In a proposed class action, Phillip Williams said he bought an Impossible Whopper, a plant-based alternative to Burger King’s regular Whopper, at an Atlanta drive-thru, and would not have paid a premium price had he known the cooking would leave it “coated in meat byproducts.”

The lawsuit filed in Miami federal court seeks damages for all U.S. purchasers of the Impossible Whopper, and an injunction requiring Burger King to “plainly disclose” that Impossible Whoppers and regular burgers are cooked on the same grills.

Burger King, a unit of Toronto-based Restaurant Brands International, declined to comment, saying it does not discuss pending litigation.

Its website describes the Impossible Burger as “100 per cent Whopper, zero per cent Beef,” and adds that “for guests looking for a meat-free option, a non-broiler method of preparation is available upon request.”

Williams’ lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the disclaimer or the available cooking options.

Impossible Foods, which helped create the Impossible Whopper, has said it designed the product for meat eaters who want to consume less animal protein, not for vegans or vegetarians.

“For people who are strictly vegan, there is a microwave prep procedure that they’re welcome to ask for in any store,” Dana Worth, Impossible Foods’ head of sales, said in a recent interview.

Burger King began selling the Impossible Whopper in August.

Restaurant Brands, which also owns Canadian coffee and restaurant chain Tim Hortons and U.S. chicken chain Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, is overseen by Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital.

— Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York and Richa Naidu in Chicago.

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Toronto-based Pizza Pizza on Monday launched its Super Plant Pizza, billed as “the first plant-based protein topping recipe available on the menu.”

The company said it partnered with Yves Veggie Cuisine and Greenleaf Foods’ Field Roast Grain Meat Co. to provide it with plant-based pepperoni and plant-based chorizo crumble respectively.

The chain launched a gluten-free vegan cauliflower crust option in July last year, having already added dairy-free vegan cheese, made by Greek processor Violife, to its menu items in early 2017.

“Most people personalize their pizza and consumers want options; that’s something we’ve continually offered consumers,” Alyssa Huggins, the chain’s vice-president for marketing, said in a release.

“With the launch of the Super Plant Pizza and the plant-based protein options we are responding to our customers’ ever-changing needs, namely the flexitarian movement, but also growth in consumers identifying as vegan or vegetarian.”

Paul Goddard, the chain’s CEO, said it “will continue to create flexible options to suit all dietary preferences as we look to the future.”

Pizza Pizza’s royalty pool at the end of March included 660 Pizza Pizza restaurants and 112 Pizza 73 restaurants across the country. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The new burger, called “the Imposter Burger,” will have a fillet made from a meat substitute product, Quorn, instead of its classic chicken breast fillet, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

Plant-based substitutes for meat have been all the rage as more people shift toward vegan or vegetarian diets, amid growing concerns about health risks from eating meat, animal welfare and the environmental hazards of intensive animal farming.

KFC said the burger is being tested in London, Bristol and the Midlands for four weeks before it decides to roll it out nationally.

KFC is hoping to replicate the success that British bakery chain Greggs has witnessed with its wildly popular vegan sausage rolls.

In April, McDonald’s started selling burgers in Germany with a patty made from soy and wheat, while Del Taco launched “Beyond Taco” in late April, using U.S.-based Beyond Meat’s plant-based protein.

— Reporting for Reuters by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bangalore.

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A+W Food Services of Canada on Thursday announced a July 9 release date for what it’s dubbed the Beyond Meat Burger at all its restaurants across the country, in what CEO Susan Senecal called “the fastest new-product launch in our history.”

The new sandwich’s protein patties will be supplied by Los Angeles-area processor Beyond Meat, whose Beyond Beef burger lines are made with pea protein.

The supply deal with A+W makes the 925-outlet burger chain the “largest restaurant partner yet” for Beyond Meat, which today sells its Beyond Beef and Beyond Chicken burgers, sausages, strips and beef-style crumble for tacos and sauces through major retail grocery chains across the U.S.

Beyond Meat — which lists Tyson Foods, the Humane Society of the United States, Bill Gates, Biz Stone and Leonardo DiCaprio among its investors — last month announced plans to launch its product lines into 50 additional markets including Canada, the European Union, Australia and Korea among others.

Working with A+W “is a tremendous step forward for Beyond Meat and, correspondingly, consumers who are seeking broader access to healthy and sustainable options for the center of the plate,” Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown said in A+W’s release.

“When we tried the Beyond Meat Burger we were amazed with how great it tasted and knew we had to be the first national burger chain to bring it to Canadians across the country,” Senecal said Thursday in a release.

While Beyond Meat, on its website, describes its products as “100 per cent” vegan, A+W cautioned on its site that while its Beyond Meat burger is 100 per cent plant-based, all of the chain’s burger patties, including its beef patties, will still be cooked on the same grills, and its mayonnaise and Uncle sauce are made with eggs.

The chain, which already offers a Veggie Deluxe Burger made from vegetables and portobello mushrooms, stressed it remains “passionate about serving great beef.” It billed the Beyond Meat Burger as “great for all the vegetarians, flexitarians and even meat eaters who want more plant-based options in their diet.”

Beyond Meat describes its Beyond Beef product as “100 per cent pea protein,” in the form of pea protein isolates, assembled using a proprietary system applying heat, cooling and pressure to align plant proteins “in the same fibrous structures that you’d find in animal proteins.”

A+W, on its website, lists its burger’s ingredients as including yellow peas, providing “most of the protein,” plus coconut oil, pomegranate, potato, apple, rice, beet for colour and mung bean for texture.

Other ingredients Beyond Meat lists in its burger patties include amaranth, “expeller-pressed” canola oil, soy fibre, carrot fibre, dipotassium phosphate, caramel colouring, yeast extract and proprietary beef flavouring.

The A+W chain in recent years has sought to position itself as providing ingredients “farmed with care,” including beef from cattle “raised without the use of hormones or steroids,” chicken and pork “raised without the use of antibiotics” and chicken and eggs from layer hens fed a “vegetarian diet without animal byproducts.” It recently rolled out a “wild-caught cod burger” as a limited-time menu item.

Since its launch in 2013 the chain’s beef policy has run afoul of some livestock producers and other vocal critics, such as former Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall.

Some argued the campaign could mislead consumers about the safety or quality of conventional beef. Others noted that while the chain’s beef supply lines still include Canadian producers, it had to step outside Canada to source enough beef to fulfill the new policy. — AGCanada.com Network

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