Mickey D's: You Want a Plant Burger With That?

The McPlant is coming to select US cities in 2021
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 10, 2020 8:11 AM CST
McDonald's to Release Its Own Meatless Patty
This June 25, 2019 file photo shows the sign outside a McDonald's restaurant in Pittsburgh.   (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, file)

McDonald's has announced plans to sell its own plant-based burger patty in the US in 2021. The McPlant is made "by McDonald's and for McDonald's," International President Ian Borden said during a conference call on Monday, per CBS News. Shares of Beyond Meat, a company that supplies plant-based burgers to several fast-food chains, fell almost 10% following the announcement. However, a Beyond Meat spokesperson later clarified that the company worked with McDonald's to "co-create" the patty, per Reuters. McDonald's had previously tested a Beyond Meat patty at locations in Ontario, Canada, from September to April, per CNBC, which notes former McDonald's CEO Don Thompson is a member of Beyond Meat's board.

Officials say the patty is a step above other plant-based burgers on the market. It "delivers our iconic taste in a sink-your-teeth-in kind of sandwich," reads a blog post. It notes the patty has a similar taste to the Big Mac or Quarter Pounder, per CBS. McDonald's—"one of the few national chains yet to sell plant-based meat burgers on a permanent basis" in the US—hasn't said when or where the patty will first be introduced, per Reuters. "In the future, McPlant could extend across a line of plant-based products including burgers, chicken-substitutes and breakfast sandwiches," Borden said. McDonald's also announced plans to release a new crispy chicken sandwich, to be served on a potato roll, "arriving 2021 in restaurants across the country." (More McDonald's stories.)

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