"I don't think the US consumer is coming to McDonald's looking for the McPlant," the company's US president said.
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The McPlant is unlikely to return to McDonald's menus in the US anytime soon.
Trials of the product in Dallas and San Francisco failed because there simply wasn't enough demand for non-meaty burgers among American diners, Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald's US, said Wednesday at The Wall Street Journal's Global Food Forum.
The tests in the two cities were "not successful," Erlinger said, per Bloomberg.
"I don't think the US consumer is coming to McDonald's looking for the McPlant or other plant-based proteins," he said, per The Journal.
Tests of the burger in the US started in late 2021 and were expanded to hundreds of restaurants in California and Texas in early 2022. The McPlant patty, developed with Beyond Meat, was made from pea and rice proteins.
It was served with mayonnaise and American cheese and cooked on the same grills as meat products, meaning it wasn't vegan.
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McDonald's also rolled out the McPlant in other countries with greater success. In the UK, where the McPlant is certified as vegan and served with vegan cheese and sandwich sauce, it has been on menus since November 2021. The non-vegan version is also available in countries including Germany, the Netherlands, and Portugal.
It seems unlikely that the McPlant will be making a return to US menus. McDonald's is instead investing more in chicken, which is now more popular among its customers than beef, partly because it's cheaper, Erlinger said, per Bloomberg.
Beyond Meat, a leading producer of plant-based meat alternatives like burger patties, chicken, and sausages, has posted slumping sales in recent years after booming at the start of the pandemic.
The McPlant isn't the only thing gone from McDonald's menu. When it streamlined its operations at the start of the pandemic, McDonald's removed salads from its US restaurants — and more than four years later, they're yet to reappear.
There wasn't enough demand, and McDonald's doesn't plan on bringing them back to US menus nationally, Erlinger said Wednesday, per The Journal.
People wanting a healthy meal tend to turn to dedicated salad chains like Sweetgreen, Chop't, and Cava. Business Insider visited Cava's first Chicago restaurant three weeks after it opened and witnessed an hourlong line for its salad and grain bowls at 8 p.m. on a Friday.
"If people really want salads from McDonald's, we will gladly relaunch salads," Erlinger said at the Global Food Forum, per Bloomberg. "But what our experience has proven is that's not what the consumer's looking for."
