Foodservice

Tim Hortons has pulled Beyond Meat products off the menus in the last provinces where it still sold the trendy plant-based protein, less than a year after a national roll out.

Canada's restaurant owners are eager to do their part to curb this country's addiction to plastics, their association says, but they want the government to leave time for them to adapt to a ban on plastic take-out containers.Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Thursday Ottawa's promised ban on many single-use plastics is coming in 2021 after a scientific assessment of plastic pollution released Thursday found that the waste is harmful to the environment.The list of what will be banned is still in development.Carol Patterson, national vice-president at Restaurants Canada, said the industry needs a reasonable time to find and procure alternatives that are both affordable and better for the environment.“We are really calling on the government to have an approach that takes into account the full life cycle of products but also providing those reasonable timelines for safe and functional alternatives to enter the market,'' Patterson said.At the same time as restaurants are grappling with finding non-plastic options, they are seeing a surge in demand for take-out containers from the explosion of online food-delivery services.

Starbucks has an ambitious plan to reduce its environmental footprint, albeit one it acknowledges will require considerable buy-in from its customers.

Core-Mark Holding Company, one of the largest marketers of fresh, food and broad-line supply solutions to the convenience retail industry in North America, has appointed Diane Randolph to its Board of Directors.

Kathy Perrotta is vice-president at Ipsos Canada and leads the company’s FIVE Food and Beverage tracking service, which examines the behaviour, attitudes and motivations of 20,000 Canadian consumers.

When A&W started serving Beyond Meat veggie burgers at its restaurants, the fast-food chain offered many patrons their first bite of the much touted, celebrity backed plant-based patty.

Vancouver is bringing in bans on the use of plastic bags, straws and other single-use items, while introducing what the city believes to be a first-of-its-kind fee for disposable cups in the country.

Food bills are going to take a bigger bite out of Canadians’ household budgets in 2020.