Vegan fast food restaurants going mainstream?

[VeganUnderstand.com]

Hi guys, so the other day I was looking for Vegan Fast Food around my city (Madrid), and this got me thinking. When will fast food chains start promoting vegan menus?

As big companies, it even turns out to be quite the profitable catch for these people to replace meat ingredients for plant-based ones, and there is already a public willing to and waiting to have some of this action...
To my surprise, I found in Madrid a few Vegan restaurants all over the city, but no fast food chain would provide any vegan dish - other than fries which puts me in doubt whether or not the oil they use is even clean (of course I'm talking about the big names out there: McD, BurgerK, and so on).

Browsing through the web, I actually found a vid on these guys discussing how Wendy's is looking into making a vegan burger - which is quite the positive note. So I'm opening the discussion here for you the share whether or not you have vegan menus on your fast food restaurants or not, what do you think? Will it be possible? Or will fast food extinguish and let room for the smaller restaurants to take the spotlight?

 

[Lou]

Huh.
Well, we have discussed aspects of this phenomena several times in this forum.

This thread started off good but eventually went off the tracks and ended up in a fiery crash. Not interested in reviving it but it did start off good.
https://veganforum.org/threads/here-is-something-to-ponder.3440/#post-19220

My opinion is that any news, food product, menu item, innovation is basically a good thing for veganism. But not necessarily for vegans. Fast food and prepared frozen meals are almost always highly processed foods. They are designed to be tasty and usually have higher than necessary levels of sodium, and/or sugar, and/or fat.

These types of products/trends/innovations are great in that every time a non-vegan buys one it means less demand for animal products. Also (I'm not sure there is any evidence of this but it makes sense to me), that it might make going vegan, or vegetarian, or flexitarian more appealing to the mainstream.

I also think for a lot of people who start thinking or experimenting with a vegan lifestyle, they do become vegan. Certainly, it's true that few people become vegan without first thinking or experimenting with a vegan lifestyle. So the more publicity veganism gets and the more opportunity for trying vegan food - the better.

Some of the flashiest news stories this year included *

Costco actually taking non-vegan meals off the menu to make room for vegan ones.
Taco Bell putting the word vegetarian right on the menu board and not just on the internet menu.
White Castle selling millions of Beyond Burgers
The huge media splash of the impossible burger

There were also some interesting experiments. I think it was Burger King who has something Vegan in Scandinavia. and KFC who did something in India. And I'm pretty sure McD is trying something somewhere.

Oh, and as far as vegan food at fast food places - right now. here is a good article to read.
https://vegnews.com/2017/11/15-vegan-hacks-for-your-favorite-fast-food-joints-1
I think PETA has something similar.

 

[Forest Nymph]

I think the UK currently has the most vegan fast food choices. They introduced a ton of vegan convenience foods and corporate fast food as vegan this month.

In California we have some around LA and San Francisco. Taco Bell has been able to be veganized for a long time though you just kinda have to know their menu options.

The demand just has to be there. It is odd to me when huge global fast food chains only introduce vegan products in the UK, Israel or Japan, I mean why not test it out elsewhere but I don't know.

Some vegans won't buy anything from a corporate chain so that factors in as well.

 

[Forest Nymph]

Oh I forgot that Carl's Jr just started selling the Beyond Burger in the US, which is good but they're mainly on the West coast.