McDonald’s (MCD) is the latest company to admit that a once-blossoming trend is no longer working in its favor.
After the fast-food chain recently revealed that it is seeing success with its new $5 menu, which launched on June 25 and offers customers a $5 meal that includes a McChicken, four-piece chicken nuggets or a McDouble, along with fries and a drink, it also revealed that a few major plant-based menu items won’t be returning to U.S. restaurants due to poor demand.
Related: McDonald’s considers major menu change to lure back frugal customers
McDonald’s U.S. President Joe Erlinger said during the WSJ Global Food Forum that salads won’t be returning to the menu due to low demand. He also said that its plant-based McPlant burger will be discontinued after it failed to capture the interest of customers.
“I don’t think the U.S. consumer is coming to McDonald’s looking for the McPlant or other plant-based proteins,” said Erlinger during the forum.
In 2016, plant-based meat became a hot topic when the Impossible Burger and the Beyond Burger both launched. Both burgers were made to look and taste identical to real beef and contained ingredients such as beans, soy, artificial flavors, coconut oil, etc.
In 2021, McDonald’s even partnered with Beyond Meat (BYND) to develop its McPlant burger, and it was tested in multiple locations in Louisiana, California, Texas and Iowa.
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Over the next few years, consumer interest in plant-based meat declined. A report from market research company Mintel showed that the plant-based meat market shrunk in 2023 by 3.6% year-on-year in the U.S. The report states that the decline in sales may be due to a challenging economy where consumers are attracted to more “affordable dietary choices” and are “hesitant to invest in unfamiliar products amidst financial instability.”
Plant-based meat raises health concerns
There have also been some concerns about how healthy plant-based meat is for consumers. The meat has been criticized for being “ultra-processed” and for not containing enough vitamins such as zinc, potassium, magnesium, etc, when compared to real meat.
Related: Beyond Meat responds to low sales, and customers may not like it
In 2019, Frank Hu, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told The Harvard Gazette that some plant-based products may contain “unhealthy ingredients.”
“Some of those products, even though they contain high amounts of plant-based protein, may also contain unhealthy ingredients, such as high amounts of sodium or unhealthy fats,” said Hu. “Being plant-based doesn’t necessarily mean it’s healthier.”
More Food + Dining:
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- Nestlé rejects proposal that would have forced it to sell healthier food
- Subway is breaking up with these popular drink brands
Amid the decline in demand, start-up companies who produce plant-based meat are reportedly resorting to making a drastic change in order to attract a larger audience to their products.
Companies are starting to play with the idea of mixing animal fat into plant-based ingredients in an effort to prioritize taste over sustainability, according to a report from The Washington Post in February.
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