Free Republic

McDonald's has given up on its bid to sell meat-free beef burger in America. US president Joe Erlinger has said the McPlant has been ditched because customers did not want fake meat. The chain had been testing the McPlant at several hundred restaurants in California and Texas since trials began in late 2021. Developed with Beyond Meat, it was made from pea and rice proteins. While it has flopped in the US, it has been a hit in the UK, Germany, Holland and Portugal. But there is little chance of a return to America. McDonald's is now shifting its focus...

McDonald’s declared that its experiment with plant-based burgers was a disaster. Joe Erlinger, who heads US operations for the Chicago-based fast food giant, told a business conference that the company discontinued the pilot program after customers in San Francisco and Dallas-Fort Worth panned the McPlant. The McPlant “was not successful in either market,” Erlinger told the Wall Street Journal’s Global Fast Food Forum in Chicago on Wednesday. “I don’t think the US consumer is coming to McDonald’s or looking for McPlant or other plant-based proteins from McDonald’s now.” The executive added that McDonald’s won’t be reintroducing salads to its menu...

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...