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On Wednesday, the president of the US division of McDonald’s, Joe Erlinger, said that the best-known and most widespread fast food chain in the world will remove from its American menus the McPlant, the plant-based hamburger that it had begun to offer in a limited number of points of sale two years ago. According to Erlinger, the attempt to offer a vegan option – that is, one without any products derived from animals, and therefore both meat, dairy products or eggs – “was not successful” even in locations where the company expected it, such as San Francisco.
US consumers, Erlinger said, “for the moment are not looking for McPlant or other vegetable proteins when they go to McDonald’s”, and therefore the company will return to focus on the products that are most in demand: those based on chicken, above all. According to the Good Food Institute, an American non-profit organization that studies and promotes the spread of alternatives to animal proteins, the number of people looking for alternatives to meat in the United States grew significantly between 2019 and 2021, but is decreasing since.
It has been known for some time that McPlants were not very popular among American consumers: already in 2022, a year after the first tests for its introduction, McDonald’s had announced that the testing period would not last much longer. The McPlants were developed in collaboration with the company specialized in the production of plant-based meat substitutes Beyond Meat: after the end of the tests Beyond Meat went into crisis and fired 19 percent of its employees.
The experiment involved McDonald’s offering McPlant in a limited number of restaurants – 600 out of the over 13,000 that exist in the country – and trying to offer them as a limited edition product, available only “for a limited period and while stocks last”, counting thus increasing demand. Already in 2022, however, some reports had shown that around 20 per day were being sold in fast food restaurants in the San Francisco and Dallas area compared to the 40-60 expected, and in the more rural areas of Texas the number dropped significantly, among three to five sandwiches a day. McDonald’s, however, had not so far explained whether there was a project on the future of McPlant in the country or whether it considered it a concluded experiment.
Erlinger said that the chain’s menu in the United States does not currently offer plant-based foods, but that the company would be willing to add some salads “if consumers really want them.” “But our experience has shown that it’s not the kind of thing consumers are looking for from McDonald’s,” he added.
In various European countries, however, the situation is different. The first country in the world where McDonald’s began offering vegetarian burgers was India, but also in Germany and Switzerland the fast food chain’s menus offer vegetarian burgers made with carrots, peas, peppers, onions, beans, potatoes and rice since at least 2015. McPlants can still be found on menus in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands and Portugal. In Italy there had been an attempt to introduce McPlant in 2021, as in the United States, but only for a limited period: today the only vegan options on the fixed menu are the mixed salad and French fries.
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