A story about KFC as the top food story of 2019? Yes. Why? Because it is a testament to how the plant-based meat market exploded this year. Whereas a couple of years ago it would have been crazy to think that KFC, McDonald’s, or any traditional fast-food chain would offer meatless meat, this year it happened. And you know what? People went crazy for it. Below you can find the original story.
Last week we published a little story about how KFC was on the verge of becoming the first fast-food chain to serve meatless chicken. Working together with a plant-based food company, Beyond Meat, KFC wanted to find out whether or not people would actually be interested in eating faux-chicken by offering it at a single KFC franchise in Atlanta for a day.
That test-run happened earlier this week, and the results are pretty unbelievable. An endless stream of cars and pedestrians wrapped around the restaurant for hours waiting up to an hour and the plant-based chicken sold out in less than five hours. The store announced that they sold as much plant-based chicken in those five frantic hours as their usual popcorn chicken sales for a full week—a testament to the appeal of plant-based meat alternatives.
It’s a huge step forward for both KFC and Beyond Meat — and for chickens, nearly 50 billion of which are raised in factory farms in the US annually.
This story was one of the best from 2019, and we are happy to include it in our “12 Days of Optimism” as we welcome in the new year!
