McDonald's planning a trial run of plant-based burgers

Thursday, September 26, 2019
McDonald's PLT
McDonald's PLT

McDonald's is joining the growing list of fast-food restaurants experimenting with plant-based meat.

Starting Monday, a select few McDonald's restaurant customers can try a P.L.T. burger. That stands for plant, lettuce and tomato.

The trial run will last 12 weeks and is only happening at 28 locations in Ontario, Canada.

McDonald's entry into the alternative meat arena has been long predicted. It's been a breakthrough year for companies such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods as they work to perfect the no-meat burgers. Beyond Meat's stock has risen by more than 430% from May to July since going public. Impossible Foods earned more than $750 million but remains private. The two companies are now on fast-food menus across the country.

Burger King conducted similar testing of its plant-based Impossible Whopper before rolling it out nationwide last month due to high demand from customers. Last month, KFC teamed up with Beyond Meat and began testing plant-based chicken nuggets and boneless wings at an Atlanta restaurant. Carl's Jr. and Del Taco are also selling Beyond Meat products.