fast food chains or fast food They have been trying for years to get rid of that idea of offering “junk food” by jumping on the bandwagon of trends that promote healthy and sustainable, but without stopping betting on products that appeal to “gochismo”. It was logical to think that sooner rather than later they would join the rise of veganismand today they are already one of the main protagonists of the so-called industry plant-based.
Is a worldwide phenomenon that began as a race by the large multinationals to gain a prominent place in the sector before anyone else, especially as a result of the meteoric success achieved by the great pioneer, the Impossible Foods vegan hamburger, the first to “bleed” and that it quickly broke the market.
In Europe could not enter the startup United States due to an issue of additive legislation, but other companies and brands such as Beyond Meat or the Spanish Heuraemerging a vegan product catalog from which we have already tried everything from sizzling bacon to chorizo and sausage, cheeses, butter or even vegetable tuna.
The big chains fast food were making their particular bets with these products, incorporating into their offer products mainly from other companies, such as Burger King and its first vegetable Whopper, Mc Donald’s and Papa John’s with meat from Beyond Meat, Goiko Grill or Telepizza and its Veguis from The Vegetarian Butcher.
As previously announced, Burger King launched in Madrid last year a temporary premises in which they only sold vegan products, an excuse to relaunch their plant-based brand after criticism that the Rebel Whopper was cross-contaminated when cooked on the same grill as regular meat. To the vegetable burger were added the nuggets and the new product, a Long Chickenwith fake chicken.
Now it’s been on London where the same chain is succeeding by converting one of its flagship stores into a 100% plant-based restaurant. as collected Guardianhas been a temporary experiment in which the company repeated in a certain way the promotional test in Madrid, but given the good reception they are considering leaving the premises with a permanent all-vegetable menu.
This surprising success has led to many voices from experts and caterers specializing in the vegetarian and vegan sector in predict a completely vegetable futureAt least as far as fast food chains are concerned. james lewisexpert in marketing and product development for the vegan restaurant ‘123V’, has declared to the newspaper that “the fast food sector is 100% the best area to switch to veganism”, as they set and lead the big trends.
However, not everyone is so clear. As we are remembered in the middle American The Takeout, the meat industry is a very powerful player whose power plays a key role in the economy of large developed countries, and they are not going to give up a piece of cake as juicy as fast food so easily.
“A lot of chicken equals a lot of money and political power”
We have seen it in Spain, with the great political and media influence that the meat sector has manifested as soon as its work has been criticized or minimally questioned, and in the case of other large countries such as the United States it was not going to be less. as they say in The Takeout“a lot of chicken equals a lot of money, and a lot of money equals a lot of political power.”
Just Spices Vegan Box I Box of 6 delicious spices for vegan food
It’s clear that fast food companies are the perfect terrain to fertilize the trend of veganism, but we will hardly see a world in which these big chains abandon the meat sector. Reducing your consumption is always a good idea, but let’s remember that vegan alternatives are not exactly healthier and may not be very sustainable either.
In DAP | They develop a new vegetable meat from carob: a very cheap and super abundant legume in Spain
In DAP | Why I am vegan: “They see us as a threat because there are things they don’t want to hear”