Vegan McFlurry: McDonald’s Rolls Out Dairy-Free Ice Cream in the UK

McDonald’s is trialling a new line of dairy-free ice creams in select UK restaurants, with a potential nationwide launch slated for 2025.

Another vegan McFlurry is here – sort of.

McDonald’s has just launched the Scoop, a dairy-free ice cream range certified by the Vegetarian Society. It’s available in two flavours: Choco and Strawberry.

The new desserts – made from rice milk – are being rolled out as part of a trial in the UK. If successful, we could see the Scoop permanently at locations nationwide.

But that’s not all: the fast-food giant is also trialling the McFreezy, a frozen ice dessert that resembles a Calippo ice pop.

Where will McDonald’s vegan Scoop ice creams be available?

The vegan Scoop ice creams will be available at 52 locations to start with, all in the northwest of England. These include select stores in Manchester, Oldham, Failsworth, Stockport, Salford, Bury, Ardwick and Rochdale, among others.

McDonald’s describes the ice creams as “deliciously smooth and creamy”, and they will be served in a tub just like a McFlurry, sans the toppings. They’ll cost £1.59, and the trial runs from June 12 to September 3. The aim is to launch the Scoop across the UK in 2025 – that is, if the ice cream machines aren’t broken.

Alongside rice, the plant-based ice creams are made from a base of coconut oil, glucose syrup, sugar and dextrose, with emulsifiers, thickeners and flavourings rounding out the ingredient list.

While the serving size of the vegan desserts is unclear, the chocolate-flavoured Scoop contains 94 calories per portion, 4g of fat (3.3g of which is saturated fat), and just under 8g of sugar. In comparison, a Mini Maltesers McFlurry has 133 calories, 5g of fat (3.4g saturated) and 17g of sugar.

Meanwhile, the McFreezy combines fruit juice and purée and is available in orange or mango-pineapple flavours. Apart from concentrated juices and purées, they contain stabilisers, citric acid and flavourings.

These will be available in 187 McDonald’s locations in the northwest (including Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and Merseyside), and select locations in Ireland.

McDonald’s dairy-free performance in the spotlight

Vegan ice cream has had a rocky few years in the UK. Yearly sales in retail were already down by 2% in 2022, and this followed the withdrawal of products by multiple companies. Ben & Jerry’s took its Peanut Butter & Cookies off shelves, for example, while Oatly discontinued its entire line of oat milk ice creams in the UK.

“We launched an ice-cream tub which has been successful, was on sale in many markets, and does very well for Oatly,” a brand spokesperson told FoodNavigator. “But it didn’t hit the milestones we expected from a UK perspective.”

From a foodservice perspective, how McDonald’s vegan ice cream fares will be interesting to see. This is not the first time the fast-food behemoth has introduced a dairy-free ice cream. In 2022, it launched vegan versions of the iconic McFlurry in Germany in two flavours (including a KitKat version).

While those flavours are no longer on the menu, McDonald’s Germany continues to offer the range. Its plant-based McFlurry is now available in a plain chocolate flavour, and there’s also a dairy-free chocolate McSundae.

Germany and the wider European market have been successful for McDonald’s vegan offerings, with the McPlant burger (made with Beyond Meat’s beef) continuing to gain popularity, unlike in its home market in the US.

Within the UK, the McPlant is joined by a Vegetable Deluxe burger, a Spicy Veggie wrap, and Veggie Dippers as meatless options. The Scoop and McFreezy mark its first foray into the non-dairy world in the country.