Adoption of vegan and vegetarian food in people’s diets has witnessed a substantial growth recently due to environment consciousness and the healthy living trend. This is driving global fast food chains to enter the vegan food sector and also offer tasty vegetarian and vegan iterations of popular food products to capitalize on the new revenue pocket of health conscious customers. 

McDonald’s Corporation, the multinational American fast food firm, became the latest to conform to this trend when it reportedly announced the launch of its newest ‘P.L.T.’ burger in collaboration with Beyond Meat, plant-based meat substitutes producer based in California. The P.L.T. stands for plant, lettuce and tomato and marks the fast food giant’s first entry in the vegan food market.

McDonald's stated that it would start selling the PLT, in over 28 restaurants across Canada for 12 weeks by the end of September.

McDonald's added that it created a special recipe that uses burgers of Beyond Meat, which uses pea protein, beet juice, canola oil and some other ingredients to make the plant-based burger patty that tastes like meat.

The burgers are not particularly aimed at vegetarians or vegans, but for meat eaters who prefer plant-based eating since it is healthier as well as more environmentally conscious. Reports cite, 61 percent of meat eaters in the United States order sometimes vegetarian or vegan food at restaurants.

Animal rights organization, PETA stated that it is happy to about the emerging trend of plant-based options on the fast food menus.

McDonald's hasn’t made any significant inroads in the vegan food sector, choosing to sit on the sidelines instead. However, other fast-food businesses like Carl's Jr., Burger King and White Castle have jumped into the plant-based burger business already.

Just six months ago, Burger King launched its vegan burger Impossible Whopper, which is massively successful, now McDonald's is ready to recreate that success through its own vegan invention. McDonald's released the meatless P.L.T. sandwich in Southwestern Ontario for $6.46 CAD on September 30. McDonald's hopes that the new meatless burger will also bring in new customers that typically do not visit the establishment.

The limited release of P.L.T. is a part of the 12-week test conducted to gain feedback from both employees and customers.

Source credit: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/116191427/mcdonalds-finally-takes-a-nibble-of-the-meatless-burger-with-its-plt