MCDONALD’S HAS had a “phenomenal response” to a new supply chain initiative launched just under a month ago.
The fast food chain is looking for a dozen willing customers to become “quality scouts”, who will go behind the scenes and report back on how some of its products are made.
McDonald’s said the project is in response to “increased interest” from consumers in where the food they buy comes from.
However, the company is also looking to benefit from the horse meat scandal, which hit its biggest rival – Burger King found equine DNA in four samples of its products. Reporting on sales figures in April, McDonald’s chief executive in the UK Jill McDonald said the investment in its supply chain had “paid off”.
McDonald’s head of communications, Cheryl Chung, told Footprint that the company is “very confident” in its supply chain, but that they “really hope to be challenged” by the new quality scouts. “We want people to interrogate [our systems].”
Hundreds of people have applied already, including customers as well as food critics and food industry experts, in what Chung described as a “phenomenal response”.
Traceability in the food system is a rising concern for consumers on the back of the horse meat scandal.
According to a Populus poll of 2,000 consumers in March/April this year, four out of five people (81%) said it is important that ingredients are traceable to the farm they came from, while over half 53% consider how food is produced when deciding which products to buy.
“Every day, people ask us questions about our food and our ingredients, so we’re inviting members of the public to see for themselves what’s in some of our most popular products and follow the journey from farm to restaurant,” said Warren Anderson, McDonald’s vice president recently.
- More details on the scheme can be found in June’s Footprint magazine.
- FootprintComment: Consider the cost before opening your supply chain says Rabobank’s Justin Sherrard
