Major Menu Changes That May Completely Change Burger King By 2030

if you were to take the modern fast-food menu from any fast-food restaurant and look back at what it was like just a few decades ago, you might be surprised at what was served. In the late 1970s, before the rise of the McNugget, McDonald's briefly sold chunks of deep-fried onions known as Onion Nuggets. In the mid-1990s, Pizza Hut experimented with a "Bigfoot Pizza," which Retroist describes as a gigantic two square feet of pizza sold for just over $10. But just how did these menus evolve and change over time to become the menus we've familiarized ourselves with today? With how fast the fast food market evolves, one can only imagine what will be on the menu only a decade or two from now.

Burger King, however, doesn't want to wait that long to share its vision of what its menus will be like in the year 2030 and beyond. The Guardian reports that, following a brief trial of an entirely vegan location in London, Burger King predicts that it will soon have a 50% meatless menu in just eight years. This will involve a shift away from beef and chicken to plant-based alternatives, which in turn will lead to an increased focus on vegan Whoppers and nuggets.

But could Burger King truly ditch the beef? And if so, will other companies join them?

How exactly can a market built around beef and chicken survive without those two key components? According to some, fast food can thrive even without relying on meat, but it will require an intense focus on going vegan (if at least partially) in order to keep afloat. As Bloomberg reports, the market for plant-based foods certainly isn't a fledgling one. By 2030, coincidentally the same year Burger King plans to be 50% vegan, the plant-based market is projected to be a staggering $162 billion, a lucrative investment for fast food restaurants. If companies want to reap such profits, they'll have to work to make themselves more attractive to the vegetarian market. Business Insider notes that many fast food companies have begun to revamp their efforts in selling "plant-based" goods, ranging from McDonald's to Chipotle to even the poultry-focused KFC. Burger King, in particular, launched vegan plant-based nuggets back in October, with a mixture of soy and plant-based proteins replacing the chicken.

It's important to note, however, that just because the menu would be vegan, it wouldn't automatically be healthy. Burger King's most notable vegan item, the Impossible Whopper, was noted for being very similar in taste and texture to the original Whopper in a review by Thrillist, but also being high in fat and heavily processed. It would seem that fast food, be it meaty or meatless, will still have many of the same drawbacks as it always has.