I'm holding out for McInsect Burger.
Posted on 08/09/2022 11:03:14 PM PDT by nickcarraway
McDonald’s McPlant experiment reveals how fake meat at fast food restaurants is, as a whole, a grift.
It was early 2022 and the world’s most profitable burger chain was finally rolling out a patty made of vegetables in hundreds of its stores. The pea, rice, and potato mixture mimicked the flavor and texture of its beefy brethren. Chains like Burger King and White Castle had done it before, but McDonald’s was the biggest. The McPlant was yet another mass-produced fake-meat burger lionized as a savior to the impending climate disaster—and, of course, an offering that could potentially lure more customers to stores. But the plant patty’s success depended on enough people actually wanting to eat it. Last week, a mere six months after launch, McDonald’s quietly ended its brief and underwhelming experiment.
The company’s first animal-free burger, which uses a fake beef patty from Beyond Meat, was made available in roughly 600 stores this past February to gauge customer demand. McDonald’s confirmed to CNBC last Thursday that the test concluded as planned, but neither the fast food giant nor Beyond Meat have since announced plans for a nationwide rollout—and Beyond Meat share prices fell 6% after the announcement. While the McPlant is apparently thriving in international markets like the U.K. and Austria, American customers were not about it, with some rural stores selling as few as three burgers a day.
So why was the McPlant such a McFlop? When products like Impossible and Beyond’s burgers hit shelves a few years ago, fast food was lauded as their ideal sales vehicle. Big chains could theoretically tap their low prices, ubiquity, and lab-manufactured addictiveness to sell fake meat convincing enough to overpower the American beef obsession. In reality, fast food restaurants were never going to be responsible for changing this country’s consumption habits based on moral, health, or prevent-the-environmental-apocalypse arguments.
It was a bit of a product-market fit error. The McPlant’s most likely buyers might be vegans and vegetarians, or at the very least, people who are conscious of their environmental footprint or sympathetic to the animal welfare issues Big Fake Meat promised to solve. But those folks probably didn’t want to give their hard-earned money to a business founded on processing and selling animal flesh as cheaply and efficiently as possible. Mass meat production in America is a miserable industry that exploits people, animals, and the land we all roam upon—to the point that a pound of Perdue chicken wings currently costs less than the same weight in broccoli. A plant-based burger sold at McDonald’s, which was only recently under fire for alleged animal welfare violations, is a paradox. It’s like planting trees at an open-cut mine.
The McPlant wasn’t truly vegan or vegetarian. It was a (delicious-looking, sorry) Beyond Meat patty topped with melty American cheese and sweet mayonnaise that’s sandwiched between a preservative-packed bun. Though the burgers themselves are vegan, they’re cooked on the same grill as McDonald’s regular beef patties. Some flexitarian customers might not mind a bit of beef juice mingling with their alternative pea protein, but it’s hardly compelling enough to attract the diehards.
It’s not really a surprise McDonald’s couldn’t win over their customers. Many of the big chains have been through the same struggle. Burger King, White Castle, Carl’s Jr., and KFC all offer menu items thare designed to taste like meat, look like meat, and certainly be advertised like meat. But José Cil, CEO of Burger King’s parent company, has revealed that the chain's plant-based options tend not to convert carnivorous customers, who are unwilling to trade flesh for foliage. Cracker Barrel stans made that obvious last week, when the brand announced they were adding an Impossible sausage to their breakfast menu. “You just lost the customer base, congratulations on being woke and going broke,” one poetic, outraged Facebook commenter wrote. “I only eat vegetables I can recognize,” wrote another.
So the customers perhaps most primed to buy these plant-based alternatives can see through fast food’s corporate greenwashing, and many of the outspoken customers most loyal to these fast food brands find fake meat burgers “woke” and disgusting. Meat made from plants isn’t perfect, but it does have potential to help reduce environmental harm. And an iconic fast food company like McDonald’s could sell it at an enormous scale in this country. It’s a shame that no one seems hungry for this particular combo meal.
I'm holding out for McInsect Burger.
Similar to why English has Old English based words for so many of the farm animals but French based words for the meats. The English farmers raised the animals for their French rulers' dinner plates after the Norman conquest.
The pea, rice, and potato mixture mimicked the flavor and texture of its beefy brethren.
this pork chop tastes like a tomato,
this T-bone steak tastes like a stalk of celery,
this chicken wing tastes like an onion.
Cricket burgers next experiment?
My friend’s daughter is a recent biochem grad working at a startup that does one of these fake meat deals. It’s got a bunch of dough from VCs and it’s a pretty good gig. I told her to enjoy it while it lasts.
That actually does not sound that bad. I like peas, rice and potatoes. Not sure it would be appetizing the way a fast food chain would make it but making these patties from scratch at home with fresh ingredients might not be so bad.
Maybe I'd use sweet potato and substitute the rice with cauliflower.
Then I'd slap the patty on top of an 8-oz beef patty, add some swiss cheese and mushrooms and I'll have one healthy burger.
When we fix burgers (real meat) at home, I wrap mine in lettuce instead of using a bun. I can still include cheese, tomato, mayo and onion without the carbs. It tastes great!
I had a coupon for the Impossible Burger when it first came out. I gave it an honest try, but it’s not that good, and certainly not worth as much as a whopper. It needs to go the way of the whopperito...
Fake meat is as tasty as the rubber chicken caterers serve.
I’ll Sometimes get a lettuce wrapped burger from hardees.
I use zero carb tortillias in place of bread.
I didn’t think of that. I will have to try it. Thanks!
If you get the small ones, they are great for chicken salad, pimento cheese, wrapping a sausage, or a hot dog.
You can also put one in an air fryer, a thin coat of cheese followed by another tortillia. Then spray with a little olive oil, pizza sauce, cheese, toppings.
Cook for 3 or 4 minutes.
Pretty good low carb pizza
I will try that one also! I am borderline diabetic but I love bread! One of my favorites is just a good homemade bread (warm) with butter. Mmmmmm. I have cut out alot of foods like crackers, cookies and even buns for my burgers. Thanks for the tips.
I’ve been diabetic for about 7 years now.
And lately it’s been hard to control the sugars. So I’ve had to really cut back the carbs. I’m almost on a carnivore diet.
One caveat, Dr Gundry says that food manufacturers have figured out how to make fiber act like regular carbs. So he says you now have to go by total carbs and not by net carbs.
I don’t know how prevalent that is. I should probably be checking my sugar to see if foods I thought were low net carb are spiking my sugars after every meal. But I don’t.
Exactly, the eat less meat crowd is really not really the fast food demographic.
It’ll be rarer than the AC/DC references with respect to Angus burgers . . .
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