McDonald’s McTests the McVegan in (Mc)Finland

Are you vegan or vegetarian? Are any of your friends, classmates, or family?

Studies show that over the last few years, more and more people in North America are eating less and less meat. In many cases, this just means cutting back on how much meat is consumed. But in others, it means becoming either vegetarian (no meat at all) or vegan (an entirely plant-based diet without any meat or animal-based products, such as eggs or dairy.) After all, vegetables can be pretty temping in their own right...

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So hungry...sorry, where were we? Yes! Speaking of cutting back on meat, guess what?

McDonald's is going McVegan!

Is this Finnish feast a new beginning?

Okay, they're still serving meat. And its just happening in one European city.

But since October 11, select McDonald's restaurants in Tampere, Finland have been getting a one month trail of the McVegan. Here's a Finnish ad for it...

#mcvegan #Finland #veganmcdonalds pic.twitter.com/mijLhectuY

— Amanda Mckay (@amanda__mckay) October 4, 2017

Tampere is the country's second largest city. Since 2012, McDonald's restaurants in Finland have already offered a number of vegetarian-friendly options. But the McVegan burger is its boldest move yet.

The 100% plant-based burger comes with a soy patty, vegan McFeast sauce (many sauces use either eggs or dairy), ketchup, mustard, fresh tomato, lettuce, onion and pickle slices. And the reviews are pretty good, too, with reports that some of the McDonald's locations in Tampere were selling out because of high demand.

Plant-based in our home base?

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Testing can take time. McCafe was first tested in Australia before reaching North America. (Getty Embed)

Testing new menu options around the world is nothing new for McDonald's. In fact, some French locations recently got Le Grande Veggie burger, which features a patty made from carrots and other root vegetables. And based on how the trial in Tampere goes, all of Finland could get the McVegan in 2018 some time.

This all leads to a natural question: Will it come to North America?

McDonald's has a history of testing out new menu ideas in certain parts of the world before they before more common everywhere. So maybe. But these changes can take time. For example, the McCafe coffee brand may be a fairly new thing in North America, but it was first started in Australia all the way back in 1993!

Still as we said earlier, plant-based diets are growing quickly in popularity in North America. This may be a trend that the chain doesn't feel like it can wait long on. And sure, McDonald's is never going to be health food. But don't be surprised, veggie lovers, if going to McDonald's becomes a little bit tastier in the near future.