October 6,  2020

McDonald's Australia ends participation in beef verification programme

McDonald's Australia  has decided to end its support of Angus Australia's breed verification programme, 11 years after the fast food chain launched its popular Angus burger range.

McDonald's Australia terminated its participation the programme on September 30. The food chain will still continue to offer its Angus burger range.

However, Angus Australia, which verifies all the beef going into the Angus burgers sold at restaurants in Australia and New Zealand, cannot guarantee that "the beef in these burgers is actually Angus," said Angus Australia's commercial supply chain manager, Liz Pearson.

Over the past 11 years, several million Angus cattle had passed through the verification programme, converting to "many, many millions of Angus beef patties enjoyed by consumers in Australia and New Zealand," she said.

Verification by Angus Australia of the beef sold in McDonald's Angus burgers established a benchmark in the fast food sector for product integrity.

"As well as adding to the quality and diversity of the McDonald's restaurant range and generating enormous benefits to the company and its customers, the Angus burger programme has also contributed to increasing in the value of the whole carcass and boosting the demand for Angus cattle, generating more money in the pocket of Australian Angus producers," said Pearson.

McDonald's said it had opted to have Chicago-based supply chain management experts Fulton Market Group administer a "new independent verification process" for its Angus product.

According to the food chain, the new framework would allow it to source large volumes of high-quality Angus beef for its Australian and New Zealand restaurants, as well as global export markets.

- Beef Central