Vegan Man Sues Burger King, Claiming It Cooks Impossible Whopper Next to Meat

Burger King’s beef-free Whopper may not be so meatless after all — at least according to one vegan customer.

That’s the argument being made in a lawsuit filed on Monday in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, in which the plaintiff, Phillip Williams, claims that the fast food chain failed to disclose that its plant-based Impossible Whoppers are cooked on the same grills as beef products.

The class-action suit accuses Burger King of undertaking “false and misleading business practices” in the marketing and sale of its meatless burgers, and notes that vegans would not purchase the Impossible patties if they knew they had been prepared next to meat options.

Mr. Williams, who practices “a strict vegan diet,” bought an Impossible Whopper at a drive-through in Atlanta in August or around that time, according to court documents. The complaint said that he was “duped by Burger King’s deceptive practices into eating a meat-free Whopper Patty that was in fact covered in meat byproducts,” though it did not specify how he came to know this was the case.

The complaint calls on the fast food chain to return all the profits it had gained from selling the meat-free alternative, including the money that Mr. Williams paid.

Burger King declined to discuss the matter on Tuesday. “We do not comment on pending litigation,” a company representative said in an email. Mr. Williams could not immediately be reached for comment.

Burger King developed the Impossible Whopper in conjunction with Impossible Foods, a company in California that develops plant-based alternatives to meat products. It and other companies, including the Los-Angeles-based producer Beyond Meat, are part of a rising food industry trend toward imitating or replacing meat options.

After a successful tryout in St. Louis this year, the Impossible Whopper was introduced nationwide on Aug. 8. Burger King advertises the vegetarian patty, topped with tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, onions, ketchup and mayonnaise, as having “100 Whopper, 0 percent beef.”

New York Time