Where's the beef? Not in BK's new product

Burger King® Corporation went to Battle Creek, hardly the center of the beef business, for their new BK VEGGIE® Burger. The center piece of the faux burger comes from the cereal cities Kellogg's Morningstar Farms division, the largest producer of what’s politely termed “meat analogs” in the U.S.

Burger King Corporation will be the only quick service restaurant to offer a vegetarian burger nationally; a marketing effort that proved a failure in the past for such heavyweights as McDonald’s who test marketed the idea about 5 years ago. BK plans to run the table, though, with a nationwide roll out by the end of the month. No word on the reaction from BK franchisees who operate about 90% of the chain’s restaurants.

Suggesting that the formulation might not be quite the same as Morningstar Farms supermarket product, a Kellogg spokesman said the patty is made with “the same good taste and healthy ingredients” as the retail veggie burger. Best guess: the patty was built to hit a price point that will let the burger sell competitively with real meat.

The marketing team at BK understands the vegetarian sensibilities, though, and the beefless burger will be cooked separately from meat products. With the number of serious vegetarians stagnating at less than 2% according to some estimates, the market potential may be just too small, though, for a QSR selling to a mass market.