American fast-food chain, Hardee’s Restaurants, is to trial Beyond Meat’s plant-based burgers and sausages from October 28 – Bloomberg reports.
The eatery, which is owned by CKE Restaurants, is said to be testing a Beyond Thickburger and Beyond Sausages on a Hardee’s biscuit – using recipes exclusive to Hardee’s.
‘A brand new guest’
Carl Jr. – a chain also under CKE – welcomed the Beyond Burger in more than 1,000 locations across the US last year – allowing customers to veganize the dish by asking for no cheese or mayonnaise.
“We’ve learned that we’re reaching a brand new guest, an incremental guest, that we hadn’t touched prior to launching it,” said Owen Klein, Vice President of Global Culinary Innovation at CKE. “Since late 2018 when we launched, we’ve sold over 4 million Beyond patties at Carl’s Jr., and a lot of them were to new faces that didn’t frequent Carl’s Jr. prior to that launch.”
Petition
Earlier this month, an online petition urging Hardee’s to welcome the Beyond Burger exceeded 13,000 signatures – with the petition’s creator, Alisha Vavilakolanu, claiming the chain ‘fails to offer healthier options without animal cruelty involved’.
“There has been rapidly increasing consumer demand for the Beyond Burger and Hardee’s is falling behind the times and missing a huge opportunity by not offering plant-based options,” Vavilakolanu states.
“Restaurants including TGI Fridays, BurgerFi and A&W are offering Beyond Burgers as a way to be plant-based accessible and tap into the growing demand and popularity of plant-based eating.”