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

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

#21

Post by retSava »

chucky wrote: post #6

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

In Sweden, we also have the chain called Max, which was quite early, and more importantly, serves a wide variety of products based on non-red-meat (plant, chicken, fish). They are generally pretty good too.

https://www.max.se/maten/meny/green/

This, imo, is more important than serving the token plant based one, which on the other hand is better than zero. Gotta start somewhere.

edit: actually, all those linked above are non-meat stuff, all 13 of them.

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

#23

Post by dheera »

belltaco wrote: post #2

>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.

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.

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

#24

Post by elicash »

reaperducer wrote: post #4
belltaco wrote: post #2

>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.

McDonald's already has the omnivore market. It's trying to bring in the herbivores, so McPlant makes it obvious.

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.

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

#25

Post by gonehome »

petra wrote: post #19

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 closene…

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.

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

#26

Post by mprovost »

reaperducer wrote: post #7
toomuchtodo wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who shop the dollar menu are a different customer than someone who will pay a premium for a meat substitute.

"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,…

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.

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

#28

Post by manojlds »

reaperducer wrote: post #4
belltaco wrote: post #2

>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.

McDonald's already has the omnivore market. It's trying to bring in the herbivores, so McPlant makes it obvious.

They already do that in markets like India

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

#29

Post by [deleted] »

Alex3917 wrote: post #10
belltaco wrote: post #2

>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.

> 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]

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

#30

Post by chris_st »

dehrmann wrote: post #8

Let's see if they take beef flavor out of their fries.

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-differe...

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