Burger King UK is now offering its chicken-style Vegan Royale burger at a discounted price of £2.99 on Mondays, with the aim of encouraging more customers to try plant-based options.
It comes after a poll commissioned by the chain in collaboration with The Vegetarian Butcher found that 73% of meat-eaters wouldn’t choose a plant-based menu option, with 48% saying they don’t believe plant-based meat tastes as good as animal meat.
However, 31% said they would be more likely to choose a plant-based dish if they knew it tasted as good as the conventional option, while 38% said better value for money would make them more likely to order plant-based food.
Plant-based game show
To address the idea that plant-based options don’t taste as good, Burger King partnered with Joe Baggs, a former star of the TV show Gogglebox. The company set up a game show-style stand on the streets of London, where Baggs challenged passersby to taste burgers and guess whether they were meat or plant-based.
According to Burger King’s polling, 63% of people thought they would be able to easily tell the difference between meat and plant-based options, while 76% thought the taste would give the game away. But in reality, most participants on the street either believed they were eating meat or weren’t sure, even though all the burgers were in fact plant-based.
“The people of London enjoyed the challenge but most struggled to tell the difference, proving that these plant-based burgers do taste just as good as their meaty counterparts,” said Baggs.
Meat-free initiatives
In recent years, Burger King has become one of the most vegan-friendly fast food chains, working to make 50% of its menu plant-based by 2030. Worldwide, the company has tried several initiatives to boost the consumption of meat-free options, including making plant-based the default in Austria and offering meatless versions of every menu item in Germany. And the strategy seems to be working — a fifth of Whoppers sold in Germany now have a plant-based patty.
“With 47% of meat-eaters admitting they’d be more inclined to try plant-based if there was a deal, our tasty Meat Free Monday offer means there is no excuse not to kick start the week with a little more ‘flex’,” said a spokesperson for Burger King.
The offer is available via the Burger King app.
