I enjoy eating meat. Where possible, I greatly enjoy ribs. I have regular twinges about eating meat, both because of its environmental impact and because it requires killing animals – I am not on the verge of ceasing to eat meat, but my family and I have been trying to reduce the carbon footprint of our diet.
So what did I think?
I was impressed. While I could just about tell that it was not meat, I am not sure it would have been as obvious in a blind taste test.
So how do they compare to the meat? Well a mcplant has a carbon footprint of 0.12kg (and I would hope that over time this would drop further. Comparing it to the meat patties, each of the meat patties in the big mac weigh 90g and have emissions of roughly 2 kg (the whole sandwich has emissions of 2.35kg).
Now it is true that a big mac has 2 patties, but that suggests that a mcplant big mac would have a carbon footprint of about 10% of that of a big mac. As a man, I believe that having eaten a Mcplant, I would have felt short changed – I would have still been hungry. If McDonalds creates a Big mcplant mac, I could imagine switching to it permanently.
It does currently come at a price premium, coming in at just short of £5, which given a large big mac meal is just £5.09, I would suggest is over priced. However, it is a good start.
So what did I think? I believe that if I went into Mcdonalds and was not very hungry, I would be very likely to get a Mcplant- It is of similar size to a quarter pounder with cheese, and has an identical price. Might Mcdonalds start doing Mcplant big macs, I might well change my standard order. My family have already replaced beef mince with poultry mince – I find it quite appealing that in the next few years we might reach a point where a trip to McDonalds can give me the meat taste I’m craving, without the guilt of being bad for the environment.
