
Taco Bell, Domino’s and McDonald’s are the most innovative companies in food for 2016, according to influential business magazine Fast Company‘s annual superlatives list.
Taco Bell — which also ranks among Fast Company’s top 10 of all companies — gets big props for “operating like a tech company.” Yes, you can order your Quesalupa via an app. Ditto Domino’s, which is similarly “pushing pizzas with high tech.”
Meanwhile, Mickey D’s has been “changing the conversation with a bold rebrand.” We’re guessing that’s corporate speak for “all-day breakfast.”
All this praise for the old-school fast-food sector is a significant departure for Fast Company, which in recent years has mostly reserved its highest praise for bold, futurist-sounding outfits, like plant-based-mayonnaise maker Hampton Creek, sustainable-agriculture firm Farmland LP and alternative-protein purveyor Beyond Meat (no. 1 in 2014). Although, to be fair, quick-serve bread-bowl behemoth Panera did earn the top spot in 2015.
Notably missing from the 2016 list: the beleaguered Chipotle, which ranked as high as no. 4 as recently as 2014.