KFC’S new finger lickin’ good ‘chicken’ is made from plants

United States

Kentucky Fried Chicken yesterday began testing menu items that Colonel Sanders could never have imagined: chicken substitutes made from plants.

The trial, at a single restaurant in a suburb of Atlanta, has potentially momentous implications for the fast food chain as it grapples with a lurch away from meat-eating by consumers.

Global sales of meat substitutes hit $19.5 billion ($NZ30.7B) in 2018, according to Euromonitor, a market research company. Increased concerns among customers about the environment impact of rearing livestock, has made companies that produce alternatives to meat some of the most talked-about businesses in America this year.

Impossible Foods, a Silicon Valley start-up, now supplies its ‘‘bleeding’’ plant burgers to more than 7000 Burger King outlets and more than 5000 other restaurants in the US and Asia.

In May one of its rivals, another Californian company called Beyond Meat, made the strongest stock market debut of any US listing since the 2008 financial crisis. Beyond Meat is now KFC’S partner in producing the ‘‘plant-based chicken’’ nuggets and ‘‘boneless wings’’ for the restaurant in Smyrna, Georgia.

KFC has not divulged what is in the meatless chicken beyond saying that it is made from wheat protein coated in a proprietary breading. Beyond Meat’s website lists its burger ingredients as including pea, rice and mung bean proteins, water, salt, canola and coconut oils, potato starch, lemon juice, beetroot juice and pomegranate powder. – The Times