Burger King becomes the first fast-food chain to test Impossible Foods' meatless nuggets
- Burger King will test Impossible Foods' meatless nuggets in several markets, making it the first fast-food chain to offer the company's new chicken alternative.
- The Restaurant Brands International chain first worked with Impossible Foods two years ago as the first fast-food chain to sell its meatless burgers.
- The test comes as traditional chicken meat becomes more expensive and harder to find.
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Burger King will test Impossible Foods' meatless nuggets in several markets, making it the first fast-food chain to offer the company's new chicken alternative.
Starting Monday, customers in Des Moines, Iowa, Boston and Miami will be able to try the plant-based Impossible Nuggets.
The Restaurant Brands International chain first worked with Impossible Foods two years ago as the first fast-food chain to sell its meatless burgers. After an initial lift to sales from the buzzy item, the chain cut its price, bringing it closer to a beef Whopper. Burger King's rival McDonald's has a partnership with Impossible's primary challenger Beyond Meat, although they haven't yet launched a plant-based item together nationwide in the U.S. yet.
For Burger King, the Impossible Nuggets offer a similar opportunity to the Impossible Whopper to drive traffic to its restaurants. While meat alternatives are more common on fast-food menus now, chicken substitutes are a rare find since both Impossible and Beyond only launched their iterations recently. Impossible began rolling out its meatless nuggets in restaurants and grocery stores in September, while Beyond's tenders hit restaurants in July.
The test comes as traditional chicken meat becomes more expensive and harder to find. According to Bank of America Securities, chicken commodity prices have doubled this year. Yum Brands' KFC stopped advertising its chicken tenders due a supply shortage last month.
Burger King also announced Wednesday that it will roll out Ghost Pepper Chicken Nuggets nationwide on Monday. Unlike the Impossible Nuggets, these are made with white meat chicken.
Shares of Restaurant Brands have risen less than 1% this year, giving it a market value of $28.5 billion.
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