Vegetarianism is on the rise. A recent Harris Poll National Survey found that over 8 million Americans are vegetarians - an additional 1 million prescribe to a vegan diet. Fast food brands lived up to their names by responding FAST. Here are 10 brands that added environmental sustainability and plant-based meat alternatives last year.
- McDonald’s has taken several steps to increase its sustainability efforts. In North America, they only use cage-free eggs and antibiotic-free chickens. In September 2019, McDonald's worked with Beyond Meat to launch a 12-week test of the P.L.T. burger in Canada.
- Little Caesars began offering a meat-free sausage pizza topping made by Impossible Foods in May 2019. Impossible Foods also announced that it will launch its plant-based sausage this year.
- Burger King brought us the Impossible Whopper - now their most successful menu item. BK's Impossible Burger has led to a 10% increase in sales. Burger King also partnered with Unilever to supply plant-based patties in Europe.
- KFC launched a vegan ‘chicken’ burger. Demand for it was said to be five times more than expected when it was first announced in July 2019. It has since become a permanent fixture of the KFC menu.
- Del Taco launched vegan meat in all its branches in Feb 2019. It is their most successful product launch to date.
- Carl’s Junior started selling plant-based breakfast items in December 2019. Their breakfast sausage burrito is made of egg, cheese, and Beyond Meat’s meatless sausage.
- Hadee, owned by Carl’s Junior’s parent company CKE Restaurants Holdings Inc, went one step further: they launched a full meat-free breakfast menu.
- Greggs added meatless baked goods - sausage rolls and steak bakes - to their menu in December 2019.
- Johnny Rockets added a vegan option – the Gardein’s black bean burger. Made with black beans, brown rice, bell peppers, and corn, the savory "patty" is served on a whole-wheat bun, with lettuce and tomato.
- Dunkin’ launched their Beyond Sausage Sandwich in October 2019. Then they partnered with Snoop Dog to release a limited edition glazed donut beyond sandwich!
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RestaurantsNigel Seah
Nigel is not just a marketer at Workstream, he is also a graduate of Psychology and Marketing of Singapore Management University. He has multiple experiences in various areas of marketing - advertising, email marketing, and content writing. Fun fact, prior to joining Workstream, he took a semester off school to intern at SAP in Brazil.