Fast food industry expands menus to meat alternatives.

By Alyssa Garcia

Photo by Carlsjr.com

Many fast food restaurants such as Carl’s Jr, Burger King, and Del Taco are starting to expand their menus, welcoming many meat alternatives.

Due to its high demands it seems that the food industry is trying to become part of the trend, which is a victory for vegetarians and vegans.

They now have more access to foods they can eat in many well known and accessible fast food restaurants around them.

Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are served in almost 20,000 restaurants across the country, and the list of restaurant chains responding to perceived consumer demand is growing daily.

In 2019 Carl’s Jr introduced their Beyond Famous Star which is a plant based version of their Famous Star burger. At the start of 2020 they expanded their plant based options by adding their Beyond Breakfast, which is comprised of a meat alternative breakfast burrito and breakfast sandwich.

Burger King introduced their meat alternative of their Whopper known as their Impossible Whopper in 2019. Del taco introduced their line of Beyond tacos and burritos back in 2019 as well.

The demand for vegan burgers and alternative meat is a trend. Trend or not the demand for it is still growing. What is so great about these meat alternatives? Well one of the main reasons people tend to enjoy these products is because it is something that is similar to what it’s not. Or in simpler terms, it tastes like meat but it is not meat!

Beyond meat is one of the growing companies behind meat alternatives. Their products are used in many dining and fast food restaurants such as Carl’s Jr, Denny’s, Del Taco, and Red Robin. Their mission at Beyond Meat, is to create a line of plant based products that are not only beneficial to human health and environment, but also something that tastes great.

People are getting the best of both worlds by choosing these meat alternatives. There are still growing studies finding the health benefits of choosing meat alternatives, but in the mean time it is still saving animals lives as well as helping the environment by limiting greenhouse gas emissions, cumulative energy demand (energy use), water use, and land use — with those from typical beef production in the U.S. A.