgers in Canada. It is the sole reason they got my business multiple times when I used to visit that country.
    • ckosidows 6y ago
      Is it only in Canada? We have an A&W in town and I never would have thought to go there. But if they have plant burgers I might.
      • abawany 6y ago
        It appears not to be the case: https://awrestaurants.com/food/burgers/AW https://awrestaurants.com/food/burgers/AW (https://awrestaurants.com/menu https://awrestaurants.com/menu). I think I have been to a US location once/ever in the previous decade but in Canada, I would often seek out their locations when I wanted lunch (Beyond Burger wrapped in lettuce).
      • TheRealNGenius 6y ago
        read the first sentence on wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%26W_Restaurants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%26W_Restaurants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%26W_(Canada) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%26W_(Canada)
• maxerickson 6y ago
  Will people forever speculate that they have real meat in them?
  • werber 6y ago
    Vegans will be concerned about shared grill space, I know that was a big issue for friends for mine with Burger King's Impossible implentation
    • imwally 6y ago
      This used to be a concern for me earlier on in my vegan years but I soon realized that veganism isn't about eating a "pure" diet, it's about the animals. The best thing for the animals is for these products to sell and I shouldn't let a little cross contamination deter me from that.
      • Spivak 6y ago
        Yep, I call myself a "mostly plants" person because of this. When buying and cooking for myself I avoid meat and animal products but I felt like it was wrong to waste food just because it was meat.
    • nxc18 6y ago
      Some vegans. If you care about the environment at all you’re not going to be demanding every restaurant buy additional grills, expand footprint, or alternatively not serve vegans at all. Demanding separate grills doesn’t have any impact on animal suffering either. The only vegans I could see caring about that are the purity test vegans or the vegans who are convinced meat is physically dangerous to human health, and those people shouldn’t eat in McDonald’s regardless.
      • dmurray 6y ago
        The "pure" vegans may be a minority, but will have a disproportionately loud voice.
• hereisdx 6y ago
  India has had vegetarian burgers for years, in fact, most people order these veg burgers because they don't eat meat ( culture / religion ). Ive never eaten meat, but I really love burgers.
• petra 6y ago
  From what i've read, the impossible burger is pretty close to meat, unlike other plant based burgers. On the other and, burger king already sell those. So i'm curious, why doesn't McDonald's sell those too ? Is the supply restricted to burger king ? or do they think it's not woth the more expensive price, and and meat eaters will still prefer to eat a McD burger, while plant easters don't care that much about closeness to meat ?
  • fossuser 6y ago
    I'd guess because vertical integration is way better for margins at scale. Why be dependent on another company if you don't have to? It's way better to own your own product. McDonalds partnered with Beyond briefly probably to test demand in the market. They're better off investing in their own recipe if they're able to pull it off. I'd guess they can afford to pay the people they need to do it. When I first had an impossible burger I didn't like it, but I was also eating meat at the time. After a few months of being vegetarian I think they're great.
    • ravedave5 6y ago
      Now vs long term. If they NEEDED something now - just use beyond. I don't think the are getting hammered now, but I think they see this as a trend that will stick so they want to be able to support the volumes needed for a real rollout and get all those profits in house. I guarantee they will be the biggest fake meat producer in a few years. Just imagine the impact of a fake meat McRib!
    • petra 6y ago
      The impossible has v2. Did you taste that ? How is it compared to beef for you?
      • fossuser 6y ago
        Maybe that's what happened? I had v2 later and liked it better? The first time I had it the smell was off, and the outside was too crisp so it didn't taste like a burger - it was closer than a veggie patty or something but the experience was like eating beef that had something off with it (not pleasant). I was disappointed since everyone said you couldn't tell the difference and to me it was immediately obvious. After being a vegetarian for a while I tried again and this time it was better. The smell is still a little off, but other than that with condiments and stuff inside a bun it's easy to forget it's not a real burger. Though it's hard to know if it's just because I haven't had one in a long time. It satisfies enough of what it feels like to eat a burger to enjoy them at a cookout. It also makes it easier for me to be a vegetarian since burgers were my favorite food.
• rch 6y ago
  It's good to see options proliferate and do well in the market. Ideally though, the next phase of this trend should yield products which emphasize organic/regenerative attributes, or similar labeling with ties to positive ecological outcomes.
• ajay-b 6y ago
  If you eat too much McDonald’s you McPlant into an early grave.
• Nbox9 6y ago
  I think it’ll be a big win when plant-based burgers are cheaper than animal based burgers. From a raw ingredients standpoint plant based food should almost always be cheaper than animal based food because the costs associated with farming plants is lower than the costs associated with farming animals. Hopefully, with McDonald’s scale and with their vertical integration they can make affordable, tasty, and comparably healthy veggie burgers a reality.
  • dragonwriter 6y ago
    > Hopefully, with McDonald’s scale and with their vertical integration they can make affordable, tasty, and comparably healthy veggie burgers a reality. McDonald's hasn't even made tasty meat burgers a reality, so that's asking a bit much. OTOH, I supect McDonald's will continue to harvest as much of a premium as the market will bear from anyone with special dietary preferences that they cater to, including vegetarians, regardless of underlying food costs. Now, if there is lots of competition in serving vegetarian fast-food, then there will be pressure to bring the price down to the extent costs support it.
    • Nbox9 6y ago
      You notice how I mentioned taste after price. I suspect McDonald’s prioritizes costs over taste, but that taste will factor into their final product.
    • sjwright 6y ago
      > McDonald's hasn't even made tasty meat burgers a reality That might well be true in some countries. Certainly not true in Australia.
  • adrian_mrd 6y ago
    A good way to think of this problem is that there are two solutions: Option A, farmers continue to receive government subsidies, or, Option B, consumers pay the ‘real’ price for food (which factors in the cost of externalities eg climate change, no factory farms, etc)
• edpazu 6y ago
  McBelieve would have been a much better name.
• edpazu 6y ago
  I think McBelieve would have been a much better name for non-meat menu items.
• yboris 6y ago
  Coinciding news from Japan: Eco-friendly, healthy plant-based meat in spotlight in Japan https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20201108/p2g/00m/0fe/115000c https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20201108/p2g/00m/0fe/11...
• randyrand 6y ago
  Worth noting, McDonalds has dozens of different menus all across the world.
• foxhop 6y ago
  Plants can taste great without using mad science to change them to taste similar to animals. Vegan eggplant India curry comes to mind, so good.
  • dfxm12 6y ago
    This is McDonald's we're talking about. They are very much more concerned with mad science than taste. They're concerned with keeping costs low and their food easy to transport, store and cook (or reheat).
  • AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
    While true, those of us who liked the taste and texture of meat but became vegetarian for other reasons really appreciate how hard companies are trying to imitate meat with plants.
  • tiew9Vii 6y ago
    Non vegan. I agree with this. I eat specifically to get strong in the gym. A bit of a sticking point with me and my partner is I refused to go eat at a cafe with my partners sister/husband for brunch as it was a vegan cafe. My reasoning was it was junk food, heavily processed food made to taste like meat. Nutritionaly there was nothing on the menu that suited my macros as I was training for a competition on a strict diet. I did explain I'd happily eat somewhere that served real, whole food that was vegan, the issue wasn't about it being a vegan cafe, the issue was the food was nutritionally junk. Whole based plant foods can be extremely tasty, healthy and simple. I quite happily eat these types of vegan meals. I actively avoid beyond meat burgers but will quite happily eat lentil burgers. Still on the topic of McDonalds, people want beyond meat style burgers so it's good they are providing them as an option.
• baby 6y ago
  Imo this is a big win, I used to work at McDonalds in France and a big market was the muslim market that would only buy the fish burgers.
• notRobot 6y ago
  I traveled to India last year for a business trip. Indian McD has apparently had vegetarian burger options for decades, including the McVeggie (vegetable patty), McSpicy Paneer (cottage cheese patty) and McAloo Tikki (potato-based patty). The Indian population is about 40% vegetarian, so this makes sense. Personally, I think the vegetarian burgers tasted incredible, and I wish we had them here.
  • thehappypm 6y ago
    I went to India last year and found the vegetarian burgers awful. I think the American palate requires a little bit of a different taste than the Indian.
    • notRobot 6y ago
      That's definitely possible, yeah. I already didn't eat much meat (where I live people aren't as crazy about meat as they often are in the US) and was used to salads and veggie sandwiches and stuff for meals. But I agree, if they choose to bring these offerings to other countries, they're going to have to adjust the recipes, as I'm sure they will.
  • y2bd 6y ago
    As someone who pretty much only orders vegetarian when doing Indian takeout, these sound amazing.
  • devxpy 6y ago
    I thought this post was about plant based chicken substitutes which seem far from reach here in India
• major505 6y ago
  Burguer King have this in the menu. I tried one, I still prefer the meat ones, but is nice to have the option, specially when before the pandemic I was craving for some fast food, I could go there with my girfriend who is a vegetarian, and she could eat more than french fries.
• deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
• cavisne 6y ago
  The COVID related menu simplification at mcdonalds have made it really hard to eat even slightly healthy there. I'm surprised they are considering a project like this, although 2021 is a ways out.
• dang 6y ago
  Url changed from https://www.protocol.com/bulletins/mcdonalds-plant-based https://www.protocol.com/bulletins/mcdonalds-plant-based, which points to this.
• azinman2 6y ago
  > “ McDonald's had been running small tests of plant-based options in Canada since as early as last year, and was reportedly canvassing customers in the UK recently for their thoughts on vegan options at the Golden Arches” In 2001 I had a vegetarian (vegan?) burger at McDonalds in the UK. McDonalds in India already has plenty of unique veggie items on their menu. I’m confused by these statements.
  • VoxPelli 6y ago
    Yeah, we've had a McVegan (actual name) in Sweden and Finland since 2017: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelpellmanrowland/2017/10/12/mcdonalds-vegan/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelpellmanrowland/2017/10/1...
  • motives 6y ago
    India is a more unique market due to the extremely high number of Hindus, who do not eat beef due to the revered status of the cow. This has a significant impact on the provisioning of products, as McDonalds would not be able to survive on beef alone.
    • howlgarnish 6y ago
      McD in India doesn't sell any beef products, period. The menu is entirely chicken and vegetarian options. (They tried a lamb-based Maharaja Mac earlier, but pulled it in favor of the current chicken version some years ago.)
• tartoran 6y ago
  I persobally will continue to avoid McDonalds but think this is not a bad initiative. I’ve been eating a whole lot less meat lately and don’t miss it at all. I sometimes have veggie burgers from Trader Joe’s and they are, surprisingly, very good. I also tried veggie salamy and bologna and they are quite good as well though the heavy processing is a big turn off for me.
  • zo7 6y ago
    What about the processing in the veggie salami/bologna turns you off? Their meat counterparts are also heavily processed and are known to be carcinogenic.
    • tartoran 6y ago
      You answered this question yourself. I am not sure how unhealthy the processig is so I prefer to stick with less processed veggies, I eat fresh as much as I possibly can
  • mbirth 6y ago
    The biggest turn off for me is that those plant-based alternatives are in no way any bit healthier than their real-meat originals.
• ChrisArchitect 6y ago
  purely driven by curiosity, not vegan or health-concerned or anything, it still took me a very long time (years) to one time take a chance and try an Impossble burger somewhere (think it was A&W). One night I just decided to take the plunge. It was 'fine'. But nothing is really incentivizing me to have it regularly. I kind of want to be mislead -- don't tell me it's a plant-based burger. If the studies are consistent, I'll think it's fine. McDonalds finally taking the plunge into this is big for markets as is anything they get into. I suspect that they finally see the numbers working as far as consumer-readiness and competitors all selling them now also. So that indicates it must be working somewhat at the other places like Burger King etc. Has anyone you know said they eat plant burgers regularly tho - other than veggie/vegan friends?? Maybe McNatural would be a better name, less focused on the Plant aspect which I agree will turn ppl away.
  • bkanber 6y ago
    I would say one in three of the burgers I consume is plant- based, I do it to reduce meat consumption. If I find myself at BK, for instance, I always get the impossible whopper. Same at home--1 lb beyond beef for every 2 lb ground beef. Eventually the veggie stuff will get even better (and cheaper), and the ratio will flip.
    • redisman 6y ago
      Same - I’m not too ideological and want to take a pragmatic approach to it while still recognizing that I want to eat junk food every now and then. My main pet peeve is that in my usual spot they slap $4 extra to sub impossible instead of real meat. The burgers are great so I take it but it just shouldn’t be more expensive than an animal that’s been fed the veggie patty ingredients times a hundred to make that patty.
  • spacephysics 6y ago
    No, I'd rather have them tell me its fake meat. The vegetable oils are most likely carcinogenic, amid other health issues (GI, heart) [0]. Red meat is not [1] Further, these fake meats, Impossible Burger namely, have been linked to kidney failure in mice studies [2] (one commissioned by the Impossible Foods manufacturer). In particular: " * A rat feeding study commissioned by the manufacturer Impossible Foods found that rats fed SLH [soy leghemoglobin] developed unexplained changes in weight gain, changes in the blood that can indicate the onset of inflammation or kidney disease, and possible signs of anemia * Impossible Foods dismissed these statistically significant effects as “non-adverse” or as having “no toxicological relevance” " I understand these aren't as good test subjects as human studies, however it seems under the guise of the green movement, this evidence has been willfully ignored, or just not known. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. [0] - https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/why-vegetable-oils-are-carcinogenic https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/why-vegetable-oils-are... [1] - https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/sep/30/research-red-meat-poses-no-health-risk https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/sep/30/research-red-me... [2] - https://www.gmoscience.org/rat-feeding-studies-suggest-the-impossible-burger-may-not-be-safe-to-eat/ https://www.gmoscience.org/rat-feeding-studies-suggest-the-i...
• dariusj18 6y ago
  As a lifelong US vegetarian, I won't hold my breath. The number of times McDonalds has test marketed vegetarian alternatives has left me doubting they will ever bring a veg alternative to market.
• imkieren 6y ago
  We have had the McVeggie in New Zealand for a while now - They even included it in our "Kiwi Burger" range. I think it's off the menu now but easily the best burger I have had from Maccas.
• vaccinator 6y ago
  Plant meals would be nice... around here they removed the salads from the menu (because covid)
• WaitWaitWha 6y ago
  What is the point of making vegetarian and vegan foods taste like omnivore foods? Would it not make more sense (less cost, honest, etc.) to make it taste like what they are?
• bilalq 6y ago
  Like others have mentioned, I don't see this being successful. Unlike Burger King and Wendy's, McDonald's uses beef tallow in their fries, making vegetarians avoid them. If the only appeal here is a subpar burger that you can't even get fries with, people are just gonna go elsewhere.
  • teej 6y ago
    McDonalds hasn’t used beef tallow in their fries for 20+ years. [edit] this seems disputed. The ingredients list includes “natural beef flavor” which it says is wheat and milk derivatives. To clarify: old school McD fries were fried in beef tallow at the restaurant. Now it’s vegetable oil at the restaurant, but are par-fried at the processing plant in vegetable oil with some “natural beef flavoring”
    • s5300 6y ago
      Yeah, the tallow and subsequently good fries of McDonalds ship sailed literal decades ago now. On a lighter note, if you've yet to hear this news, I think you can officially say you're old now.
    • kalel83 6y ago
      As your edit conveys, they still do use Beef Tallow.
      • coryfklein 6y ago
        The parent is at least tempering their statements with uncertainty. How is it that you are certain that they use beef tallow? Seems like a rather strong claim given that McDonalds doesn't appear to list their ingredients.
• kalel83 6y ago
  Without being able to eat vegan fries, I will still avoid McDonalds.
• kibwen 6y ago
  Are we leaping to conclusions by assuming this is referring to an impossible burger/beyond burger sort of product? A "plant-based" burger could also just be the sort of plain old veggie burger that e.g. Burger King has been offering for decades. Is there more detailed information somewhere?
• ogre_codes 6y ago
  Apparently they use Beyond Burger for the base which makes the naming make even less sense because they had lots of naming options with that. "Big Mac Beyond" would have been way more interesting/ appealing than McPlant.
• say_it_as_it_is 6y ago
  Burger King impossible burger is the worst thing I've ever had. I don't know whether this is as good as it gets or it wasn't prepared correctly. It was awful, though, and more expensive than other sandwiches.
• stephencoyner 6y ago
  I foresee a world where McDonalds has a value menu full of plant based food and then a "premium menu" with large beef patties that are high quality and more expensive ($10-15). Doesn't make sense for beef to be cheaper forever
• wmichelin 6y ago
  It's a start, but I still won't be able to eat a "meal" there due to their usage of beef fat in their french fries.
  • jjeaff 6y ago
    They haven't used beef fat for their french fries in 30 years.
• bArray 6y ago
  I've enjoyed for years beetroot burgers - they're not meat but with goat cheese they are epic. These newer plant based burgers do of course address some ethical concerns around meat and certainly seem more sustainable. With any eye on public health rather than sustainability: I wounder what these plant based burgers will do in the long run. I've been on the keto diet for quite a while now which leans heavily on animal-based fats and proteins, never felt healthier. With animal fats for example most of them are quite good for you. It's some of the plant based fats that are really problematic (typically the ones that melt at room temperature). I really suspect the "sugar crisis" might actually be the "carbohydrates crisis" (i.e. not just fizzy drinks and sweets, but bread, pasta, rice, cereal, etc). I think most people have diets such that they run off pure carbohydrates 24/7 and then get the "shakes" when they go a few hours without them. I think plant based burgers will still be packed full of carbs, nothing to say of the buns and additional toppings. I understand that these plant based burgers aim to break the perception of "plants taste awful, meat tastes good", but I wish more was done where it really counts in McDonalds meals, like chips, buns, batter, etc.
• jimmaswell 6y ago
  Burger King's had the Impossible Whopper for quite a while now. I feel like the silly estrogen "controversy" probably drove some people to try it just for the memes, including me. It's pretty good in my opinion.
• mensetmanusman 6y ago
  Anyone know how the amino acid profile and selenium content differ in plant vs. meat burgers?
• danepowell 6y ago
  Can someone help me to understand all of the pessimism surrounding plant-based meat? Of all of the morally-dubious technologies in the world today, this seems like a force of unequivocal good, and yet the criticism is endless: "it's not healthier", "the name sucks", "it'll give you cancer". All of these just seem to be missing the point that it's _no worse than meat_ in most respects, and _way better_ in others (i.e. ethical and environmental impact).
  • NoPicklez 6y ago
    I think it might be something to do with the "lab grown" aspect. Where people perhaps don't necessarily understand how plant based foods are made and associate it with harsh chemicals and "fake" products to mimic another. The idea that the plant based alternative is not natural when compared to meat that is grown in animals that we have seen for many lifetimes. Similar to "I let my body build natural immunity, rather than take a chemically laced vaccine"
  • disown 6y ago
    > Can someone help me to understand all of the pessimism surrounding plant-based meat? Think about what you wrote. Plant-based "meat". Would you eat a meat based salad that was created in a lab? > "it's not healthier", "the name sucks", "it'll give you cancer". It's not healthier, it's name does suck and god knows what it will give you. It's the most inorganic lab grown processed burger you can possibly have.
  • mongol 6y ago
    I want to know what I eat. For example, if I eat meat I want to know if it is pork or beef. Plant-based does not cut it on that criteria. Call it what it is, not what it pretends to be.
    • Zenbit_UX 6y ago
      You point is moot, just read the ingredients label. Which one confuses you, [Beyond](https://lmgtfy.app/?q=beyond+meat+ingredients https://lmgtfy.app/?q=beyond+meat+ingredients)? [Impossible](https://lmgtfy.app/?q=impossible+burger+2.0+ingredients https://lmgtfy.app/?q=impossible+burger+2.0+ingredients)?
• shadykiller 6y ago
  Plant based isn't always the best option for nutrition and environment. In fact with regenerative agricultural practices, holistic management and grass fed/finished cows, more carbon can be captures in solid than released. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/08/13/746576239/is-grass-fed-beef-really-better-for-the-planet-heres-the-science https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/08/13/746576239/is...
  • erikpukinskis 6y ago
    Wait, is “grass finished” beef a thing?
  • supuun 6y ago
    we don't have enough grass to feed all the cows.
  • crispyporkbites 6y ago
    There is nothing in that link which makes your point. Veggies are an order of magnitude lower in carbon footprint per calorie than beef. Environmentally speaking there is no argument for eating beef
• cable2600 6y ago
  I find the $1 McChicken and $2 Triple Cheeseburger to be bargains on the dollar menu. Will any plant based burger be on the value menu?
• bransonf 6y ago
  I always wonder what the vegetable vs meat market would look like without subsidies. Imagine a free market where the veggie burger at McD is $1 and the beef one is $5. How many people would opt for the vegetarian option? Instead, in the market which we have intervened, it’s the beef that cost $1 and the veggie burger $5. Obesity is driven in part by lack of affordability of vegetables and in terms of resources and pollution (methane), beef is worse. It seems the incentives cater only to our carnal desire and (mostly corporate) cattle ranchers. I don’t really care for meat all that much, but alas my taxes still go towards that damn $1 hamburger.
  • JamesBarney 6y ago
    You are way overestimating the effect of subsidies.
    • roland00 6y ago
      How so? The cost of soybeans is a lot cheaper to make an artificial burger (once they get the R&D down) than feeding the same soybeans to a cow and getting roughly 1:10 the calorie weight due to energy pyramids. You can get roughly 200 kg of protein per acre per year, while cows it is roughly 19 kg of protein per acre per year. Of course this is talking future costs, for we are still perfecting artificial plants / proteins that taste like meat even though we been "branding" veggie burgers since the 1980s and the food science goes back hundreds of years prior to that.
      • catmanjan 6y ago
        Are the soybeans they're feeding to cows interchangeable with human consumption soybeans?
        • Maakuth 6y ago
          Probably the logistics for feedstock is more lax when it comes to hygiene than you apply for food, but the plant matter is to my understanding the same.
• Rapzid 6y ago
  It can't be worse TBH. If somebody told me "Yeah, so McDonald's has been using fake meat for the past decade" I wouldn't even dispute it.. "Ahh, that makes total sense". Seriously though, I'm sure we've all had veggie and vegan burgers an order of magnitude better than what McDonald's passes off as a hamburger.
• ollifi 6y ago
  Are McVeggies and McVegans not plant based? The new effort looks more inhouse project though.
• dasKrokodil 6y ago
  It surprises me that this is just happening now in the US. Here in Germany, McDonalds has been selling various plant-based burgers for years, if not decades.
• amai 6y ago
  There was never meat in the burgers of Mc Donalds in the first place: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_slime https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_slime
• devxpy 6y ago
  When will this innovation reach continents other than the Americas?
• sexy_seedbox 6y ago
  It's not quite there yet, but Hong Kong MickyDs have "Omnipork": http://campaign.mcdonalds.com.hk/en/promotions/breakfast-omnipork/images/main.jpg http://campaign.mcdonalds.com.hk/en/promotions/breakfast-omn...
• fulafel 6y ago
  previously: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McVegan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McVegan