sortiwa
Image copyright
McDonald’s
Burger giant McDonald’s is to join a growing list of fast food restaurants selling fully vegan meals.
Restaurants are capitalising on increasing demand from UK customers for vegetarian and vegan food options.
People are cutting down on meat for health reasons, and also due to environmental and animal welfare concerns, campaigners said.
The McDonald’s move would help make veganism even more mainstream, the campaigners added.
McDonald’s said its Veggie Dippers meal – minced up rice, red peppers, tomato pesto and split peas, fried in breadcrumbs, and served with chips and a soft drink – will launch in the UK on 2 January.
Vegan sues Burger King for cooking Impossible Whopper on meat grill
Vegan school meal options promised after mother’s campaign
Vegan chicken fillet roll copycat row bites Insomnia Coffee
Greggs vegan sausage roll boosts sales
The product will be fried separately from products containing meat, a spokesman said.
Four Veggie Dippers will contain 320 calories, which is a bit more than a standard McDonald’s cheeseburger. Four dippers will also contain 2.3 grams of sugars.
McDonald’s UK chips are made by McCain’s, and fried in separate vats to meat products, the spokesman said.
“In the last 12 months we’ve seen an 80% uplift in customers ordering vegetarian options at McDonald’s, so it is time for the brand famous for the dippable McNugget to launch a dippable option for our vegetarian, vegan and flexitarian customers,” Thomas O’Neill, head of food marketing at McDonald’s UK & Ireland, said in a statement.
Vegan trend
McDonald’s is the latest fast food chain to offer a vegan meal. Famously, Greggs launched a vegan sausage roll at the beginning of the year which it credited with boosting sales.
According to animal rights campaign organisation Peta, chains with vegan options include Frankie & Benny’s, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Nando’s, Papa John’s, and Pizza Hut.
Peta director Elisa Allen said: “A vegan meal – one that doesn’t require killing – is the very definition of a happy meal.
“We’ll continue to encourage consumers to vote with their wallets and choose vegan to help spare pigs, cows, and chickens a short, miserable life and a violent death.”
Ms Allen added that Peta would continue to campaign for McDonald’s to bring its McVegan burger, which is available in Finland and Sweden, to the UK.
Campaign organisation The Vegan Society, which approved the McDonald’s vegan meal, said: “Anything that gives more choice for people to eat vegan food is a positive move and even McDonald’s have to accept that veganism is now a mainstream lifestyle choice.”
‘Mainstream veganism’
Claire Bass, the executive director of Humane Society International UK, which campaigns for animal welfare, said people choosing more vegan options “can only be a good thing for combating climate change and ending the suffering of animals on factory farms”.
She said that one of the main drivers of shifts in diet is that in the last few years “plant-based eating has gone mainstream, with an explosion in the availability of meat-free and dairy-free options on the High Street, in restaurants and in supermarkets”.
Ms Bass added: “So when big global brands like McDonalds start serving up vegan food, it can have a huge meat-reduction impact overall, making eating vegan on-the-go both quick and accessible for all.
“The growth in demand for vegan food in the UK is showing no signs of abating, and every time a customer chooses to leave meat out of their meal, that’s a win for animals in the bigger picture,.”
A survey by Mintel in 2018 found people giving a variety of reasons for eating less meat, including for its perceived health benefits, to try to lose weight, and because of animal welfare and environmental concerns.
Source link
