Beyond vegans: Plant-based 鈥榤eat鈥� goes mainstream from KFC to Dunkin鈥�
| Waltham, Mass.
Facing his daughter at a booth, two Burger King sandwiches between them, Dodson takes an old gray and black tie and ties it around the eyes of 6-year-old Victoria.
鈥淣o peeking,鈥� he tells her. Then he hands her the chain鈥檚 plant-based burger, the Impossible Whopper in a green-and-white wrapper, and has her take a bite. Then he does the same with the traditional Whopper on her right. 鈥淲hich one do you think is the real one?鈥� he asks.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 the real burger, No. 2,鈥� she says. Then Dodson, who didn't want to give his last name, ties the tie around his eyes and has Victoria hand him the burgers. He guesses correctly, too. But 鈥淚 have a hard time to distinguish,鈥� he adds. 鈥淔rom a plant, I鈥檓 impressed.鈥�
Why We Wrote This
Meat-free burgers have often existed as a side-menu for vegetarians. That appears to be changing fast, as fast-food companies see mainstream consumers snapping up plant-based sandwiches.
Some 200 yards away, just outside a Dunkin鈥� restaurant, Gareth Conachy holds a bag with the chain鈥檚 new Beyond Sausage Sandwich. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 tell the difference,鈥� says the construction worker, who swore off meat two years ago. Introduced in Manhattan in July, this item with plant-based sausage quickly became one of Dunkin鈥檚 best-selling sandwiches. So the chain, based in nearby Canton, Massachusetts, pushed forward its national rollout to this week.聽
The year 2019 is quickly becoming the year of the plant-based sandwich. Relegated for years聽to聽a niche market for vegetarians and vegans, plant-based meat is suddenly mainstream. The speed of that change has caught even industry insiders by surprise.聽
Technology is pushing the shift. Upstart companies such as Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat have found ways to make products that look and taste so much like meat 鈥� and at a nearly comparable price 鈥� that they appeal to meat-eaters as well as vegetarians. Consumer demand is shifting, too. Once taste and price concerns are met, other values about health, animal rights, and the environment come into play.
鈥淎 lot of these brands don鈥檛 necessarily lead with the health messaging,鈥� says Zak Weston, a food-service analyst at The Good Food Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit advocating a shift toward alternative meat, eggs, and dairy. 鈥淭hey are screaming flavor and they鈥檙e whispering health and they鈥檙e whispering the environment. ... [But] everyone wants to be healthier, or almost everyone, and almost everyone wants to do things that aren鈥檛 putting a giant resource strain on the planet.鈥�
For Brad, another diner at the Waltham Burger King,聽the appeal is that it doesn鈥檛 hurt mammals. Having witnessed the inexpert slaughter of a hog聽two decades聽ago, he swore off meat from mammals, although he still eats chicken and fish. 鈥淚t will definitely cut into meat sales,鈥� he says, polishing off his first-ever Impossible Whopper. 鈥淭he fact that they are at fast-food restaurants, that鈥檚 probably the best thing that could happen. The number of people who go through a McDonald鈥檚 or Burger King is considerable.鈥�
So far, Burger King has stolen a march on its key rival, McDonald鈥檚. Having introduced its plant-based sandwich in April in St. Louis with dramatic success, the Miami-based fast-food chain in August rolled it out to its 7,200 restaurants nationwide.聽
McDonald鈥檚 has been more cautious. In late September, it said it would trial a Beyond Meat burger in some of its Canadian stores, labeling it the P.L.T. (reminiscent of its B.L.T. but standing for Plant, Lettuce and Tomato). In August, KFC trialed Beyond Meat boneless wings and nuggets for a single day at a suburban Atlanta store, drawing a line of people around the store and selling out in less than five hours. Denny鈥檚 has just started testing the Beyond Burger at its Los Angeles restaurants.
Smaller chains have already jumped on the bandwagon. In April 2018, White Castle debuted the Impossible Slider in New York, New Jersey, and Chicago and found the sandwich so popular that restaurants with it had a 250% or so bigger market share than restaurants without it. The chain, based in Columbus, Ohio, expanded the slider to all its stores and, this spring, introduced an improved version. Last December, Carl鈥檚 Jr. introduced its Beyond Famous Star burgers and, after selling 4.5 million of them, added a Beyond BBQ cheeseburger to its menu last month.聽
Plant-based meat has also made inroads into grocery stores. Beyond Meat started selling its products in Whole Foods in 2013 and has since expanded to major grocery chains. Wegmans says by email that 鈥渢he launch of Impossible Burger has been extremely successful.鈥�
One reason: both companies are marketing to all consumers, not just vegans and vegetarians. Beyond Meat says that 93% of Kroger shoppers who purchase its products also have meat in their shopping cart. Burger King says 90% of its Impossible Whopper customers are meat eaters who are looking for healthier options.
Some observers, citing the highly processed nature of these meat substitutes, cast doubt on the idea of big health benefits. But other factors are also at play. Environmental concerns also have a role in boosting sales. Plant-based meats use less water and energy and create fewer greenhouse gas emissions than their equivalent in real beef, studies show, in part because animals eat far more calories in plants than their meat produces.
鈥淲hen Impossible Foods launched the Impossible Burger in 2016, concern for the environment wasn鈥檛 even in the Top 10 reasons consumers cited as motivating their purchase,鈥� says Pat Brown, the company鈥檚 CEO, in an emailed response. 鈥淣ow it鈥檚 No. 3. We see this trend accelerating, too, as young people take to the streets to protect the planet they鈥檙e inheriting.鈥�
For all the success of plant-based meat in the past year, no one expects sales of real meat to wither away. Alternative meat still represents only about 1% of sales of the real thing in grocery stores, says Mr. Weston at The Good Food Institute. And while numbers are less available, he estimates it has a similar share of sales at restaurants.聽
Is it just a passing fad?
Mr. Brown of Impossible Foods doesn鈥檛 think so. 鈥淥ur growth has come from every sales category in which we do business 鈥� independent restaurants, large restaurant chains such as White Castle, Cheesecake Factory and Qdoba, and non-commercial outlets such as theme parks, museums, stadiums, and college campuses,鈥� he says. And Minit Stop, a convenience store and gas station chain in Hawaii, has completely replaced the beef on its menu with Impossible Burger, he points out. 鈥淢init Stop鈥檚 decision to remove all cow-based beef from its menu serves as a rallying cry for other restaurants to follow suit, highlighting the importance of making more sustainable decisions.鈥�
Back at the Dunkin鈥� store in Waltham, manager Eduardo Daniel hasn鈥檛 tallied how well the Beyond Sausage Sandwich went over. 鈥淲e haven鈥檛 done any promotion yet,鈥� he says. The chain will offer free samples on Friday and Saturday. But 鈥渋t鈥檚 good to have another option on the menu.鈥�
