{"id":16813,"date":"2019-06-15T18:01:40","date_gmt":"2019-06-15T18:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=16813"},"modified":"2019-06-15T23:45:33","modified_gmt":"2019-06-15T23:45:33","slug":"a-vegan-meat-revolution-is-coming-to-global-fast-food-chains-and-it-could-help-save-the-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/a-vegan-meat-revolution-is-coming-to-global-fast-food-chains-and-it-could-help-save-the-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"A vegan meat revolution is coming to global fast food chains \u2013 and it could help save the planet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Malte R\u00f6dl<\/a>, University of Manchester<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

A few years ago, convincing meat-free \u201cmeat\u201d was nothing more than a distant dream for most consumers. Meat substitutes in supermarkets lacked variety and quality. Plant-based burgers were few and far between in major fast food outlets \u2013 and meaty they were not.<\/p>\n

But realistic alternatives to environmentally damaging<\/a> meat are now big business<\/a> \u2013 and global fast food chains are finally starting to take notice.<\/p>\n

Burger King has announced that after a hugely successful trial<\/a>, it will roll out its partnership with plant-based meat company Impossible Foods across the US<\/a>. McDonalds recently introduced the similarly meaty Big Vegan TS<\/a> in its outlets in Germany, one of its five largest international markets.<\/p>\n

Now finally able to produce meat-free imitations<\/a> that are for many indistinguishable<\/a> from their beefy counterparts, the rapidly growing industry appears set to make serious waves in the once impregnable bastions of cheap meat. In so doing, it could kickstart a rapid decline in meat\u2019s contribution to the climate crisis \u2013 driven not just by a global minority of vegans and vegetarians, but by millions of meat-eaters too.<\/p>\n

Joining the meatless burger bandwagon<\/h2>\n

Thanks to rising interest in food technology<\/a> from Silicon Valley\u2019s start-up scene, such indistinguishable vegan meat came on the menu a little over five years ago<\/a>.
\nHelped by huge investments<\/a>, sophisticated marketing<\/a>, and a friendly regulatory environment, US companies leaped to the forefront of vegan meat innovation. Products such as the Impossible Burger and the Beyond Burger<\/a> soon entered into many smaller US restaurants and fast food outlets, before Burger King made it widely available across the country.<\/p>\n