Despite all the noise about plant-based foods and changing consumer diets, global giant McDonald’s remains committed to beef as a product that consumers will continue to want to purchase.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal this week, McDonald’s head of sustainable and ethical sourcing for the UK and Ireland Nina Prichard said she believes consumers will continue to choose beef once it’s sourced from sustainable farms like in Ireland.

Nina Prichard, McDonald’s head of sustainable and ethical sourcing for the UK and Ireland

“I just can’t see our consumers not wanting to purchase a Big Mac. We’re a burger company at the end of the day,” said Prichard.

“If we have a sustainable beef industry then I can’t see why we can’t be confident that consumers will still want to purchase beef in the future. But what we will have to do is demonstrate we are sourcing the highest quality beef from sustainable farms,” she added.

Consumers today are more aware about where their food comes from

McDonald’s is one of the biggest buyers of Irish beef, sourcing up to 40,000t every year. Prichard said the company has been buying Irish beef for more than 40 years and that the sustainability of Irish beef production is one of the key reasons it has become such a major customer for the Irish beef industry.

People think it’s funny that McDonald’s has an agriculture team but we need to hear directly from our farmer suppliers

“Consumers today are more aware about where their food comes from and McDonald’s has to be able to demonstrate it is sourcing the highest quality food ingredients. We have to be able to demonstrate that our farmer suppliers are taking actions to reduce the carbon footprint of beef,” says Prichard, who grew up on a dairy farm in the UK.

“People think it’s funny that McDonald’s has an agriculture team but we need to hear directly from our farmer suppliers because they’re the experts in what they do. That’s why we’re involved in the Newford demonstration farm with Dawn Meats, Teagasc and the Irish Farmers Journal, so we can demonstrate the sustainability credentials of Irish beef farming,” she added.

Sustainability

Prichard said it’s testament to the sustainability of Irish farming that McDonald’s has selected three Irish farmers to be part of its Flagship Farmer programme, which has just 33 members from all over the world.

Given the affinity that consumers have with the McDonald’s brand (remember the queues when McDonald’s reopened after the lockdown in the UK and Ireland) it is a really strong selling point for Irish food producers and farmers to have such a long-standing history of working with the burger giant.

Protecting its brand is right at the top of the risk register for McDonald’s

Between meat, dairy and other ingredients, McDonald’s sources more than €200m worth of food ingredients from Irish producers every year. While the sales are important, having a blue-chip partner like McDonald’s that has such a close connection to its consumers is a major opportunity to promote the sustainability credentials of Ireland’s agri-food sector.

Protecting its brand is right at the top of the risk register for McDonald’s and it is a major vote of confidence that the world’s largest burger chain chooses to do so much business with Irish food producers.