Eating Vegan – McDonald’s (UK)

Must Try Recipes

The Double McPlant has gone! But you can still order it, just customise the normal McPlant and add an additional patty!

If you need a quick food fix, and are in town (cos let's face it, almost every town has one) you can head to McDonald's!

Check out the items below that are suitable for vegans:

New      Info      Options
Photo below      Warning

Last updated: 02 Nov 2023

Breakfast (served until 10:30, or 11:00 for 24h restaurants)

  • Hash Brown – A delicious hash brown is great on its own or as a side at breakfast time. Crispy on the outside, they're what mornings were made for.
  • Toasted English Muffin – like the ones used for McMuffins.  Choose plain or with jam.  Make sure to ask for no butter.
  • Soft Roll – used for bacon rolls, but with no bacon! Choose this plain.
  • Vegetable Bag – Carrot sticks, Cucumber Sticks Seasonal, there is usually only one veg bag.
  • Fruit Bag – Apple and Grape, Melon, or Pineapple.  Seasonal, there is usually only one fruit bag.

Burgers

  • McPlant – A vegan burger made with a juicy plant-based patty co-developed with Beyond Meat featuring vegan sandwich sauce, ketchup, mustard, onion, pickles, lettuce, tomato, and a vegan alternative to cheese in a sesame seed bun. Vegan certified.  If you miss the Double McPlant, you can now just order this with two patties inside.
  • Vegetable Deluxe – Red pesto veggie goujons with sandwich sauce and shredded lettuce in a sesame topped bun.

Nuggets and Selects

  • Veggie Dippers – A tasty blend of red pepper and sundried tomato pesto, all coated in crispy golden breadcrumbs and vegan certified by the Vegetarian Society.

Wraps

  • The Spicy Veggie One – Red pesto veggie goujons with spicy relish, tomato, lettuce, and red onion in a soft, toasted tortilla wrap.

Happy Meal

  • Veggie Dippers – A tasty blend of red pepper and sundried tomato pesto, all coated in crispy golden breadcrumbs and vegan certified by the Vegetarian Society.

Sides/Extras

  • French Fries “Our French Fries do not contain any animal extracts and are cooked in 100% vegetable oil which is non-hydrogenated.”
  • Side Salad – New freshly prepared salad with lettuce, cucumber, sliced tomato.
  • Vegetable Bag – Carrot sticks, Cucumber Sticks Seasonal, there is usually only one veg bag.
  • Fruit Bag – Apple and Grape, Melon, or Pineapple.  Seasonal, there is usually only one fruit bag.

Desserts

  • Apple Pie – Crispy on the outside, deliciously hot and sweet on the inside, our Apple Pie is a McDonald's classic. The apple pie is made with vegan ingredients, however is fried in oil that has possible cross-contamination with the oil used to cook chicken and fish products during the oil filtration process.
  • Fruit Bag – Apple and Grape, Melon, or Pineapple.  Seasonal, there is usually only one fruit bag.

Sauces

  • Tomato Ketchup
  • Sweet Chilli Sauce/Dip
  • BBQ Dip Don't get this confused with Smoky Barbeque Dip, which contains honey.
  • Sweet ‘n' Sour Dip
  • Sweet Curry Dip

Some McDonald's myths busted:

  • The Veggie Dippers are cooked in a dedicated fryer used only for this product and fries. Chicken and fish are cooked in completely separate fryers and beef and pork are not cooked in fryers.
  • “We use dedicated colour-coded tongs and trays for Veggie products and the procedures used to make the Spicy Veggie Wrap [Spicy Vegetable Deluxe] and Spicy Veggie Sandwich [Vegetable Deluxe] are approved by the Vegetarian Society.”

Please note: this is for UK McDonald's only! Around the world, ingredients change, and some products have meat as flavouring – e.g. fries and hash browns!

For more info, please check the McDonald's website

If you have any updates or comments about this, please add them below, we want this to be as updated as possible so any tips you have will be greatly appreciated!

Last updated: 02 Nov 2023
First published: 08 Dec 2015

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26 COMMENTS

  1. When did they add these options? I admittedly haven’t been to Mc’Ds for a very long time (way before being vegan).

    I’m sure these are new? I also was pretty sure the fries contained dairy (or at least used too?)

    • Hi! I work at McDonalds and can 100% confirm they are 100% potato and cooked in vegetable oil – in the Uk at least ;D

  2. The Vegetarian Society has, over several years, worked hard in the interest of vegetarians, and, eventually, managed to get their standards adhered to in Mc. Donald’s.
    Has the Vegan Society attempted to do the same for the smaller number of vegans?
    A salad, of the type they provide, without Mayo is pretty uninteresting. Perhaps one needs to carry around sachets of vegan mayo when travelling.
    I do hope that all vegans and vegetarians join and support their respective societies, so that they may continue to do all this work on our behalf.
    I’d be far happier is vegans and vegetarians used their cooking skills to run their own cafes in their own localities. To start with they might surely invite people to their homes to test out recipes and spread the word and estimate demand.
    Should we continue to rely on totally commercial caterers to provide our needs, because they really have no clue as to the real requirements of a balanced vegan diet. Selecting only vegan products at most of these places, leads to tasteless and unbalanced meals.

  3. the bagel for the breakfast is also vegan, as long as you order it without the cream cheese or butter on the side!

    • I’ve been in touch with Mc. Donald’s for some time, to persuade them to offer wholemeal rolls as well as the deficient white ones they have offered for years.
      Apparently they are now discussing this. I will wait patiently. Perhaps others could contact them to aid the process.
      I have NEVER eaten in Mc. Donalds, but did distribute 120 leaflets, when they introduced salads a few years ago, thinking that residents in my block of flats might benefit as some were probably customers.

  4. Also :

    Breakfast ;
    Bagels
    Potato Rosties (They are usually found in a breakfast wrap, but you can order a breakfast wrap only a sauce and two rosties which is what I usually get!)
    Muffins – plain of course, good if you want to make a Hash Brown sandwhich
    Tortilla – Available in the breakfast wrap as listed above.

    Blended Ice Drinks :
    Mango and Pineapple Smoothie
    Strawberry and Banana Smoothie
    Berry Burst Smoothie (All of these must be ordered with no Yoghurt)
    Strawberry Lemonade

    • I suggest checking the update comments on the McDs Veggie burgers whilst they contradict and say vegetarian they at the bottom say whilst cooked in different oils and fryers there MAY contain cross contamination from fish and chicken oils due filtering process so they cannot guarantee that this will not occur ..so please add that to your blog as an update. I checked uk site in the last few hours. Thanks

  5. Just wondering why a vegan would want to fund McDonalds who slaughter millions of animals a year? Surely better to fund more ethical companies where possible?

    • In that same respect why would you go to any normal supermarket who order in thousands of animal products, directly funding the killing of animals? Or go to any restaurant that uses animal products?

      This philosophy is silly and won’t get us anywhere. Purchasing vegan products from any food company is voting with your dollars – increasing the demand for vegan products while not harming animals.

  6. These foods might be vegan but I wouldn’t want to eat anything from a restaurant that specialises in burgers. There are bound to be many opportunities for meat contamination – storage, cooking, human error. I know some of it can’t be avoided and most restaurants don’t use different pans and cooking dishes for vegan foods but in a fast food place with lots of different staff doing shifts I just wouldn’t trust it.

  7. Firstly, I must agree with Linda Aspey – but I do understand the value of the post, especially for newbies, and I think also if one wants to achieve a degree of empathy and opportunity for engagement with friends who remain ‘in the dark’ about animal welfare. As a PT, the nutritional benefits of these McMeals remain questionable – but again, if on a budget, and on occasion, the opportunity to bring up the subject of being vegan in a McDonald’s restuarant is well worth the apple pie 🙂

  8. Hi. Thanks for the post.

    From experience (in the UK) I’m sure the veggie deluxe is only vegan when ordered “without mayo”.

    • You’ll be glad to know they have swapped their mayo now for a vegan ‘sandwich sauce’ – they dont want to call it a vegan mayo for some reason!

  9. Sorry to disappoint but their Apple Pie is NOT vegan!

    From the McDonald’s website:
    “due to the design of the oil filtration system there is a small chance the oil used to fry the Apple Pies can come into contact with oil used to cook chicken and fish products during the oil filtering process. We therefore cannot guarantee that cross contamination will not occur. ”
    https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/help/faq/are-mcdonalds-apple-pies-suitable-for-vegetarians.html

    • Hi Colm, in the UK and Ireland these do not contain milk – they are certified as vegan. In other countries they can contain milk.

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