McDonald's Reveals Why McPlant Burger Was Discontinued

Throughout its more than 80 years in business, McDonald's has only ever offered a plant-based burger in the United States for a brief period between 2021 and 2022. Years after pulling it from menus across the country, the fast-food giant has finally revealed why the offering failed to take hold in its American restaurants.

Officially named the "McPlant," the burger was developed in collaboration with Beyond Meat and made from meat-free ingredients such as peas, rice, and potatoes. McDonald's initially launched the burger as a test item in Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, and the United Kingdom and saw good results in the European markets. It then rolled the burger out to eight of its American stores in late 2021.

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The early days of McDonald's McPlant test in the U.S. looked promising. Sales of the burger surpassed what analysts had expected, and McDonald's decided to expand the McPlant to about 600 additional American restaurants in Feb. 2022.

The release ended up being short-lived, however. McDonald's axed the plant-based burger from the U.S. restaurants in July 2022, less than a year after it first arrived.

The reason? McDonald's U.S. President Joe Erlinger said the McPlant simply wasn't popular enough. San Francisco and Dallas were among the cities where McDonald's tested the offering. However, according to Erlinger, it "was not successful in either market."

Past sales data supports this takeaway. In a June 2022 report, BTIG analyst Peter Saleh revealed that McDonald's restaurants in the Dallas-Fort Worth area only sold about 13 McPlant burgers daily despite having a goal of 40 to 60. Stores in more rural parts of Texas only sold a few sandwiches per day, while sales in San Francisco fell at the low end of their projection of 125-300 sandwiches per week, Saleh said.

This has led McDonald's to conclude that Americans aren't all that interested in the McPlant or "other plant-based proteins," Erlinger said. So, McDonald's fans who've been hoping for a plant-based burger option in the United States will be out of luck for the forseeable future.

In good news for McDonald's customers across the pond, the burger has performed better in Europe and is currently available at all McDonald's stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland, QSR Magazine reported.