With the help of PR and marketing firm Red Consultancy, on 9th October last year, 2024 McDonalds announced in a big PR marketing extravaganza their first ever £5 meal deal.
The marketing said something like you no longer have to eat a boring sandwich and crisps if you are on a budget.
Great, I thought. I don’t go to McDonalds that often but I do enjoy a plant burger from time to time on the go, at the end of the month usually when money is tight.
I have waited and waited for a vegetarian, vegan option to be included in the offer. I went to McDonalds on Friday 14th January; 2025 after several complaints about the offer only including a chicken sandwich or a cheeseburger.
What about all the rest of us I said especially in January when more and more people are trying to give up meat at least for one month a year.
The same meal deal “plant based” costs approximately £3 more.
I don’t understand why McDonalds wouldn’t include the Mc Plant burger in the offer to encourage everyone to at least try it.
They might find they’ll have a few more converts. You get exactly the same fast food fix without the carbon footprint.
We’ve already seen McDonalds raise millions of pounds to help sick children and their families and consciously reuse their cooking oil to power their fleet of trucks, it would be great to see them being a bit more inclusive and at the same time encouraging everyone to try a little plant based.
Update February 2026
I’ve been to few McDonalds lately and discovered the McPlant is no longer available in all locations. When I looked online I found out the vegan McDonald options had already been phased out in the US with only some UK locations still offering the McPlant burger. For veggie and vegans it seems the McDonald options won’t be available for long so if you enjoy the vegan burger from McDonalds get it while you can. Obvious now why the McPlant was never included in the offers. The meal with medium fries and a bottled water costs around £7.50 (as opposed to £5.00 for a Big Mac) maybe the reason why it’s had to phased out.
As of Feb, 2026 McDonald’s UK has dropped most of the items on its meat-free menu according to Plant Based News
The fast-food chain recently confirmed that it had cut the majority of its meat-free offerings from UK stores, citing poor sales.