Many of the world’s largest fast-food chains are choosing to accommodate the growing demand for plant-based alternatives by adding new items to their menu. This, of course, has naturally sparked key relationships between fast-food chains and plant-based companies. Such partnerships include Burger King’s and Del Taco’s partnerships with Impossible Foods (for the Impossible Whopper and Impossible Taco) and TGI Friday’s collab with Beyond Meat to develop the Beyond Burger.
While many fast-food chains are quickly adding vegan options to their menus, one company is moving rather slowly to accommodate demand: McDonald’s.
Despite incorrect claims, however, Impossible Foods is still running for partnership with McDonald’s. Earlier this month, the news company Reuters made a report that claimed Impossible Foods ceased all negotiation efforts with McDonald’s in fear that it would not be able to produce enough supply for the high demand, consisting of 14,000 U.S. locations alone.
However, Pat Brown––CEO of Impossible Foods––denied that claim, informing Business Insider in an interview that it was “complete bullsh*t” and his words were wrongly misinterpreted. In this interview, he says, “We’re very deliberate in how we approach customers but we would never blow off or disrespect a potential customer and any suggestion that we would do that is complete nonsense.”
While Brown agreed that the demand for Impossible Burgers is currently far outweighing the supply, the company is always interested in collaborating with any business that is going to be in the meat businesses in the future selling to customers.
So, as it stands, Impossible Foods is still a “possible” for partnership with McDonald’s. However, McDonald’s is already in its early stages of a partnership with Beyond Meat, a direct competitor for Impossible Foods. Recently, McDonald’s Canada introduced the P.L.T. (Plant, Lettuce, & Tomato) burger in 52 Canada locations.
Image courtesy of Impossible Foods
