V-STORY

Checking out the vegan options at 5 fast food chains in Germany

Johannes Holster

How vegan are the big fast food chains in reality?

Many people eat burgers, fried chicken, pizza and other fast foods on a regular basis. Whether we like it or not, fast food is as much a part of our everyday lives as social media, or going to the hairdresser.

At the same time, the green world of vegan food is growing every day. Awareness about the environment and animal welfare, coupled with health-related motivations, are making many consumers rethink their habits. This has led to small and medium-sized businesses being founded which support this development, and meet the demand which has been created. Larger, well-known businesses have adapted, too, and have started including plant-based options in their ranges. Even the really big chains – the giants of fast food, with their world-famous logos and branches around the globe – have joined in. We wanted to know exactly what things look like in reality, so we put the chains to the test. What are the big players up to? What can vegans expect to eat at the “big M” and its competitors (in Germany)?

The family doing the testing

Let’s start with the big shots. How are the global fast food chains doing when it comes to moving away from animal products? Is there a trend towards plant-based alternatives in the chain restaurant sector, too?

McDonald’s, Burger King and the other big chains have big advertising budgets – and that includes advertising for their plant-based options. It’s precisely these options that we at Velivery wanted to take a closer look at – because advertising is one thing, but what actually ends up on your plate is often slightly different.

At short notice, we managed to find a family willing to be guinea pigs for an entirely non-representative field study.¹ That family is us. To be precise, that means Hanna and me, Johannes, from Velivery’s editorial team, along with our three-year-old daughter Madita and our au pair, Eti, from Indonesia. Our son Kuno came along too, of course, even though he’s only a few months old, so he was more interested in the colorful lights and billboards than in the food being sampled.

Some in our family are vegan, while others are flexitarian, so we decided to take on the challenge of comparing the plant-based products to the originals they were imitating. These days, anything goes – so off we go to our first destination!

McDonald’s – let the plant-based battle commence!

First stop: McDonald’s. The company with a global turnover of more than 23 billion (!) dollars has chosen to advertise its McPlant® Burger and McPlant® Nuggets as soon as you step into the sales area. So, straight away, we felt like we had come to the right place. Once we had taken our order to a table, we initially couldn’t tell the difference between the plant-based options and the conventional meals. They smelled and looked similar – just as you would expect a McDonald’s meal to smell and look. The plant-based burger reminded us of the meat-based original, and we all liked it a lot. Next, it was time for the nuggets. We had our resident nugget specialist with us, who is almost impossible to sway when it comes to food. Madita didn’t take long to pass judgment, and her decision was unambiguous: the plant-based nuggets weren’t up to standard. Of course, we hadn’t told her which nuggets were supposedly plant-based, and which weren’t. But according to her, there was a clear difference: “I don’t like the ones with the green writing. The others are cool.” Even though green is one of her favorite colors, her judgment had been passed, and was unambiguous and irrevocable.

The biggest surprise was what happened next. When we asked, we were told that even the McPlant meals are not 100% vegan. For example, the cheese on the Plant Burger is the same as on all the other burgers – which means it’s made from animal products. The sauces that come with the nuggets aren’t vegan either, apparently, but even the branch manager wasn’t able to give any more detail, other than to say: “Nothing on offer here is completely vegan.”

A veggie crown for Burger King?

A few days later, once we’d given our stomachs and tastebuds time to recover, we made our way to the big M’s main rival, Burger King. Here, too, the display boards above the counters feature advertising for the Veggie Kings (as Burger King’s plant-based range is known here in Germany). Our first impression is that there’s considerably more to be tried out here.

We had a choice of 11 veggie burgers, in addition to the plant-based nuggets. This time, our nugget specialist’s judgment was somewhat more lenient. In terms of taste, the meat-based and meatless nuggets were very similar. Madita couldn’t detect much of a difference between them, and enjoyed both.

The burgers won us over, too, with the typical Whopper flair that we know so well from Burger King. In particular our dear Eti could hardly believe that the burgers weren’t made from real beef. Even when we tasted the meat-based and plant-based burgers one after the other, none of us could really tell the difference.

However, the plant-based alternatives at Burger King weren’t 100% vegan either. Many of the sauces used contain egg and dairy. At least the mayonnaise is completely plant-based. This shows that Burger King is doing a little bit more than its rival to make the most of the great potential of products on our growing vegan market. So, our comparison of the two burger giants has identified a clear winner. Burger King has a much larger range of plant-based alternatives, and some of its secondary ingredients are also vegan. Overall, however, our group was somewhat disappointed that neither Burger King nor McDonald’s is making use of the possibilities that are out there to use purely vegan ingredients.

KFC – will there be plant-based fried chicken?

As we move on to the next fast food giant, our reviews don’t show any signs of becoming any less mixed than at the big burger chains. With twelve veggie dishes, Kentucky Fried Chicken also has a relatively large selection of plant-based food on offer. Their veggie chicken burger (known as Colonel TS), wraps and salads with vegetarian chicken pieces make a good first impression. Our resident nugget expert, who doesn’t mince her words, was very happy. The veggie products tasted very similar to the conventional ones.

But once again, when we asked which items in the range were vegan, the answer we got was very sobering. None of the items on offer was labeled as 100% vegan. While the range might well represent a step in the right direction for chickens, vegans won’t be 100% satisfied here.

Huts off to Pizza Hut – 100% vegan isn’t impossible after all

The last two stops on our journey through the fast food landscape show that it is possible to have vegan dishes on offer. Both Pizza Hut and Subway have real, genuine vegan options!

As the veggie dishes often hadn’t been quite what they seemed until now, we were very happy to find that Pizza Hut flies the green flag of vegan indulgence, and labels its products VEGAN in good conscience.

The pizzeria with the red hat even has three 100% plant-based pizzas on offer. The Tuscany Spicy Vegan, Vegan Lovers and Vegan Farmers pizzas are indeed what they say they are. Only plant-based products are used to make them – and that includes the “cheese that isn’t really cheese” on top. The vegan pizzas smell, taste and look just like the conventional pizzas. In our blind taste test, none of us was able to taste any difference. All of the dishes we tested had the same, typical Pizza Hut flavor and the same consistency on the outside and on top.

While there was one vegan pasta dish which wasn’t yet available from the Hamburg branch, the friendly saleswoman behind the counter told us that it should be available soon.

By no means sub-standard – full marks for Subway

Our little team of guinea pigs were also very happy with the sandwich shop which shares its name with the American metro. Subway’s plant-based options really are very presentable!The company labels the vegan options on its menus with a clear, slick green “V”. This makes it easy to find the Meatless Chicken Teriyaki, Veggie Delite and Spicy Vegan Patty Subs. We go for potato bites as a side, and for Madita we order the Veggie Delite Sub as part of the Kids’ Pak. Expert Madita has no objections! Subway gets full marks from us!

Key takeaways about the takeaways

Our family’s small-scale vegan experiment was full of light and shade. At the end of the day, what we learned was that not everything that glitters “green and veggie” in the adverts is necessarily vegan! In general, we think it certainly is positive if plant-based alternatives to conventional products are available. But watch out when you’re buying fast food! 😉 Even if there are vegan ingredients involved, the sauces are often not vegan, for example. What’s more, the workspaces and machinery used to make the products are often the same as for the dishes containing animal products. Overall, however, we think things are going in the right direction.

We were especially impressed by Subway and Pizza Hut, which both have real vegan food on offer. So, next time you’re craving fast food, look closely and, if in doubt, ask. But if food is explicitly labeled as vegan, you can trust that it really is vegan. As for us, we’ve certainly had our fair share of fast food for the foreseeable future! We prefer smaller restaurants using fresh ingredients which haven’t had to make their way through lengthy supply chains. And, especially after our slight junk food overdose, this is not about to change 😉 We do wolf down a burger or pizza occasionally, of course – especially when we’re on the go, in a hurry or have no alternative. At the end of the day, however, Madita likes home-cooked chicken nuggets best – especially the vegan ones from Velivery. After all, you simply can’t beat home-cooked food made by Mum and Dad!

Recipes

To sum it all up about our fast-food check: Your home-made vegan fast-food dishes probably are at least as good as those served in the big chains. Or maybe even better. 😉