Restaurant Brands International, parent of McDonald’s rival Burger King, and Yum Brands said they were removing fresh onions from menu items. Roughly five per cent of Burger King locations have removed onions from the menu, a Burger King spokesperson said in a statement.

McDonald’s said on Thursday that Taylor Farms was the supplier of the sliced onions that have been removed. Taylor Farms did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company has recalled several batches of yellow onions produced in a Colorado facility, according to a recall memo on Wednesday by US Foods, one of the largest U.S. suppliers of food service operations.

About five per cent of Burger King stores also get supplies from Taylor Farms, but a company spokesperson said Burger King has not been contacted yet from health authorities or had any illnesses. Yum, which operates KFC, Pizza Hut and the Taco Bell chains, said it was removing onions “out of an abundance of caution.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said late on Wednesday that fresh onions were the likely source of the outbreak. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it is looking at all possible sources of the outbreak and has not determined the cause.

Past E. coli outbreaks have hampered sales at big fast-food restaurants as customers avoid the affected chains for fear of illness. Regulators are still investigating whether McDonald’s beef patties could be affected, but E. coli is killed in beef when cooked properly, whereas the McDonald’s Quarter Pounder is served with raw, slivered onions.

McDonald’s has pulled the Quarter Pounder from about one-fifth of its U.S. restaurants, including in Colorado, Kansas, Utah and Wyoming, and in parts of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

“We’ve been told by corporate to not use any onions going forward for the foreseeable future,” Maria Gonzales, the on-duty manager inside a Burger King in Longmont, Colorado, said on Wednesday. “They’re off our menu.”

McDonald’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

McDonald’s has moved quickly to try to contain the damage while also trying to reassure customers of its efforts. That may be critical – previous outbreaks in 2015 at Chipotle Mexican Grill CMG.N and in 1993 at Jack in the Box caused sales at those companies to drop sharply for several quarters.

David Tarantino, an analyst at Baird Equity Research, downgraded McDonald’s shares to “neutral” late on Wednesday. “We are concerned that reports of an E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s restaurants in multiple U.S. states could pose a major threat to consumer sentiment” and thus hurt U.S. comparable-store sales, he said.

Plenty of customers

In the immediate aftermath of the McDonald’s outbreak, plenty of people in Colorado were still eating at the U.S. giant, according to checks by Reuters. Some were avoiding the hamburgers.

Charity Atkinson was munching on a 20-piece box of Chicken McNuggets in a McDonald’s parking lot in Longmont on Wednesday afternoon, about 30 miles (48 km) north of Denver.

Atkinson said she was not worried about the outbreak, but she did note that for now she was avoiding the burgers.

“I’m hoping everything gets taken care of really soon, because my mom loves the Quarter Pounders with cheese,” Atkinson said. “Hopefully they’ll have better sanitary protections soon.”

At Burger King, Monica and Jesus Martinez were digging in to a bag of burgers and fries while sitting inside their car, and said they had decided to frequent Burger King in large part because of the outbreak at McDonald’s.

“I’m worried! I like the Quarter Pounder but I’m really worried,” Monica Martinez said. “It will definitely influence my choices of where we eat going forward.”

The outbreak of E. coli was first reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in late September.

The USDA on Wednesday said that one of its state partners was also testing samples of beef for E. coli.

—Additional reporting by Siddharth Cavale in New York and Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru

The post Fast-food chains hold the onions after McDonald’s E. coli outbreak appeared first on Farmtario.

U.S.-listed shares of the company rose more than three per cent after it topped results estimates for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, led by soaring online sales and better-than-expected same-store sales growth at Burger King in the U.S. and Tim Hortons in Canada.

Restaurant chains are raising prices because they are paying higher costs for shipping, labour and commodities including chicken, coffee and cooking oils amid COVID-19 related disruptions.

The record inflation levels and staffing disruptions due to the omicron variant dulled profits at McDonald’s and Starbucks.

Burger King’s Whopper — made from a quarter-pound of grilled beef — is an “iconic” product that has “been on this core discount platform for too long,” Restaurant Brands CEO Jose Cil told Reuters in an interview.

The chain, which often caters to lower-income customers, removed the item from its two for $5 deal but could offer limited discounts on the burger in the future (all figures US$).

Burger King also said it would stop selling some less-popular menu items altogether, including sundaes, whipped toppings and chocolate milk.

Cil declined to provide timelines for overall price hikes in 2022.

Toronto-based Restaurant Brands reported total revenue of $1.55 billion, above estimates of $1.52 billion.

But U.S. comparable sales fell at Popeyes, in part because some locations have had to reduce operations by an average of one hour due to staffing shortages.

Popeyes’ sales had been soaring even through much of the pandemic after the 2019 launch of its fried chicken sandwich, which was so popular that most rivals — including McDonald’s and KFC — introduced their own similar product.

Restaurant Brands reported per share earnings of 74 cents in the fourth quarter, topping Refinitiv estimates of 69 cents.

— Reporting for Reuters by Deborah Sophia in Bangalore and Hilary Russ in New York.

The post Tim Hortons, Burger King parent to hike prices appeared first on Farmtario.

Analysts have said fried chicken sandwich pioneer Popeyes, owned by RBI, has been hurt by McDonald’s and KFC launching similar items, while RBI-owned Burger King has underperformed in recent months on weak demand for its lower-priced menu items.

U.S. comparable sales at Burger King declined 1.6 per cent, and slipped 4.5 per cent at Popeyes in the third quarter ended Sept. 30.

Firehouse Subs, in comparison, reported U.S. same-store sales growth of 20 per cent from pre-pandemic levels between January and October, Restaurant Brands said.

RBI’s U.S.-listed shares rose marginally after it said the deal would immediately add to its earnings once it closes in the coming months. It also said it will fund the acquisition through cash on hand and debt.

“(We) have kept an eye on it (Firehouse Subs) from a distance over the years,” RBI CEO Jose Cil told Reuters.

Jacksonville-based Firehouse’s franchisees own and operate 97 per cent of its 1,200 restaurants across 46 U.S. states, Puerto Rico and, since 2015, Canada.

Firehouse so far has just 48 Canadian stores, all in Ontario, run by franchisee Onfire Restaurants. The chain’s online listing of regions available to new franchisees shows all 10 provinces and three territories as having “no current availability.”

RBI, meanwhile, has about 27,000 stores in over 100 countries.

“There’s a tonne of room for growth here in the U.S. and Canada, and all around the world,” Cil said about Firehouse Subs, which is popular for its “Hook + Ladder” sub.

Firehouse Subs’ loyalty program has 3.5 million subscribers, and is adding around 50,000 more customers per month, said RBI, which earlier this year saw Burger King and Popeyes launch similar programs.

Firehouse Subs CEO Don Fox and finance head Vincent Burchianti will manage its day-to-day operations.

— Reporting for Reuters by Praveen Paramasivam in Bangalore. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

The post Tim Hortons parent to buy Firehouse Subs as other brands drag appeared first on Farmtario.

Burger King, a U.S.-headquartered brand of Toronto-based Restaurant Brands International (RBI) since 2014, said Monday it becomes “the first quick-service restaurant in Canada to put the award-winning, plant-based Impossible Foods patty on its menu nationwide.”

Burger King, which has sold Impossible Whoppers at its U.S. stores since 2019, said it started serving the plant-based burgers at “participating” stores in Ontario effective Monday, ahead of a “cross-Canada rollout” planned for April 12.

California-based Impossible Foods, whose investors include Bill Gates and Google Ventures among others, has had relatively little exposure in the Canadian QSR market so far, mainly through the Qdoba chain of Mexican fast food outlets.

Ingredients in the company’s Impossible ground beef substitute — used to make burger patties, meatballs and chili and taco filling — include soy and potato protein, coconut and sunflower oil and, as binders, methylcellulose and food-grade starch.

“The Whopper is an icon, and we know how much our guests love its unique, flame-grilled taste. But, we also know those guests — and really, all Canadians — are always looking for more choice, and are increasingly interested in options without beef,” Burger King Canada general manager Matt Wright said in a release.

“Our mission is to sell Impossible products everywhere conventional animal meat is sold today, and that includes Burger King, whose huge footprint and affordable prices can make delicious plant-based burgers accessible to more Canadians than ever before,” Impossible Foods president Dennis Woodside said in the same release.

Burger King Canada quoted RBI’s Restaurants Brands for Good 2020 Year in Review report as saying that U.S. consumers who chose the Impossible Whopper in 2020 “avoided the equivalent greenhouse gas emissions of driving about 520 million miles in an average passenger vehicle.”

RBI, which also owns the Tim Hortons and Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen chains, had previously tested the plant-based burger market in Canada starting in mid-2019, selling products at Tim’s made by Impossible’s California-based rival processor Beyond Meat.

By early 2020, though, Tim’s had withdrawn the Beyond Meat products from its menu across Canada. An RBI spokesperson told Reuters at the time that the product line “was not embraced by our guests as we thought it would be.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Burger King rolls out plant-based Impossible Burger in Canada appeared first on Farmtario.

The more a cow belches, the more it spends energy that could be used instead for milk production, Verwey reasoned. So two years ago, he started feeding his cattle Agolin, made of coriander, clove and carrot extracts, and replaced costlier additives that promoted weight gain.

He is still determining whether the change has affected milk output, but Verwey figures he has positioned himself for a world where consumers care more about greenhouse gas emissions from livestock.

“We think we’re ahead of the curve,” he said from Fresno, California. “Everyone should be trying their best to prevent pollution.”

Major food companies are stepping into the space. Nestle and chocolate producer Barry Callebaut have partnered with startup Agolin, while in July, Restaurant Brands International started serving burgers made from less gassy cattle at several U.S. Burger King restaurants.

Their plans hinge on farmers and the companies that buy the meat and milk they produce adopting cattle feed additives that inhibit gas. It is a tiny market that developers say is poised for multibillion-dollar sales.

The shift comes as meat and dairy industries face competition from substitutes for their products due to the perception they are healthier and less damaging to the environment.

Livestock emit 14.5 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gases that are related to human activity such as farming, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. Nearly two-thirds of those emissions come from cattle, including through burps, flatulence and manure.

Low-burping cattle

Ruminant animals like cattle produce methane as microbes ferment fibrous carbohydrates in their stomachs into digestible form.

Farmers feed Agolin to one million head of cattle in Europe, and another 250,000 head of U.S. cattle, double its total sales volume five years ago, said Kurt Schaller, Agolin’s managing director.

Feeding Agolin to some of the cows in Nestle’s supply chain is one part of Nestle’s net zero carbon commitment, said Robert Erhard, head of dairy sourcing for the maker of KitKat chocolate bars and Coffee-mate.

Generating more milk per cow reduces the animal’s emissions on a per-liter basis, he said.

Barry Callebaut feeds Agolin to a “low single-digit” percentage of cows in its supply chain, said spokesman Frank Keidel.

Within two years, feed company DSM intends to launch sales in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Latin America.

The global market for methane-inhibitor feeds could reach one billion to two billion euros (C$1.57 billion to $3.13 billion) by 2030, said Mark van Nieuwland, director of DSM’s “Clean Cow” program.

DSM is testing its Bovaer product with several food companies, including New Zealand dairy cooperative Fonterra Co-operative Group and Arla Foods.

Mootral, another Swiss startup, plans to launch commercial sales in 2021, feeding 300,000 head of cattle, and adding at least another one million head by 2022, said CEO Thomas Hafner.

To be sure, a few million cattle producing less methane would amount to a tiny fraction of the global 1.3 billion-head cattle herd.

“Agriculture, and food in general, it’s not a very fast industry,” Schaller said. “A new concept needs time.”

While global sales of methane-reducing feed may amount to just US$30 million in 2021, such sales may hit several billion dollars within five years, Hafner said.

“If (all feed suppliers combined) aren’t in 50 million animals by 2025, we’ve done something very wrong,” Hafner said.

Cattle methane-reducing efforts made headlines when Restaurant Brands began selling lower-methane Whoppers.

The pilot project is a bet that reduced cattle emissions will soon matter to consumers, said Matt Banton, Restaurant Brands’ head of global innovation and sustainability.

“We’re preparing for a future where that becomes a much bigger criteria.”

The U.S. livestock sector has become more efficient and less emissions-intensive in recent years thanks to better use of feed and veterinary care and due to improved animal genetics, said Frank Mitloehner, professor of animal science at the University of California, Davis.

Mitloehner sees promise in feed solutions, but he sharply criticized Burger King’s methane-reducing claims as premature and noted its marketing materials wrongly identified flatulence, rather than burps, as a major emission source.

Banton, of Restaurant Brands, agreed the company needs to do much more research.

Investors, however, are starting to pay attention to cattle methane emissions.

A Sarasin + Partners fund invests in DSM because of its efforts to help produce more sustainable food, such as through Bovaer, said Jeneiv Shah, global equity analyst at Sarasin.

FAIRR, a global investor network focused on risks with intensive animal farming, is concerned that strategies like Burger King’s “simply aren’t ambitious enough,” said research manager Faazi Adam.

But feed makers hope to benefit from the attention to methane that the burger giant generated.

“It’s positive that Burger King goes in this direction,” Schaller of Agolin said. “It shows the need – and for me, competition is healthy.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg; additional reporting by Ana Mano in Sao Paulo.

The post More food companies aim to wrangle cattle emissions appeared first on Farmtario.

Some experts say the company’s claims that lemongrass can substantially reduce the amount of methane emitted by cattle are misguided and based on inconclusive research.

Why it matters: Feed additives and other methane-reducing strategies do show promise. Burger King’s most recent claims about lemongrass, however, are not backed by rigorous data.

Burger King has since backtracked on the ad, which depicts a young person singing a twangy song about cattle farts and enforces old stereotypes about farmers – and their gas.

The piece is specifically about how a pilot project aims to reduce methane emissions from cow farts using lemongrass as a feed additive.

There are numerous inaccuracies in the ad, including that cow gas is the big climate villain, when eructation or burps from cows are where most methane is released.

To help reduce the climactic impacts of greenhouse gases derived from ruminant digestion, reports the company, the Burger King brand has “partnered with top scientists to develop and test a new diet for cows, which according to initial study results, on average reduces up to 33 per cent of cows’ daily methane emissions per day during the last three to four months of their lives.

“Starting on July 14, select Burger King restaurants in Miami, New York, Austin, Portland, and Los Angeles will offer the Reduced Methane Emissions Beef Whopper sandwich, made with beef sourced from cows that emit reduced methane, while supplies last.”

The company’s official statement goes on to say it has made its findings and processes public to encourage other suppliers, farmers and food brands to adopt its lemongrass solution.

Data on lemongrass sparse

Burger King’s lemongrass claims are based on two studies from the University of California-Davis and from Autonomous University of the State of Mexico. However, findings from the former have yet to be published, and findings from the latter have not been replicated.

What is lemongrass? Lemongrass is a perennial herb often cultivated for culinary use. It is usually grown as an annual and is propagated from saved stems. In California, lemongrass is planted in March. Burger King claims adding 100 grams of dried lemongrass leaves to a cows’ daily diet makes a significant difference in methane excretion.

Dr. Ermias Kebreab, head researcher for the U.C. Davis project, responded to Burger King’s video by saying their study did not find a 33 per cent reduction in methane emissions, as was the case for his Mexican counterparts.

“Turns out Fresno-sourced lemongrass was not quite the same as Mexican,” said Kebreab via Twitter. U.C Davis also pushed back with a response letter on their website.

Data aside, the video advertisement’s fart-specific focus is misguided, says Claudia Wagner-Riddle, professor in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Guelph and authority in carbon cycling in food systems.

In reality, the vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions from cattle come from burps, the rumination process, and manure, meaning bovine flatulence is comparatively not a factor. While she says such a distinction may not matter to the general public, it does contribute to scientific misunderstanding.

Taking the information at face-value is itself problematic since the lemongrass additive is only being used during the finishing stage of beef production — while the majority of emissions are released prior to the feedlot.

“You need to consider the life cycle and how that lemongrass is produced… some of our work on dairy shows 40 per cent of life cycle emissions are due to rumination, another 40 per cent is from feed production,” says Wagner-Riddle, adding the viability of lemongrass production in different areas could pose challenges in itself.

“I definitely think it’s premature to make such a claim. Where is that lemongrass going to come from? Is it coming from places where you’re deforesting to plant lemongrass?

“I think the message of trying to source beef from producers who are reducing their carbon footprint is good, but right now they are only offering it in three places. The question is how feeding lemongrass, if it actually works, would be implemented at a large scale and its implications. There is no silver bullet at the moment. If there was it would have already been implemented.”

Katherine Wood, assistant professor of ruminant nutrition and physiology in the University of Guelph’s Department of Animal Biosciences, describes this kind of ruminant nutrition research as very “in-vogue” globally.

Within Canada, she says, researchers across the country are working on a wide range of methane-reducing techniques — from feed additives to genetic variations and breeding more digestible forages.

“In lemongrass the theory is it’s a tannin-based response. There’s a long list of things that people think might have this effect. There’s lots and lots of different plants being investigated for this,” says Wood.

Like other feed additives, she says, it is possible lemongrass does have some effect on belched methane levels. But with inconclusive results from U.C. Davis, not to mention the inherent variability in study conditions and how measurements are taken, it’s hard to draw concrete conclusions.

“It’s very difficult to make a claim like this without peer review and getting repeated results in a variety of different scenarios. That’s one of the reasons why we haven’t seen one of these kinds of compounds make an impact on the market,” she says.

The post Burger King backtracks on lemongrass sass appeared first on Farmtario.

Burger King, owned by Toronto-based Restaurant Brands International, on Tuesday launched the “#CowsMenu” initiative, which it bills as “a scalable solution with the potential to reduce cows’ impact on climate change.”

“Select” U.S. Burger King restaurants in New York, Miami, Austin, Portland and Los Angeles on Tuesday were to begin a limited launch of what it calls the Reduced Methane Emissions Beef Whopper, a sandwich “made with beef sourced from cows that emit reduced methane.”

The chain, in its announcement Tuesday, cited estimates from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) pegging the livestock sector responsible for 14.5 per cent of all human-induced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions — and beef production as responsible for 41 per cent of that amount.

To that end, the chain said, it has “teamed up” with “top-level” scientists from the University of California at Davis and the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico to study different herbs, such as chamomile and lemongrass, to supplement “a new diet for cows that could help them digest better and release less methane.”

“As a result, we found that by adding 100 grams of dried lemongrass leaves to the cows’ daily feed, we were able to see a reduction of up to 33 per cent on average of methane emissions” during the final three to four months of the animal’s life on feed, Burger King said.

A summary of the Mexican researchers’ work, posted on Burger King’s website, cautioned that feeding lemongrass at levels higher than two per cent of daily dry matter intake was shown to negatively affect digestibility of dry matter and fibre fractions.

The summary also cautioned that more research is needed to gauge the effects of supplementing the tested herbs on “other variables” such as rumen microbe populations, rumen fermentation and volatile fatty acid production.

The summary also notes more research is needed to evaluate whether the reduction in methane emissions “is maintained over the long term.”

‘Open source’

Burger King emphasized the research behind the new ration is still under peer review; it hasn’t yet been posted in full on the chain’s website.

The company also said it will “continue to partner with higher education institutions and industry scientists to conduct additional research on this topic and will periodically report on our findings.”

The chain also said it plans to “open source” its #CowsMenu ration formula, making it “publicly available so that every fast food brand, meat supplier, and farmer can replicate, test and refine it.”

“Beef is one of the top commodities that we buy at Burger King. We also know that cattle are one of the top contributors to overall greenhouse gas emissions, so our job is to understand how we can continue to grow our business while still reducing the emissions from cattle over time,” Matt Banton, the chain’s head of innovation and sustainability, said on YouTube.

The campaign, however, has left the U.S. National Cattlemen’s Beef Association “disappointed.”

U.S. burger restaurants “can, and many of them do, play a vital role in helping improve beef’s sustainability and reducing its environmental footprint,” the NCBA said in a release.

“Unfortunately, Burger King has chosen a different path, relying on kitschy imagery that misrepresents basic bovine biology — cattle emissions come from burps, not farts — and on the potential impact of a single ruminant nutrition study that was so small and poorly conceived, it was dismissed by many leading (non-government organizations) and beef industry experts.”

The NCBA, in a statement Tuesday, cited data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) attributing “just two per cent of greenhouse gas emissions to the American cattle industry.”

Cattle farmers and ranchers “remain committed to continuous improvement and producing beef more sustainably,” the association said, and thus “are disappointed that Burger King has decided to follow a path that is misaligned with those who are already making real-world efforts to reduce beef’s environmental footprint.”

Rather, the NCBA said, Burger King is “opting instead to score easy points with consumers by launching a misleading public relations campaign.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post U.S. beef ranchers sour on Burger King lemongrass ration appeared first on Farmtario.

In a proposed class action, Phillip Williams said he bought an Impossible Whopper, a plant-based alternative to Burger King’s regular Whopper, at an Atlanta drive-thru, and would not have paid a premium price had he known the cooking would leave it “coated in meat byproducts.”

The lawsuit filed in Miami federal court seeks damages for all U.S. purchasers of the Impossible Whopper, and an injunction requiring Burger King to “plainly disclose” that Impossible Whoppers and regular burgers are cooked on the same grills.

Burger King, a unit of Toronto-based Restaurant Brands International, declined to comment, saying it does not discuss pending litigation.

Its website describes the Impossible Burger as “100 per cent Whopper, zero per cent Beef,” and adds that “for guests looking for a meat-free option, a non-broiler method of preparation is available upon request.”

Williams’ lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the disclaimer or the available cooking options.

Impossible Foods, which helped create the Impossible Whopper, has said it designed the product for meat eaters who want to consume less animal protein, not for vegans or vegetarians.

“For people who are strictly vegan, there is a microwave prep procedure that they’re welcome to ask for in any store,” Dana Worth, Impossible Foods’ head of sales, said in a recent interview.

Burger King began selling the Impossible Whopper in August.

Restaurant Brands, which also owns Canadian coffee and restaurant chain Tim Hortons and U.S. chicken chain Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, is overseen by Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital.

— Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York and Richa Naidu in Chicago.

The post Impossible Whoppers contaminated by meat, suit claims appeared first on Farmtario.

Big fast food chains, including McDonald’s and KFC owner Yum Brands, have been aggressively expanding their international operations to counter slowing growth in the U.S.

Toronto-based Restaurant Brands, the owner of Burger King, Tim Hortons and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, has been looking to boost its businesses by deploying various initiatives that range from app-based ordering to loyalty programs for its customers.

The company, which held its first-ever investor day on Wednesday, did not immediately respond to a request for investment details of its expansion program.

Restaurant Brands, which has been hit by a slowdown at its three iconic brands, hopes to grow its coffee, burger and chicken markets by five to six per cent annually over the next five years.

Last month, the company reported a 0.6 per cent drop in comparable sales at Tim Hortons for the quarter ended March 31, while same-store sales at Burger King grew 2.2 per cent, down from 3.8 per cent a year earlier.

The announcement of the ambitious expansion plan comes just months after Jose Cil took the helm at the company, after having headed its Burger King unit.

Rival Yum Brands opened 372 new KFC outlets in 46 countries in the first quarter ended March, while McDonald’s plans on opening roughly 1,200 restaurants worldwide this year.

Tim Hortons, Restaurant Brands’ coffee and doughnut chain, also said it would introduce three new sandwiches using the vegan burger maker Beyond Meat’s plant-based sausages as demand for vegan alternatives grows in the country.

Shares of Restaurant Brands, which have risen nearly 26 per cent this year, were up marginally at $89.67 on the TSX late Friday afternoon.

— Reporting for Reuters by Shradha Singh in Bangalore.

The post Restaurant Brands to boost outlets by 54 per cent within 10 years appeared first on Farmtario.

To mark the launch on April Fool’s Day, the burger giant released a hidden-camera-style promo video showing the serving of plant-based Whoppers instead of meat to customers who marvel that they cannot tell the difference.

“We wanted to make sure we had something that lived up to the expectations of the Whopper,” said Burger King’s North America president, Christopher Finazzo. “We’ve done sort of a blind taste test with our franchisees, with people in the office, with my partners on the executive team, and virtually nobody can tell the difference.”

The Impossible Whopper comes at an extra cost — about US$1 more than the beef patty Whopper. But Finazzo said research shows consumers are willing to pay more for the plant-based burger.

Plant-based meat substitutes have been gaining popularity as more attention is focused on the environmental hazards of industrial ranching. Finazzo said his research shows customers mainly like it for the health benefits. The Impossible Burger patty has zero cholesterol.

Impossible Foods, based in Redwood City, California, launched its first faux meat patty over two years ago. A genetically modified yeast creates the key ingredient, called heme, which makes the patties appear to bleed and taste like real meat.

Burger King is not the first to serve up a no-meat burger. Smaller U.S. chains including White Castle, Red Robin and Fatburger have already included Impossible burgers on their menus.

Also, Los Angeles-based Beyond Meat launched a plant-based Beyond Meat Burger last July at Canadian burger chain A+W, and in early January announced a similar burger at U.S. fast-food chain Carl’s Jr.

A+W sold out of the burger at many of its Canadian restaurants that summer, but by October pledged a consistent supply. Earlier this month the chain — Canada’s second-biggest burger chain by number of stores — also launched a Beyond Meat breakfast sandwich featuring plant-based breakfast sausage.

Beyond Meat counts actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Microsoft founder Bill Gates as investors. It filed for an initial public offering in November.

Finazzo said Burger King also researched Beyond Meat, but decided that Impossible Foods’, which also counts Gates as an investor, offering was a better fit. “Around the taste, around the brand recognition, around the price, all those things were important factors in choosing Impossible,” he said.

Impossible Foods tailored a patty specifically for the Whopper, CEO Pat Brown said.

“We’re now in well over 6,000 restaurants. If the Burger King launch is as successful as I expect it to be, and we go nationwide, that will add more than 7,000 restaurants that serve the Impossible Burger,” Brown said.

Impossible also counts Google Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Horizons Ventures and Singapore-based investment firm Temasek as investors. Impossible has been making inroads in Asia as well.

Last year total U.S. retail sales of plant-based meat substitutes grew over 23 percent to exceed $760 million, according to Nielsen sales data analyzed by The Good Food Institute, a non-profit promoting plant-based alternatives to animal products.

Burger King rivals, food conglomerates and meat packers are cooking up more plant-based burgers. McDonald’s, the world’s biggest fast-food chain, sells soy-based burgers in Finland and Sweden. Tyson Foods has a stake in Beyond Meat.

Nestle is planning to debut its “Incredible Burger” soon in Europe. Unilever late last year announced its acquisition of The Vegetarian Butcher to build out its plant-based portfolio.

— Jane Lanhee Lee is a writer and producer for Reuters in San Francisco. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

The post ‘Impossible’ meatless patty gets Burger King Whopper test appeared first on Farmtario.