Americans Don’t Seem To Want Plant-Based Burgers From McDonald’s
The McPlant failed its test run in two U.S. markets.
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Sad news for fast-food-inclined plant-based eaters. McDonald’s has pulled the plug on its McPlant burger after a test run in two markets — San Francisco and Dallas-Fort Worth — was deemed unsuccessful in both.
“I don’t think the U.S. consumer is coming to McDonald’s or looking for McPlant or other plant-based proteins from McDonald’s now,” Joe Erlinger, head of U.S. operations for McDonald’s, said at a conference on Wednesday.
The McPlant was based on an exclusive-to-McDonald’s patty made in partnership with Beyond Meat from plant-based ingredients including peas, rice and potatoes. It was served in McDonald’s style on a sesame seed bun with tomato, lettuce, pickles, onions, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard and American cheese.
The U.S. test run at 600 restaurants across the two markets followed the McPlant’s roll-out in several European countries, including the U.K., Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Austria. Alas, even though the plant-based burgers were popular in these markets, customers in the two U.S. ones weren’t as into the McPlant as the company had hoped.
In response to a question about plant-based options posed to him at the Wall Street Journal’s Global Food Forum, Erlinger added the company will “continue to monitor” the trend, but is currently focusing its efforts elsewhere. Plant-based eaters’ loss is chicken lovers’ gain.
“Obviously the bigger trend around protein consumption is really around chicken,” Erlinger said. “We think we’re poised to serve that trend well and that’s where we’re making investments.”
Erlinger didn’t have good news for McDonald’s salad fans either. “If people really want salads from McDonald’s, we will gladly relaunch salads. But what our experience has proven is that’s not what the consumer’s looking for,” he said at the conference, Bloomberg reports.
It really doesn’t feel like very long ago that McDonald’s was announcing the McPlant’s trial run with great excitement. In fact it was in October 2021 that it said it was preparing to launch the test — at that time in eight markets in four states — in order to “understand how offering a burger with a plant-based patty impacts the kitchens in our restaurants.”
What it may not have expected was that customers were less interested in the McPlant than the company had hoped.
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