THE FIRST VEGETARIAN KFC IN THE WORLD IS IN THE NETHERLANDS

Amsterdam,Netherlands,February 26, 2020- All dishes on the menu are vegetarian, but just as tasty as usual. The KFC restaurant on the Binnenwegplein in Rotterdam has the worldwide scoop: during the National Week Without Meat this KFC is completely chicken-free. And from that week (9-15 March) the vegetarian burger will be structurally on the menu in all Dutch branches.

A chicken restaurant is not the first thing you think of if you want to eat something as a vegetarian. Because although Colonel Sanders, who founded Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1952, once said "KFC is for everyone", he was unlikely to think at the time that his chain would ever sell chicken-free products. The combination of this type of restaurant and vega was not seen as very logical, but in the meantime many establishments offer a vegetarian - or even vegan - option. Because, vega or not, everyone likes good food.

Original recipe

KFC did a test with the Chickenless Chicken Burger at the end of last year. The enormous success also came as a surprise for the chicken restaurant itself, says Trix van Vleuten, CMO KFC Northern Europe. During the test week, the burger was sold in one on ten orders at KFC Akerpoort in Amsterdam. "We knew that people wanted a vegetarian option with the taste of KFC, but we did not expect that sales would go so fast." It made it clear that the vegetarian burger, breaded with the original mix of eleven herbs and spices, is there to stay. The Chickenless Chicken Burger will be a standard fixture in all KFC restaurants from 9 March.

Completely green

If you want to try out more vegetarian dishes, you can go to Rotterdam during the National Week Without Meat. The restaurant on the Binnenwegplein is the first KFC in the world to turn green for a whole week, just like the menu. And so as an avid veggie, or as flexitarian who is curious about how such a thing tastes, you can choose from the well-known buckets, burgers and wraps. You can also try out the vegetarian version of the popular Crispy Tenders. If the Chickenless Crispy Tenders are received with great enthusiasm, the chicken restaurant considers putting them on the menu in all Dutch branches. Then, in addition to the veggie burger, a second chicken-less creation might be standard on the KFC menu in the not too distant future.

Positive effect climate

The first vegetarian KFC in the world can be visited from 9 to 15 March. That is during the third edition of the National Week Without Meat, of which KFC is one of more than sixty partners. Awareness about eating meat is growing among consumers and companies, notes Isabel Boerdam, initiator of the week. “The fact that large food companies such as KFC are embracing Week Without Meat and daring to take such a step shows that the subject is really on the map in the Netherlands. This is how we reach the general public with our message, and that of course is the goal. Step by step we want to achieve that a flexitarian diet becomes the new standard in the Netherlands. Together we will make an essential contribution to our climate objectives. "