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US burger chain Wendy’s launches TV ad knocking Aussie beef + VIDEO

Beef Central, 18/02/2016

US burger chain Wendy’s has criticised Australian beef in a new television commercial, in an attempt to create a point a difference between its own supply chains and those used by US rivals like McDonald’s and Burger King.

Wendy’s, which uses only fresh domestic US-produced manufacturing meat in its burger patties, suggests Australian beef used by other restaurant chains is inferior because it is frozen, and compromised in some way because of transport distance.

The 30 second TV ad (click link below to view) promotes Wendy’s use of ‘100 percent North American’ beef patties over fast-food rivals like McDonald’s who use Australian beef.

“Some (burger restaurant chains) use beef frozen, from as far away as Australia, but if you ask Wendy’s, the juiciest hamburgers are made with beef raised right here (in the US), to get here (a Wendy’s restaurant) so fast it doesn’t need to be frozen,” the ad says.

The advertisement implies other chains’ beef offerings lack freshness, because of the transport distances involved.

“Buying beef from close by makes Wendy’s singles and doubles (the number of patties ordered by customers) so deliciously different.”

The Wendy’s 100pc domestic fresh claim isn’t new, though. The company’s Quality Supply Chain Co-op (QSCC) has been promoting the use of fresh beef from North American cattle “with no fillers, additives, flavor boosters or ammonia treatments” for several years.

Australian frozen lean beef trim is widely used by US grinders servicing the country’s huge burger restaurant industry, because it complements the local fattier trim produced by the US grainfed beef industry to produce the perfect fat/lean ratio for hamburgers. Frozen product also helps reduce the heat build-up that can occur during the industrial-scale grinding process.

Meat & Livestock Australia’s North American region manager David Pietsch said many US companies used Australia’s beef because it was leaner than US beef.

Biggest US chain McDonald’s had its own domestic-only sourcing policy up to about 2005, as explained in this earlier Beef Central article.

Today McDonald’s US uses Australian beef for around 15 pc of its overall requirements.

 

 

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Comments

  1. Kati Jenkins, 19/02/2016

    Bravo Beef Central. Bravo!

  2. Ben Dwyer, 19/02/2016

    Well said, Beef Central.

  3. Paul, 19/02/2016

    Hmmm… Wendy’s burger sales USA $8.5bn, Burger King burger sales USA $8.4bn, McDonalds burger sales USA $34.2bn – twice the combined value of Wendy’s and Burger King’s sales. Can’t be too much wrong with Australian grinding beef…

  4. Brandon Rhoten, 19/02/2016

    We’re not slamming Aussie beef, in fact we use Aussie beef in restaurants near Australia. We are slamming those that source beef from far away (and freeze it in the process).

    –Brandon Rhoten, Head of Advertising at Wendy’s

    Thanks for your comment on behalf of Wendy’s, Brandon. Hate to think that the Australian manufacturing beef industry is being unfairly caught in the crossfire between large US commercial end-users looking for a point-of-difference in their pitch to customers. We are justifiably proud of the performance of our grinding meat in the US market. The term ‘freshness’ can be a grossly misused term in the beef industry. Unlike most other perishable foodstuffs, beef actually benefits from spending some time in a vacuum-packaged state before consumption. I hazard a guess that some of your ‘fresh’ domestic muscle meat going into the grind for Wendy’s patties has in fact spent some weeks – perhaps months – in vac-pack form. Hardly ‘fresh’, using Wendy’s definition. Editor

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