McDonald’s Starts Serving Up The Meatless McPlant Burger

McDonald’s (MCD) will roll out its vegan McPlant burger as part of a test trial in eight U.S.-based restaurants in November.

The McPlant, which is made with peas, rice, and potatoes and will include mayo and American cheese, is part of a tie-up with plant-based meat creator Beyond Meat, CNBC reported.

Beyond Meat signed a three-year deal with McDonald’s back in February to be its preferred supplier of meatless patties.

The meatless burger will start appearing on menus on Nov. 3, at select McDonald’s restaurants in Irving, Texas; Carrollton, Texas; Cedar Falls, Iowa; Jennings, Louisiana; Lake Charles, Louisiana; El Segundo, California; and Manhattan Beach, California, according to CNBC.

The McPlant will be available for a limited time, the news outlet said.

The plant-based burger will be cooked on the same grill as its beef patties, which Burger King came under fire for doing when it launched its meatless Impossible Whopper back in 2018, which resulted in a lawsuit with the burger chain.

McDonald’s announced that it was going to launch the McPlant burger back in November 2020 in a blog post, saying at the time that the meatless burger was going to be a “sink-your-teeth-in (and wipe-your-mouth) kind of sandwich.”

McDonald’s is testing the McPlant as it looks to understand the impact of the menu item on its operations amid a labor pinch during the pandemic, CNBC said.

Currently, McDonald’s offers McPlant burgers in international markets such as Sweden, Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands, and the U.K.

Other fast-food chains have been quicker to adopt a meatless menu than McDonald’s as Burger King has the Impossible Whopper, and Taco Bell has a meatless Cravetarian Taco on the menu in partnership with Beyond Meat. Pizza Hut offers Beyond Meat’s Italian sausage as a topping on its pizzas, while White Castle began serving up Impossible Sliders in April 2018 in a deal with Impossible Foods.

As of Thursday at 11:29 a.m. ET, shares of McDonald's were trading at $244.89, up $2.44, or 0.92%.

Photo: AFP / Federico PARRA