Have you tried a Burger King meatless/vegan Impossible Whopper yet? I did! It tasted good, it should for 630 calories, but it was somewhat dry because I had to get mine microwaved, since I am allergic to beef and they’re prepared in the same broilers as regular Whoppers. (More on their cooking process here.) Burger King markets their Impossible Whoppers as a vegan alternative to beef, and they technically are, but not if you care about ingesting trace amounts of meat, and not if you’re allergic to it like me. They’re now being sued for this.
A bunch of vegans are suing Burger King because they want to have their Impossible Burgers their way … pristine, without any meat residue on the grill.
Phillip Williams just filed a class-action lawsuit, claiming the burger giant advertises the Impossible Burger as a vegan alternative to its meat burgers, yet they’re all cooked on the same grill.
Williams says his burger was contaminated by meat byproducts. He bought the burger in question in ATL.
The lawsuit says Burger King has no disclosures on its menu that would notify a consumer prior to the purchase of the Impossible Whopper that it was cooked in a manner that would result in meat by-products on the burger.
He notes there have been numerous complaints posted online by outraged vegans.
Williams not only wants damages … he wants the judge to order Burger King to stop cooking Impossible Burgers and the OG burgers on the same grill.
Do you remember when McDonalds got sued to stop frying their fries in beef fat in the early 2000s because it violated people’s religious beliefs? I am so on board with these lawsuits. To be fair to my local Burger King, they took all precautions when I told them I was allergic to beef. However it’s ridiculous that a huge company like this would not make provisions for their locations to have a separate grill for vegetarian food, especially when they’re marketing it as such. It would be logistically difficult to implement, but fast food franchises make system-wide changes like this all the time when they get new menu items. This is a big oversight, especially because they’re not even informing people.
I asked my vegan friend on Instagram (if you comment on my posts and stories you’re my friend, also on Twitter), Brittney, to comment on this as I’ve seen her posts about eating tasty Impossible Whoppers. She had such a thoughtful response I wanted to include it. She wrote:
I’m under no illusion that every restaurant kitchen keeps animal products completely separate, and my veganism is about boycotting animal products and increasing demand for (and therefore access to) plant-based products… not keeping my body pure. But I don’t have any allergies, so I’m sure I’m speaking from a lot of privilege when it comes to cross contamination.
To Brittney it’s ok that there’s some cross contamination, and I’m impressed by her motivation for being vegan that’s wonderful. I understand why other vegans don’t want their food touching meat. It can be a matter of near-death for people like me, although again BK makes accommodations for allergies. I would also like to see a separate grill for the Impossible Whopper because I’d like to taste it as intended.
This guy is so enthusiastic I had to post this!
Also this cracked me up so hard!
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