Fast food giant McDonald's is expanding its plant-based meat burger that uses Beyond Meat patty to 52 restaurants across Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph and other nearby areas in Canada. The company said on Wednesday that it will be expanding its partnership with Beyond Meat.
This is part of McDonald's pilot and a lot of the company's future depends on the success of the project. The imitation meat burger is fast gaining popularity across the world, which has seen a number of fast food chains introducing plant-based meat burgers.
McDonald's ties to capture a new market
McDonald's decision to expand plant-based meat burgers in Canada comes three months after the fast food chain started rolling out its plant-based meat burgers in 28 outlets in Canada. Moreover, McDonald's announcement comes a day after it was reported that Beyond Meat's rival Impossible Foods is no longer trying to win a deal to supply McDonald's with plant-based meat burgers.
Understandably, McDonald's wants to capture a bigger share of the fast-growing vegan burger market. The 52 new restaurants of the world's largest burger chain will start offering its P.L.T. burgers or plant, lettuce and tomato burger starting January 14.
The trail will be on for 12 weeks. "As we expand the test, we're continuing to listen to our guests across Southwestern Ontario and assess the appetite for a plant-based alternative within the McDonald's menu," said Michaela Charette, head of consumer insights for McDonald's Canada.
Demand for vegan burgers rise
The vegan burger market is fast growing with an increasing number of people shunning meat and poultry products. This has seen vegan burger makers like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods fast gaining popularity and joining hands with burger giants like McDonald's and Burger King.
Beyond Meat entered into a partnership with McDonald's to supply plant-based meat burgers, which has so far been successful. The California-based start-up makes burgers with pea protein, canola oil, beet juice and other ingredients. McDonald's started rolling out vegan burgers six months after its rival Burger King started testing vegan burgers in partnership with Impossible Foods.
Vegan burger sales have been on the rise for the past few years as an increasing number of Americans are opting for healthier food. This has seen sales of plant-based burgers jump 42% between March 2016 and March 2019 in the United States to an estimated total of $888 billion. However, traditional meat sales rose a meager 1% during the same period to only $85 billion.
