McDonald’s to launch meat-free McPlant burger 2021

Fast-food giant McDonald’s is set to launch a meat-free range called McPlant in 2021, as plant-based food sales continue to soar.

McDonald’s said a full range of plant-based products had been devised including burgers, chicken substitutes and egg and bacon breakfast sandwiches.

The burger has already been successfully tested at 100 outlets in Canada, and trials would be widened to include Europe next year, the company announced.

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Unlike many vegan or vegetarian products, the burger, developed by the Beyond Meat company, does not contain soya.

Instead, it consists of many ingredients that could be grown in the UK, such as pea protein, rapeseed oil, potato starch and beetroot.

Consumer trend

Launching the McPlant menu, McDonald’s chief executive Chris Kempczinski voiced his enthusiasm for the vegan and vegetarian options, saying that plant-based products were “an ongoing consumer trend”.

“It was not a matter of if McDonald’s would get into plant-based, it was a matter of when,” Mr Kempczinski added.

The move follows the launch of rival firm Burger King’s plant-based product, the Impossible Whopper, in August 2019.

And it comes as non-meat meals and drinks sales are projected to continue rising.

A report by Dutch bank ING last month suggested sales across Europe would rise by 70% from £4bn in 2020 to £6.8bn by 2025.