A five-year quest to put a herbal burger on McDonald's menu

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When Kathy Freston met with culinary and marketing officials at McDonald's headquarters five years ago, few fast-food chains even thought of adding an herbal burger to the menu and vegan burgers that closely mimicked beef. were not yet an option.

Freston, a vegan activist for the well-being and author of several books, including Végétaliste: & nbsp;Losing weight& nbsp;Recovering health& nbsp;Change& nbsp; the & nbsp;World, wanted her favorite childhood channel to be among the first.

"I grew up in the south and our big night was McDonald's," she said. "I had an affection for McDonald's, I loved the Big Mac and milkshakes. But after growing up, regained my health and became aware of where my food came from, I became comfortable eating meat. "

Freston has been eating herbal for years, but she has not abandoned her pbadion for big burgers and other hearty meals.

McDonald's has already launched herbal burgers in some European markets and is currently selling McVegan in Sweden and Finland, but there are none in the American menu of the chain.

After this first meeting, Freston launched an online petition on Change.org, which collected more than 219,000 signatures. Last week, the issue was presented to McDonald's executives at the company's annual meeting of shareholders.

The answer was lukewarm.

Global Marketing Director Silvia Lagnado told shareholders that the company is monitoring the trend of herbal beef, but that she has no plans to launch a vegan burger in the United States. His statements echoed those of Steve Easterbrook, CEO, who told badysts at a conference call in April that herbal burgers are a topic of conversation within the company, but that had no news except that.

The two executives stated that they had to badess whether the demand from existing customers or new customers would be sufficient to warrant an extension of the menu in order to add a meat-based meat option. This is similar to the answer that Freston says he received five years ago.

Expanding the menu and making sometimes expensive changes are a problem for McDonald's and its franchisees. It's not so long ago, the channel announced that it would trim its late-night menu and premium burger offerings, and allow franchisees to tailor the entire breakfast menu. the day to local tastes.

But the response to the demand for an herbal burger was disappointing for Freston, especially since the landscape has changed since his first encounter with the company.

When Freston started his petition five years ago, Burger King was the only fast food chain to regularly serve an herbal burger. It was BK Veggie, a vegetarian pancake that vegetarians have welcomed but no one wanted to confuse for beef.

This year, Burger King has launched the Impossible Whopper, a vegetable version of its iconic burger that has drawn the attention of crowds to markets where it was first launched. This week, Burger King's parent company announced that pedestrian traffic with restaurants in the test area had increased 18.5 percent faster than overall US traffic.

This jump in business may well come from people wanting to try something new, but other chains are seeing long-term success with plant-based options.

About 55% of major American restaurant chains now have at least one plant-based dish on the menu, according to a survey by Institute of good food.

White Castle launched Impossible Sliders nationwide last fall after better than expected sales in the 140 initial locations where they were deployed. Beyond Burgers Beyond-the-Meat restaurants are on the menu of chains such as Carl's Jr. and TGI Friday's. Independent restaurants and small chains across the country have also added Impossible and Beyond hamburgers to their menus.

As herbal beef products gain popularity and more and more restaurants offer them, there is concern that McDonald's will lose ground as a result of the veto vote. Freston. & nbsp;

"If you are in a car full of people and someone does not want beef burger, they will veto the restaurant," she said. "McDonald's may have had four out of five customers in this car. Now, all five go to Burger King.

There was more evidence recently that herbal meat is more than an ephemeral trend.

Little Caesars launched the test of Impossible Foods herbal sausage pizza. And this week, KFC's US President Kevin Hochman said the company was meeting with suppliers to seriously consider herbal chicken options.

Although herbal burgers can deliver vegetarians and vegetarians, more often than not, the focus is on the growing crowd of flexitarians who try to suppress certain animal products from their diet during certain meals, a said Freston.

"I'm all for something for everyone. I'm not saying that McDonald's should be a vegetarian restaurant. I think this petition is for meat eaters. A very large number of them are interested in reducing their meat consumption, but they want to spoil themselves from time to time. "

Failure to meet this demand could put a chain in danger of losing customers and adding new ones, Freston said.

But she is also optimistic that McDonald's will see the opportunity to add an herbal burger soon.

"This change is happening and I would be very surprised that they are sitting on their heels and letting the moment pbad. If they do, people will move on – there are too many other options. "

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When Kathy Freston met with culinary and marketing officials at McDonald's headquarters five years ago, few fast-food chains even thought of adding an herbal burger to the menu and vegan burgers that closely mimicked beef. were not yet an option.

Freston, a vegan activist for the well-being and author of several books, including Végétaliste: Losing weight, Recovering health, Change the World, wanted her favorite childhood channel to be among the first.

"I grew up in the south and our big night was McDonald's," she said. "I had an affection for McDonald's, I loved the Big Mac and milkshakes. But after growing up, regained my health and became aware of where my food came from, I became comfortable eating meat. "

Freston has been eating herbal for years, but she has not abandoned her pbadion for big burgers and other hearty meals.

McDonald's has already launched herbal burgers in some European markets. He currently sells McVegan in Sweden and Finland, but does not appear on the American menu of the channel.

After this first meeting, Freston launched an online petition on Change.org, which collected more than 219,000 signatures. Last week, the issue was presented to McDonald's executives at the company's annual meeting of shareholders.

The answer was lukewarm.

Global Marketing Director Silvia Lagnado told shareholders that the company is monitoring the trend of herbal beef, but that she has no plans to launch a vegan burger in the United States. His statements echoed those of Steve Easterbrook, CEO, who told badysts at a conference call in April that herbal burgers are a topic of conversation within the company, but that had no news except that.

The two executives stated that they had to badess whether the demand from existing customers or new customers would be sufficient to warrant an extension of the menu in order to add a meat-based meat option. This is similar to the answer that Freston says he received five years ago.

Expanding the menu and making sometimes expensive changes are a problem for McDonald's and its franchisees. It's not so long ago, the channel announced that it would trim its late-night menu and premium burger offerings, and allow franchisees to tailor the entire breakfast menu. the day to local tastes.

But the response to the demand for an herbal burger was disappointing for Freston, especially since the landscape has changed since his first encounter with the company.

When Freston started his petition five years ago, Burger King was the only fast food chain to regularly serve an herbal burger. It was BK Veggie, a vegetarian pancake that vegetarians have welcomed but no one wanted to confuse for beef.

This year, Burger King has launched the Impossible Whopper, a vegetable version of its iconic burger that has drawn the attention of crowds to markets where it was first launched. This week, Burger King's parent company announced that pedestrian traffic with restaurants in the test area had increased 18.5 percent faster than overall US traffic.

This jump in business may well come from people wanting to try something new, but other chains are seeing long-term success with plant-based options.

According to a Good Food Institute survey, about 55% of the major restaurant chains in the United States now have at least one herbal dish.

White Castle launched Impossible Sliders nationwide last fall after better than expected sales in the 140 initial locations where they were deployed. Beyond Burgers Beyond-the-Meat restaurants are on the menu of chains such as Carl's Jr. and TGI Friday's. Independent restaurants and small chains across the country have also added Impossible and Beyond hamburgers to their menus.

As herbal beef products gain popularity and more and more restaurants offer them, there is concern that McDonald's will lose ground as a result of the veto vote. Freston.

"If you are in a car full of people and someone does not want beef burger, they will veto the restaurant," she said. "McDonald's may have had four out of five customers in this car. Now, all five go to Burger King.

There was more evidence recently that herbal meat is more than an ephemeral trend.

Little Caesars has launched a test on Impossible Foods herbal sausage pizza. And this week, KFC's US President Kevin Hochman said the company was meeting with suppliers to seriously consider herbal chicken options.

Although herbal burgers can deliver vegetarians and vegetarians, more often than not, the focus is on the growing crowd of flexitarians who are trying to remove some animal products from their diet at certain meals, said Freston.

"I'm all for something for everyone. I'm not saying that McDonald's should be a vegetarian restaurant. I think this petition is for meat eaters. A very large number of them are interested in reducing their meat consumption, but they want to spoil themselves from time to time. "

Failure to meet this demand could put a chain in danger of losing customers and adding new ones, Freston said.

But she is also optimistic that McDonald's will see the opportunity to add an herbal burger soon.

"This change is happening and I would be very surprised that they are sitting on their heels and letting the moment pbad. If they do, people will move on – there are too many other options. "