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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

#51

Post by elicash »

fullshark wrote: post #33
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.

Mc something 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.

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.

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

#52

Post by wincy »

dehrmann wrote: post #8

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

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.

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

#53

Post by wincy »

chris_st wrote: post #30
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-…

It wasn't lard, it was beef tallow. Lard is specifically pig fat.

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

#55

Post by maxsilver »

Out_of_Characte wrote: post #50
klenwell wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.gladwe... It's Malcolm Gladwell so take it with a packet of salt I suppose. I think it'…

"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.

Would they really get that angry?

Most people know that "Chicken" McNuggets are only modestly-chicken-based (and are primarily corn starch and whatever other stuff). McNuggets are still a top seller, even though real 100% Chicken Tenders were on the same menu right next to them for years.

Similarly McChicken "nugget-paste-based" sandwiches are on the McDonalds menu, right next to 100%-real Buttermilk Chicken sandwiches.

I could see something similar working out with a McPlant-type burger.

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

#56

Post by Nbox9 »

wincy wrote: post #52
dehrmann wrote: post #8

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

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.

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.

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

#57

Post by Falling3 »

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…

Impossible has had ongoing supply issues. My city is very vegan friendly and had at least a handful of restaurants service impossible burgers that disappeared when Burger King rolled their impossible whopper out. There may be other factors, but I suspect this was part of the decision.

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

#58

Post by Nbox9 »

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.

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

#59

Post by ttul »

Nbox9 wrote: post #58

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…

I wonder to what extent farming subsidies and implicit subsidies such as the under pricing of carbon emissions make meat burgers less expensive than they ought to be.

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

#60

Post by ttul »

corry wrote: post #12

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 stoppe…

The A&W Beyond burger is amazing.
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