HERE’S WHY MCDONALD’S SCRAPPED IT’S PLANT-BASED BURGER IN AMERICA

The citizens were (clearly) not lovin' it.

If you never had a chance to try the McPlant, McDonald’s plant-based burger, when it was being tested in several hundred restaurants around Dallas-Fort Worth and the in San Francisco Bay area, then you may have to go to Switzerland, Slovenia, or other parts of Europe where it’s still available to order. Because according to McDonald’s USA President Joe Erlinger, the McPlant wasn’t the chain’s biggest success — and it may not return to the menu in the near future. 

Erlinger was interviewed at the Wall Street Journal’s Global Food Forum, and although he said that those two markets were specifically chosen for the McPlant’s test run, it still “was not successful” in either city. “I don’t think the U.S. consumer is coming to McDonald’s or looking for a McPlant or other plant-based proteins from McDonald’s now,” he said, adding that the fast food giant would “continue to monitor” the plant-based trend. 

Related: McDonald's McPlant Is Finally Arriving in the U.S. — But Only at Eight Locations

The McPlant burger was originally tested in late 2021, and it made its very understated debut at eight McDonald’s restaurants in four different states. The McPlant’s meat-free patty was made in collaboration with Beyond Meat, and at the time of its release, the company said “it has the iconic taste of a McDonald's burger, because it is one.” 

In February 2022, its trial run was expanded to around 600 restaurants in Dallas-Fort Worth and around San Francisco. After a reasonably solid launch, demand for the burger dropped significantly. According to QSR magazine, one restaurant analyst said that some restaurants only sold around 20 McPlants a day during the test run, but more rural locations might only shift between three and five of the burgers daily. Because the burgers weren’t flying out of the kitchen, they had to be cooked to order — which meant customers had to wait longer to receive their meals. 

Related: Plant-Based Food Is Finally Going Mainstream in France, Thanks to the Paris Olympics

Although the McPlant seems to have fizzled in the U.S., it is still available in several other countries. It arrived in the United Kingdom and Ireland in September 2021 and, as of this writing, the McPlant is still on the menu. Interestingly, the McPlant is topped with a “vegan alternative to cheese” and is listed as a “certified vegan” option in the United Kingdom. When the McPlant was available in the U.S., it was topped with American cheese and mayonnaise, and was not a vegan option as the company noted that each McPlant was “cooked on the same grill as other burgers, meat-based products, and eggs.” 

If McDonald’s isn’t revamping the McPlant in the U.S., then where is its focus right now? On other meats, apparently. “The bigger trend around protein consumption is really around chicken,” Erlinger said. “We think we’re poised to serve that trend well, and that’s where we’re making investments.”

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2024-06-28T18:58:42Z dg43tfdfdgfd