KFC’s Meatless Chicken Burger Launches at More than 80 Locations in Singapore

Today, international fast-food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) will launch the Zero Chicken Burger for a limited time at its more than 80 locations in Singapore, excluding the outposts at the Singapore Zoo and Singapore Polytechnic University. The new burger features a meatless chicken patty made with mycoprotein and flavored with Colonel Sanders’ original recipe of 11 herbs and spices. The meatless Zero Chicken Burger comes with lettuce, BBQ sauce, dairy-based cheese slices, and egg-based mayonnaise—rendering it not vegan. The burger will be available on its own for S$6.55, or as a meal for S$8.65.

Made for flexitarians
KFC developed the new burger in response to a growing trend of reducing meat consumption among consumers in the region. “The start of the New Year brings fresh ideas and the new KFC Zero Chicken Burger is no different,” Juliana Lim, Senior Director of Marketing & Food Innovation for KFC Singapore said. “We see a trend towards flexitarianism and increased demand for meat alternative products, so we wanted to offer a meat-free option but still keeping the same great KFC taste. After months of taste testing, we are so proud to launch the first chicken burger without any chicken.”

Vegan at KFC
The menu addition in Singapore follows a similar launch of the KFC Zero Chicken Burger (which is fully vegan as-is and made with a mycoprotein-based Quorn patty) at the chain’s 900 locations in the United Kingdom last January. In Canada, KFC launched vegan chicken made by Lightlife Foods in 2019, where it sold out in six hours. In 2020, KFC outlets in China also tested several plant-based options, including nuggets made by international agribusiness Cargill and burgers made by Beyond Meat. In Hong Kong, the chain partnered with social enterprise Green Monday last summer to launch its New Era menu which features nuggets made by United States-based vegan brand Alpha Foods and a burger with a patty made by Canadian vegan brand Gardein.

Stateside, KFC tested vegan Beyond Fried Chicken at one Atlanta, GA location in 2019—where it sold out in approximately five hours. KFC expanded the test to more than 50 locations in Southern California in July 2020 but has yet to announce a nationwide rollout of the vegan chicken option.