I came across this news story today and immediately thought the whole thing odd
Firstly is it me or is it odd that they launch a plant based burger that won’t be touched by anyone who doesn’t eat meat, given their cooking arrangements. Years ago McDonald’s were criticised for offering their fries as vegetarian when they were cooked in beef tallow so (in the uk at least) they use vegetable oil. I also read that BK used to have a Vegetarian Society award precisely for separation of meat and non meat during preparation.
The second thing I thought was odd was their press statement that they weren’t targeting veg/vegan but more at flexetarians by trying to tempt them toward a plant based product and to do that they need to keep relying on the their broilers for “that flame grilled taste” (or in other words relying on the fat on the griddle to flavour the burger). Surely the number of potential customers who are veg/vegan is greater than those who might give these a try? I’m not suggesting meat eaters can’t enjoy plant based food but I don’t get why they’d alienate a whole market segment. I suspect it’s because they won’t invest in separate kitchen equipment, which seems odd when a) their competitors seem to manage and b) they used to be able to.
I appreciate that they aren’t advertising it as a veggie alternative, I just find it an odd marketing decision.
Or maybe I’m just having one of those Mondays… maybe an hour in a darkened room…with some elektron boxes…might do the trick!
It’s probably an incremental move. To make a completely separate no-meat broiler would require a significant overhaul of any location that serves it. They’ll probably test the waters to see how high demand is and then modify from there.
could be that a big portion of vegan / veggies wouldn’t go near burger King no matter what. just a thought, zero evidence to back up this claim
as an omnivore I get the idea of being interested in eating less meat as a healthier option. (not saying that new bk veggie bogo is in any way healthy, it aint. tho it’s probably somewhat better than chowing down on decimated animal sludge)
I mean if it is healthier It could sway me away from other options on a road trip perhaps… I feel there is a market for people who are getting older and don’t want to feel like crap after eating fast food but still eat fast food from time to time. I guess I’m not sure if this actually makes the cut but if it tastes good and doesn’t make you feel that sort of grease overload eating most fast food gives you it might be ok.
I don’t have solid stats, but anecdotally I think the opposite may be true. I worked with a veggie charity about a decade ago, and market demand from ethical/strict veggies/vegans was low.
Since then, we’ve seen a staggering rise in the availability of vegan products, and so far as I can tell, the growth in this market has vastly outsized the growth in numbers of veggies/vegans.
For instance, Quorn (a veggie meat replacement in the UK - dunno if it’s sold elsewhere) has been around for decades and always went for the veggie market. Recently they switched to a health-benefits based marketing strategy and they’ve done very well from it.
People seem to find ‘this is healthy, makes you look hotter and feel better’ a more palatable message to buy than ‘you’re hurting living beings and destroying the planet’. Or it may be as simple as the fact that ‘flexitarian’ comes with much less commitment/risk of failure.
Either way, we can be confident that multi-million dollar businesses are well-assured of the market demand before putting products like this out there.
I have been vegan in the past and whilst I was a vegan I wouldn’t have eaten anything from burger king, regardless of how it was cooked. Most vegans would not want to give money to a company whose primary trade requires millions of cattle being slaughtered.
I’m now in a position where I eat meat, but very rarely, a choice more common than most would think. I think it’s this market that food companies are starting to target, as it’s probably bigger and certainly less complicated than trying to market to vegans.
I’m not a BK customer myself as I’ve not eaten meat or fish for 20 odd years. I just see it as a bit of an odd move but as has been pointed out they won’t have done it lightly.
I haven’t eaten meat for years but I have no problem going to Burger King, McDonalds, Taco Bell, KFC etc. if they have something vegetarian to offer me.
In my opinion it was the nineties way to boycott Shell, McDonalds, Nestle etc. for being ”evil”. I remember writing a Napalm Death lyric on my schoolbooks in the 90s: ”Multinational corporations genocide of the starving nations.”
Nowadays ”activists” boycott the whole western way of live instead of a couple of companies. I don’t eat meat but if McDonalds makes a vegan burger, sure I’ll try one. Until now, I have had nothing against Burger King, it’s all the same consumerism to me, but making a veggieburger that’s not suitable for vegetarians/vegans must surely be the dumbest idea ever. Makes me wanna go back to the nineties and start boycotting the shit out of them.
I find it a bit disappointing as a vegetarian. there are a few ways to look at this from funding them etc. However at the same time , the more we encourage ethical treatment of animals as a valuable commodity through profits or people wanting to look “better” via eating a certain way (however lol its still junk food).It is a step in the right direction to at least the market finally changing (even if its not predominately for why i decided to do it , animal rights/ethical treatment of life). Plus… sometimes i want easy access to junk food.
I must admin when I’m out in the road there are times when I call at McDonald’s. Usually in the wee small hours when normal folks are in bed! When you’re hungry and or thirsty and there’s nowhere else to go you have to do it!
