Brief: Beyond Meat signs global supply deals with McDonald’s, KFC & Pizza Hut

• US plant-based protein company Beyond Meat has signed global supply deals with fast food firms McDonald’s and Yum! Brands.
• The three-year strategic agreement with McDonald’s will see Beyond Meat become the ‘preferred supplier’ of patties for the fast food chain’s new McPlant plant-based burger.
• Under their separate strategic partnership, Beyond Meat and Yum! Brands will co-develop a range of exclusive plant-based protein menu items for the latter’s KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell chains.

Why it matters:

Bruce Friedrich, executive director of the Good Food Institute, said in comments sent to AFN that the two deals represent “the clearest sign yet that the future of meat will be plant-based.”

“The world’s largest restaurant chains are placing plant-based meat directly on the plates of millions of customers around the world,” he said.

“With more restaurants and revenue than any other food chains on the planet, McDonald’s and Yum! Brands will bring plant-based meat onto the mainstream menus of millions of people. When these restaurant chains move, the entire food industry takes notice.”

The deals mark a significant expansion of Beyond Meat’s partnering strategy, which has seen it launch limited trials in multiple foodservice chains across North America, including some run by Yum! Brands.

Internationally, the Los Angeles-based company has already partnered with Yum China – which operates KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell restaurants in the country – as well as coffee chain Starbucks to pilot its plant-based protein with Chinese consumers last year.