VW's employee restaurant: Meat is just the wurst

Volkswagen's bestselling product isn't an automobile. It's sausage, produced at a rate of about 18,000 a day.

But after nearly 50 years, the automaker is pulling its housemade currywurst off the menu at its Wolfsburg headquarters employee restaurant.

Volkswagen told employees it's removing meat from some 150 recipes at the restaurant when it reopens this week after the August break, Automotive News affiliate Automobilwoche reported. The change is being made in the name of environmental sustainability and in response to requests for more vegan and vegetarian options. CEO Herbert Diess aims to banish all factory-farm meat by 2025.

But some traditionalists were appalled. "If I were still on the supervisory board of #VW, there would have been no such thing," former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder wrote on LinkedIn. "Currywurst with fries is one of the power bars of the skilled worker in production. It should stay that way."

Currywurst — sliced pork sausage with a spicy, ketchup-based sauce — appears in Volkswagen's official parts list. It will continue to be served elsewhere within the Wolfsburg factory complex.