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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

#131

Post by ckosidows »

abawany wrote: post #68
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…

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.

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.

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

#132

Post by bluntfang »

cavisne wrote: post #124
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…

You still need to process those plants to mimic what the animal did (ie fermenting the grass to extract bioavailable protein and stripping out fibre). Veggie (black bean/lentil) burgers can already be cheaper than meat. But the meat replacement (ie similar protein to meat) burgers are more expensive. I'm not sure why mcdonalds would bother making a meat replacement burger, its fast food so they can just use flavourin…

>As a plus side their customers will still be starving for protein afterwards.

Why? Meat replacements are engineered to have similar nutritional value as the meat-based version.

for example, BK:

>A traditional Whopper has 660 calories, 40 grams of fat (12 of which are saturated) and 28 grams of protein. The Impossible Whopper clocks in at 630 calories, 34 grams of fat (11 saturated) and 25 grams of protein, so it's pretty similar from a macro nutritional standpoint. [0]

[0] https://www.today.com/food/burger-king-s-impossible-whopper-...

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

#133

Post by suprfnk »

iknowstuff wrote: post #86
danpalmer wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Can we decouple the idea of "healthy" from calories? Calorie density doesn't make a meal unhealthy.

> 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.

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

#134

Post by geff82 »

kall wrote: post #106
amanzi wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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?

I think the Rebel Whopper branding is really spot on. It‘s like the opposite of the McLean problem described in another comment: it‘s not the reasonable choice.

The Rebel Whopper is a marvel! It is just "the real thing" and brings me the same joy as eating the meat burger. I usually choose the Rebel since they introduced it. We have a McVegan in Germany, too. I like it, but it is not "like the others".

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

#135

Post by Nbox9 »

dragonwriter wrote: post #93
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…

> 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 vegetaria…

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.

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

#136

Post by bluntfang »

stronglikedan wrote: post #77
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…

> and comparably healthy Every plant-based meat I'm aware of has been processed to hell and back, so I'm dubious of the claims that they are healthier.

Lucky for you GP said they were comparable, not healthier!

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

#137

Post by jamyot »

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 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.

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

#138

Post by tartoran »

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.

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

#139

Post by abawany »

ckosidows wrote: post #131
abawany wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

It appears not to be the case: https://awrestaurants.com/food/burgers/AW (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).

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

#140

Post by ReptileMan »

bluntfang wrote: post #132
cavisne wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You still need to process those plants to mimic what the animal did (ie fermenting the grass to extract bioavailable protein and stripping out fibre). Veggie (black bean/lentil) burgers can already be cheaper than meat. But the meat replacement (ie similar protein to meat) burgers are more expensive. I'm not sure why mcdonalds would bother making a meat replacement burger, its fast food so they can just use flavourin…

>As a plus side their customers will still be starving for protein afterwards. Why? Meat replacements are engineered to have similar nutritional value as the meat-based version. for example, BK: >A traditional Whopper has 660 calories, 40 grams of fat (12 of which are saturated) and 28 grams of protein. The Impossible Whopper clocks in at 630 calories, 34 grams of fat (11 saturated) and 25 grams of protein, so it's p…

Distribution of proteins is also important. Meat is complete protein.
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