Some people will go to great lengths to assert and defend their Vegan or Vegetarian diet choices. One man has even sued Burger King over the way it prepares its Impossible Burger Plant-based Patties. His problem? The Plant-based Burgers are cooked on the same grill as regular Beef Patties…
The Burger King Impossible Burger: Truly ‘0% Beef’?
Plaintiff Phillip Williams says, in his Miami class-action lawsuit, that BK ‘duped’ him into buying the Impossible Burger and he’s seeking damages on behalf of himself and all those who bought the Plant-based sandwiches under the impression they were vegan or vegetarian. Impossible Foods, the U.S. company that makes the Impossible Burger, told Reuters that it never intended its Plant-based product to be assumed vegan or vegetarian, but that it was ‘designed for meat eaters who want to consume less animal protein’.
BK fights back
Burger King said, in its response to the claim, that it has never billed its Impossible Burgers as vegan, and has always advertised them simply as ‘Plant-based’. It also asserts that it never promised to prepare them in a certain way to satisfy the requirements of strict Vegans.
The central point in Williams’ complaint is that BK routinely prepares Impossible Patties on the same grill that they use to cook regular Beef Patties, thus rendering them ‘coated in Beef byproducts’. But BK advertises them as being ‘0% Beef’. The company says any ‘reasonable’ customer would have asked the staff how the Impossible Burgers were prepared before ordering one, if they really had such a strong concern about contamination. In fact, BK will prepare an Impossible Patty in the oven on request, rather than on the grill. And it points out that Williams could have discovered that simply by visiting its website.
My take
This may be a case of either 1) a guy who is a self-righteous strict vegan, and who is trying to punish a big corporation for his own negligence, or 2) a guy who sees a chance at big bucks via suing a big corporation for what he considers a serious malpractice. Or it might just be a case of a regular guy who has seen the vegan light, loves all creatures great and small from white sharks to mosquitoes, and sincerely wants recompense for what he feels was a ‘cheat’ by Burger King. The Reuters story did not say whether he was suing for ’emotional damage’, or just trying to point up BK’s lack of fair warning to veggies and vegans that the Impossible Burger was not specifically intended for them.
Whatever the plaintiff’s motivation, Burger King insists the suit ‘has no basis’.
~ Maggie J.