by Alora Middleton Hale
It’s an exciting time to be a vegan! Many fast-food and popular chain restaurants are finally starting to add plant-based meat options to their menus. Just this week, both McDonald’s and Pizza Hut announced their entry into the plant-based menu world.
McDonald’s has been serving up burgers since 1955, earning it a top spot in the minds of many when they think about fast-food dining options. Unfortunately, with no plant-based items on the menu, McDonald’s is not a good choice for vegans or vegetarians. Even their french fries, a vegan fast-food staple, contain animal products!
That all may change soon, as McDonald’s announced earlier this week that they have created a new plant-based platform they are calling “McPlant”. The fast-food giant also announced that they have plans to begin testing a plant-based burger in markets as early as 2021. That’s huge news for those looking for accessible ways to cut back on the amount of meat they eat or even those looking to eliminate meat from their diets entirely!
Joe Loria, the Meat Reduction Campaign Manager for World Animal Protection, US had this to say on the topic:
With one of the world’s largest fast-food chains, McDonald’s, confirming the creation of the McPlant, their very own plant-based burger, customers in the United States—one of the countries that eats the most meat—could have the opportunity to easily reduce their meat consumption and lower the overall demand for factory-farmed meat.
By making humane and sustainable proteins affordable and accessible, World Animal Protection expects that factory farms can start being phased out, creating a systemic shift towards farming practices that are better for the planet and kinder to animals.
Many other quick-service restaurants already offer plant-based options and have helped spare thousands of animals because of these menu additions. World Animal Protection’s animal impact calculator estimates that the addition of Beyond Meat and Impossible Food products to these chains can spare upwards of 824,000 animals per year. That’s hundreds of thousands of animals spared a life of misery on factory farms.
McDonald’s McPlant announcement has the potential to drive Americans towards humane and sustainable protein sources, reducing their meat consumption and putting an end to many cruel industrial farming practices, such as extreme confinement, the overuse of antibiotics, and brutal mutilations.
Joe Loria, Meat Reduction Campaign Manager, World Animal Protection, US
While fast-food burgers and fries may make many think of McDonald’s, when it comes to pizza, Pizza Hut is another fast-food classic.
Pizza Hut is already more vegan friendly than McDonald’s, with sauce and crust options that contain no animal products, but they have yet to offer a plant-based meat option until now.
Teaming up with Beyond Meat, Pizza Hut announced this week their two new Beyond Meat Pizzas, both featuring Beyond Italian Sausage. Unfortunately, without a vegan cheese option vegans will still have to modify their pizza and ask for no cheese (we recommend adding your own at home!), but the new menu addition is still an exciting one.
On the Pizza Hut + Beyond Meat pairing, Loria said this:
Thanks to Pizza Hut’s recent addition of Beyond Meat Sausage to their menus at locations from coast-to-coast, World Animal Protection estimates that more than 358,000 pigs and cows will be spared a life of misery on factory farms each year. We applaud America’s largest pizza chain and its parent company, Yum! Brands, for investing in protein diversification. It’s our hope that Yum! will continue down this path by adding more humane and sustainable proteins as permanent menu items to all of its subsidiaries, particularly KFC US.
Whether you’re looking to eat less meat, are vegetarian, or vegan, having more delicious plant-based products available is a good thing for consumers and farmed animals. In the past, KFC has successfully tested a plant-based chicken in Atlanta, Nashville, and Charlotte, and is currently testing at more than 50 locations throughout Southern California. More than 10,000 World Animal Protection supporters in the US have taken action urging KFC, the world’s second-largest restaurant chain, to add a meatless meal as a permanent fixture to its menu. Joe Loria, Meat Reduction Campaign Manager, World Animal Protection, US
Is adding vegan meats to fast-food menus a perfect solution for all vegans? No. The popularity and subsequent addition of plant-based meats to restaurant menus around the world without the addition of other plant-based products such as cheese can be frustrating, for sure, while many may choose to avoid the products altogether for a variety of reasons. Still, these additions have the opportunity to have a large impact on those who are looking for affordable access to plant-based meat options or who have previously been cautious about giving plant-based meats a try, not to mention the huge impact these options will have on the animals.
Interesting!! Which product used their french fries, a vegan fast-food staple, contain animal products?