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Burger giant McDonald’s pulls out of Angus verification program

Beef Central, 30/09/2020

ELEVEN years after burger giant McDonald’s launched its hugely popular Angus burger range, the company has pulled out of supporting Angus Australia’s breed’s verification program.

Since 2010, Angus Australia, either directly or through its former subsidiary company Certified Angus Group has verified all the beef going into the highly successful McDonald’s Angus burger range sold at restaurants in Australia and New Zealand.

Verification by Angus Australia of the beef sold by McDonald’s in its Angus burgers set an important benchmark in the fast food sector for product integrity, ensuring that when placing an order, McDonald’s customers were getting exactly what they paid for – genuine Angus beef.

Angus trimmings used to formulate patties gained a significant premium in the marketplace, such was the success of the McDonald’s Angus burger program, and risks existed of substitution.

Angus Australia’s commercial supply chain manager Liz Pearson said the McDonald’s Angus burger range transformed the fast food sector in Australia and NZ, taking the Angus brand to the masses and building household recognition of the high quality beef to consumers around the region.

“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 program has also contributed to increasing in the value of the whole carcase and boosting the demand for Angus cattle, generating more money in the pocket of Australian Angus producers,” she said.

Over the past 11 years, several million Angus cattle had passed through the verification program, converting to “many, many millions of Angus beef patties enjoyed by consumers in Australia and New Zealand,” Ms Pearson said.

McDonald’s Australia has terminated its use of the Angus verification program from today, 30 September.

While McDonald’s will continue to offer an Angus burger range, Angus Australia said it would unfortunately no longer be involved in the verification of the integrity of the breed claim.

“To that end, Angus Australia can no longer provide assurances that the beef in these burgers is actually Angus,” Ms Pearson said.

“Although the Angus verification program will discontinue, Angus Australia thanks McDonald’s Australia, supply chain companies MAC Pacific, AgriFoods Global and Fulton Market Group and their suppliers into this program for their confidence in the Angus breed and their role in taking the Angus brand to new heights,” she said.

“It is rare for a corporation like McDonald’s to have a partnership with an industry organisation such as has been achieved with Angus Australia. We look forward to new opportunities to collaborate with industry influencers for the benefit of consumers and Angus breeders alike,” Ms Pearson said.

McDonald’s response:

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. It did not identify that Fulton is the company which purchases Australian beef on McDonald’s behalf.

McDonald’s said 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 its global export markets.

It said Australian and New Zealand beef also comprised a large percentage of beef that’s used in its global system, ensuring that Angus beef remained an important part of the beef supply chain in many international markets.

 

 

 

 

 

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Comments

  1. Ina Wilken, 02/10/2020

    We have been deprived of food tasting beef with keeping beef to particular breeds. We have lost taste and variety and the grain fed stuff is just horrendous. We cut the fat off which is the tastiest and most nutrition rich powering muscles brain heart etc and we get dry stuff that is tasteless whilst the dogs and cats have the fat and gleaming coats. NZ and Australia have sold out to monoculture. When will we learn!

  2. Agnes Fredericksen, 01/10/2020

    It’s one thing to be using beef from New Zealand ,but now Chicago is the new supplier .There is lots of competition out there now with better burgers like Fat Burger that are in Canada as well as the USA and I’m not quite sure what other countries but I prefer to support them now and pay a bit more for cooked fresh for me ,never frozen , local beef , so it’s supporting our farmers and keeping our people employed .And I’m sure they follow those rules in all their locations so for those of you that haven’t tried them ,try it once you won’t be sorry !

    There is no suggestion that McDonald’s will be using US beef in its Australian Angus burgers, Agnes. The US does not currently hold access to the Australian market for beef. Fulton Market group is headquartered in Chicago, but maintains buying operations within Australia. Important distinction. Editor

  3. Michael Bull, 30/09/2020

    too many straight bred herefords and others ending up in the burghers

    • Notafan, 01/10/2020

      Well, a Chicago run company administering it? Expect them to start trying to get American grade meat into their burgers under the radar to cut costs. McDonald’s is about to get vastly lower quality and even more unhealthy

      There is no suggestion that McDonald’s will be using US beef in its Australian Angus burgers. The US does not currently hold access to the Australian market for beef. Fulton Market group is headquartered in Chicago, but maintains buying operations within Australia. Important distinction. Full names required for future comments please, as per our long-standing reader comment policy. Editor

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