Parting is such sweet sorrow — especially when it comes to food! Salads, chicken sandwiches,
and ice cream… these are fast food items that have been taken off the menu in 2022.
Most people aren't likely to prioritize a healthy meal when they visit a fast food restaurant like
Burger King. But whatever their reasons, there are a select few customers who are eager to purchase a
healthier meal than a standard, flame-broiled cheeseburger and fries. Unfortunately,
if you're searching for a salad to consume from Burger King these days, you'll be out of luck,
because the restaurant chain quietly confirmed it would no longer sell salads in early 2022.
Interestingly enough, Burger King wasn't the only fast food conglomerate to drop
some unfortunate news regarding its salads in 2022. In fact, in an additional blow to
health-conscious fast food seekers, McDonald's announced its intention to discontinue salads,
as well, outside of a small number of restaurants scattered throughout the country.
The chicken, maple butter, and egg sandwich from Starbucks may be the
strangest fast food item lost in 2022. Not only that, but there's a
decent chance it's the least-lamented loss among discontinued fast food menu options this year,
as well. For one thing, it had an inherent disadvantage because, well, it was a chicken
sandwich from Starbucks. But the lack of sadness emanating from consumers mainly stems from the
fact Starbucks pulled its chicken-and-egg sandwich after just five days on the menu.
Debuting on June 21, 2022, the sandwich was pulled on June 26 after rumors began trickling
across social media that the item made customers sick. While no official complaints appeared to
be made to the FDA regarding ill consumers, the company still seemed set in its decision. We're
actually uncertain whether this fast food item was a permanent casualty of 2022. Though it was
undoubtedly pulled from menus in a very drastic, public manner, the chicken sandwich remains,
quote, "available for order" on the company's website. It may be unavailable at any locations
as of late 2022, but with a still-active page for it, the chicken, maple butter, and egg
sandwich may be back sooner rather than later. In 2013, McDonald's may have thought it had the
healthy fast food breakfast market cornered. After all, introducing the Egg White Delight
alongside gold medal-winning gymnast Gabby Douglas likely seemed foolproof.
"Tastes really good. Especially me — I love egg whites."
Now, was the world clamoring for a lower-calorie companion to the classic Egg McMuffin? Maybe. But
the severe simplification of the McDonald's menu in 2020, necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic,
demonstrated some healthier items weren't as sought-after as believed,
including the Egg White Delight, which is no longer available as of 2022.
Actually, it's not entirely clear when the Egg White Delight was officially canceled.
Like many other discontinued fast food items, McDonald's didn't eagerly announce it had
killed off the egg white-based sandwich when the decision was made. In fact,
according to The Takeout, the company quietly discontinued the sandwich nationally in 2018,
and only appeared to confirm it was completely removed as of 2022.
We can't say that every fast food item lost in 2022 makes us all that sad. That being said,
some of the discontinued items left us utterly devastated upon discovery. And
of all the fast food items to join the dearly departed in 2022, none made us
nearly as upset as McDonald's decision to stop offering its $1, any-size fountain drink deal.
Truth be told, we aren't exactly shocked to learn that the best-selling fast food chain
in 2021 made such a business decision in the face of skyrocketing inflation.
But it still hurts knowing we'll never again be able to take a quick trip to
the McDonald's drive-thru for a cheap, fizzy beverage.
When it comes to fast food dipping sauces, it's always best to avoid growing too attached
to new releases. The classic options, like sweet and sour or ranch, are here to stay,
of course. But the speed with which a new, even highly-hyped dipping sauce may come and go can
be downright dizzying. Fans of the short-lived hot honey sauce from Wendy's discovered this
in September 2022, when the chain confirmed it would no longer offer it once supplies ran out.
Introduced as a standalone dipping sauce alongside the Hot Honey chicken sandwich in February 2022,
the hot honey dipping sauce was an immediate hit, featuring a flavor
amenable to a variety of Wendy's products, according to Foodsided. Despite this,
by August 2022, rumors about the sauce's discontinuation began to swirl on Reddit,
after some commenters noted their local Wendy's had already run out of the sweet heat concoction.
Several weeks after the late August speculation, Wendy's confirmed the unfortunate truth to
Thrillist. As of late 2022, hot honey is still listed on the restaurant's website among its
other signature sauces. But that may just be because some restaurants' stock of the sauce
packets is dwindling slower than others, rather than a sign that it won't be leaving the menu.
Along the same lines as Burger King's decision to nix salads from its menu,
McDonald's wasn't afraid to incur the public's wrath by removing certain healthy choices from
its menu in 2022. In fact, the former home of Ronald McDonald didn't just
officially end its Egg White Delight in 2022 — it also announced its intention
to stop selling its breakfast-time product, the fruit and yogurt parfait.
McDonald's calculated decision to remove a number of legitimately healthier selections
is certainly frustrating to a portion of the population. And while we're not
thrilled with the idea of a McDonald's menu consisting solely of artery-clogging options,
we can't really fault its relatively reasonable rationale for removing the
fruit and yogurt parfait. Removing it from the menu was expected to
decrease drive-thru wait times, increase profit margins for franchise owners,
and relieve pressure on individual restaurants dealing with sustained staff shortages.
While we can't envision a huge number of Mickey D's fans storming the restaurant each morning
looking for a granola-enhanced yogurt, some consumers did decry the fruit and yogurt parfait's
loss. A Change.org petition was even created in early 2022, encouraging the item's return.
Burger King's had a rough go of it in recent years. That's relatively speaking,
of course, since it still stands head and shoulders above the vast majority
of fast food restaurants. But in 2022, it's impossible to suggest its current prospects
seem brighter than those of its chief rivals in McDonald's and Wendy's. In other words,
it's clear why the establishment that lets you "have it your way" had big changes in
mind in 2022, including its decision to stop serving ice cream sundaes.
For disappointed fans of the ice cream sundae, there's some solace to be found in Burger King's
decision to leave regular ice cream on the menu. After all, if you enjoy the formerly-offered
sundae's base, you can still craft yourself a self-completed sundae with Burger King's
remaining ice cream. While many consumers were undoubtedly displeased about some of the 2022
losses from Burger King's menu, we'd find it hard to believe many folks were crushed by
the sundae's discontinuation. After all, if you really want a Burger King-style sundae nowadays,
just add some hot fudge to a cup of its ice cream, and it'll be like it never left.
Subway's been on a downward spiral of sorts in recent years,
though the company seems quite aware of this. After all, why else would it have
revamped its entire menu in 2022 to increase its efficiency and ease of service? But the
end of endlessly-encouraged customization at Subway wasn't the only change to its menu
this year. And while it didn't announce any discontinued products, one food item
seems to have disappeared from locations in 2022: the oven-roasted chicken breast.
While no particular announcement or confirmation was given from the restaurant chain regarding the
oven-roasted chicken breast, by September, some Twitter users noticed it was no longer
available. Now, to be clear, it's not that Subway no longer offers chicken at its establishment,
after all, sliced oven-roasted chicken pieces are still available. But the actual,
full chicken breast was quietly removed, perhaps as early as July.
Like any other American who bleeds red, white, and blue, we understand the nature of capitalism,
and the virtues of a free market. So while we're not faulting Burger
King for aiming to improve its profit margins by tweaking its menu offerings,
we can't help but take issue with some of its 2022 business decisions to get there.
"Good afternoon, welcome to Burger King. May
I take your order?" "Keep the change."
After all, did it really need to eliminate some of its more customer-friendly promotions
in the pursuit of the almighty dollar, like the decision to no longer offer discount Whoppers in
any format amidst general price hikes in 2022? Maybe we're just greedy as consumers in 2022,
or perhaps the squeeze of historically-high inflation on our bank accounts is taking its
toll. Either way, the news that a Whopper at any sort of slightly-reduced cost won't be happening
after 2022 left us somewhat crestfallen. It's not like Restaurant Brands CEO, Jose Cil,
left us any hope, either, flatly telling Yahoo, in August 2022, that there were no
plans for a return of a discounted Whopper. With more veggie-based items popping up on fast
food menus, it's surprising to see the next item on our list. McDonald's discontinuation
of the not-yet-nationally-sold McPlant burger in July 2022 was more a matter of dollars and cents
than a dismissive attitude toward Americans' health. McDonald's and Beyond Burger signed
a three-year deal in 2021 for the production of the McPlant burger. But the underwhelming
test performance of the McPlant in select markets, starting in February 2022, led the
company to pull the plug. McDonald's stated it ended the McPlant test launch as planned,
but the undeniably chilly sales for the non-meat burger seem to have doomed its future prospects.
It's fairly obvious why a company would opt against advertising anything that could be
deemed a failure, like the discontinuation of a menu item. While this wasn't isolated
to one singular fast food product we lost in 2022, the most prominent instance was Dunkin's
veggie egg white patty. After all, there's no information whatsoever about it from the
restaurant, and the only real acknowledgement of the item's disappearance comes from Reddit users.
Numerous Dunkin' customers lamented the loss of the veggie egg white patty option
for breakfast sandwiches on a separate Reddit thread in early 2022. While some
believe the restaurant chain's newly-introduced veggie omelet bites were meant to replace it,
the omelet bites' mixed reviews meant many customers weren't satisfied with the tradeoff.
Perhaps we should have expected to struggle to find any concrete information regarding
the discontinuation of some fast food items. But we still wish we'd received something
straight from the horse's mouth regarding the loss of Dunkin's veggie egg white patty in
2022 — any acknowledgement at all, really. It's no secret that Popeye's started a fast
food chicken sandwich war with the release of its hand-breaded chicken sandwich in 2019. Since then,
countless fast food chains have tossed their corporate hats into the chicken
sandwich ring, each eager to top the original entry from Popeye's.
"I've got Popeyes."
Burger King was no different, though you may assume the faux-royal restaurant chain waved
the white flag in 2022, given it discontinued its short-lived Ch'King chicken sandwich line. Now,
Burger King did introduce a new line of crispy chicken sandwiches
this year to replace the Ch'King. Additionally, since its classic,
tube-shaped Original Chicken sandwich remains available as always, the company hasn't cut
itself off from the fast food chicken market. But the burger chain clearly
banked on the employee-despised Ch'King being a winning entry into the chicken
sandwich arena upon its introduction in 2021. The fact that the restaurant chose to pull
the plug so quickly can only be a dramatic disappointment for Burger King executives.
Perhaps the most peculiar part about Burger King nixing its Ch'King sandwiches so soon
is that many consumers appeared to enjoy the product. But we suppose it's typical that a
vocal chorus of voices on social media didn't translate to substantial sales in real life.