While plant-based "meat" is taking over food shops in the U.S., it is almost impossible to find burgers made with real plants.
The menu often has beef, more beef, beef with bacon, some chicken if you do not want beef, and fish here and there—and now, you see things made to look and feel like beef, made from plants. It is very hard to find a fast-food burger made with beans, grains, or plants.
The fast burger is a big American food. There is a good feel for this kind of burger: a thin, brown, crisp piece of meat; cheese that feels and looks like plastic; small cuts of green stuff; some chopped onions, maybe bigger rings of onion; small bits of yellow sauce and red sauce; and green pickles, all on a soft bun. Many want to try a plant-based diet, so you would think a real plant burger would be easy to get.
Food shops put a lot of money into plant meat that tries to look like beef. Burger King used to have a soybean burger but dropped it for the Impossible Burger. Carl's Jr. and McDonald's do the same with other plant meat. These are good for some who eat less meat. But for people who want more plants, they do not work. Also, some do not want to eat or see food that is like meat, for their own reasons.
Real plant burgers use less from the earth and are better for many people. Tests show the fake plant meats from Impossible or Beyond use a lot less from the earth than beef or chicken, but they still use more than bean burgers.
New plant meats are made in big ways: Impossible uses soybeans changed by people; Beyond uses pea stuff. Many think these are healthy.
A food writer, Kate Taylor, says big food shops do not care about the price of new plant meats. The boss of these fake meat brands says the price will go down more in time. Then the shop will make more money on each burger, which they like.
Making room for real plant burgers is a small, hard thing. Their cook space is not big. McDonald's did not do all-day eggs for a long time, since there was not much room on the cooking thing. Shops are not sure how to cook meatless food, either. Burger King was found to cook their plant burgers on the same hot cook part as beef, making it not fully without meat.
But it can be done. Jamie Richardson at White Castle, a food shop that sells both kinds, says they use a different cooking part and a green turner so the two are kept apart.
"More foods on the menu was hard long ago, but now our kitchens can do more," said Richardson.
"Each time you start a new food, the shop owners must want to do it, too. They do not want new foods if people will not buy them," said Taylor. McDonald's took salads away last year. People wanted to eat more good foods, but few did. No one cared a lot.
When food shops do not give real plant burgers, they lose many people. People who want meat-type plant foods are not the same as people who want food that is not at all like meat. "We found at White Castle that each burger has its fans," Richardson said.