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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

#161

Post by bkanber »

ChrisArchitect wrote: post #155

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 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.

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

#162

Post by the8472 »

nanomonkey wrote: post #157
markdown wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the appeal of a vegan pizza? Is it even pizza without cheese?

There are a few groups that are making "real" vegan cheese, ie modifying e-coli or yeast to produce the same milk proteins, and then going through the cheese making process. One such is Real Vegan Cheese [ https://realvegancheese.org/ ].

> are making "real" vegan cheese

But are they actually making it? The site looks quite aspirational.

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

#163

Post by doctorOb »

falcolas wrote: post #11

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 th…

I've had a few Big Macs lately, and from my perspective the meat is perhaps the least consequential part of that sandwich, both flavor and texture-wise. At one point I asked for 4x extra cheese (gross, I know) and after the first few bites, that too seemed to be pushed aside in the palate by the sauce. I can almost guarantee you I would not notice a difference if they swapped the beef for beyond meat.

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

#164

Post by zo7 »

tartoran wrote: post #138

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.

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.

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

#165

Post by saalweachter »

thehappypm wrote: post #122
Scene_Cast2 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is strategically important for a country to be able to feed itself (vs importing food). Farm subsidies are the current method that enables this. At least that's what the internet told me, I have no insight into that industry.

It’s less about importing food but ensuring that food is cheap enough that the entire populace can cheaply access food.

Also, enabling overproduction.

Farmers get it coming and going. If it is a "bad" year, and the crops fail, you don't get money and might not be able to afford to keep going next year. If it is a "good" year and a "good" year for everyone else, it becomes a "bad" year again -- overproduction means that your prices drop and you might not be able to afford to keep going next year.

But while both situations are equally bad for the farmer, it's really bad for civilization if you don't produce enough food -- in fact, you want to ensure that even in multi-sigma off-years, with flooding everywhere that floods and drought everywhere else, you still produce enough food to feed everyone.

That means that you have to build in a lot of overproduction -- every year should be a "bad" year for the farmers.

(As an aside, you'll never see more concealed glee than a couple of farmers in one state talking about a flood in another state that produces a similar slate of crops, knowing that's going to bump crop prices by 20-30% while also not wanting to be happy about others' misfortune.)

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

#166

Post by bane »

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…

Lifelong meat eater here. I'm really happy about this news and hope it sticks over the long-run. These new plant-based burgers are basically zero penalty ways to eat more responsibly. They taste about as good as the normal "ok" burger from FastFoodJoint(TM), cost about the same, and are less worse for the planet and everybody on it.

It's also more accepting for people who have various dietary restrictions and opens up an entirely new, mediocre, but fast/cheap dining experience.

One thing to note is that after some initial offerings, Burger King has yet to really keep their plant burger in the weekly coupon deluge I get. Meaning if I want like 2 entire burger meals I can get it for under $10 with the right coupon. But if I want their Impossible Whopper I still end up paying full-price for it.

So yes, if the plant burgers were cheaper than the alternative there really wouldn't be much of a reason to eat the originals any more.

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

#167

Post by edkennedy »

tashoecraft wrote: post #151
sofixa wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who has eaten vegan pizza, no, it's not, it's an abomination. Just make a veggie/vegan lasagna instead...

I've found so far, vegan cheese either melts and doesn't taste good or doesn't melt and tastes good. And by good I mean in comparison to mass produced cheese. It'll be awhile before there's a good, vegan alternative to homemade mozzarella. However, there doesn't need to be. The vast majority of cheesy/non-vegan food that's eaten is low quality ingredients.

Then again, that's what everyone said about "proper meat replacements" as well a few years ago.

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

#168

Post by spacephysics »

ChrisArchitect wrote: post #155

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…

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...

[1] - https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/sep/30/research-red-me...

[2] - https://www.gmoscience.org/rat-feeding-studies-suggest-the-i...

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

#169

Post by [deleted] »

bigbubba wrote: post #96
elicash wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I absolutely hate all the cutesy trademarks businesses expect you to use. I don't want a 'Mc' anything, just give me a 'number 5 Burger.' And fuck all the bullshit terms these corporations use instead of small/medium/large. These are all attempts by their marketers to worm their corporate language into your brain.

[deleted]

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

#170

Post by falcolas »

doctorOb wrote: post #163
falcolas wrote: post #11

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 th…

I've had a few Big Macs lately, and from my perspective the meat is perhaps the least consequential part of that sandwich, both flavor and texture-wise. At one point I asked for 4x extra cheese (gross, I know) and after the first few bites, that too seemed to be pushed aside in the palate by the sauce. I can almost guarantee you I would not notice a difference if they swapped the beef for beyond meat.

In my example, it was about 1/2 or 1/3 lb worth of meat, with minimal fixings, so at least some places are definitely using it in a way where the flavor/texture of the 'meat' matters.
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