Source : Procurement Leaders
McDonald’s has been seeking to reassure British farmers that it is committed to sourcing products from domestic producers.
The restaurant group said it will exclusively use UK-farmed chicken at its Olympic sites during the games this summer. The comments come after the group was criticised by UK farmers and the National Farmers Union (NFU) for its sourcing practices. According to the food group, reaffirming its commitment to British farmers was designed to end this recent “confusion”.
“Recent comments made on this topic have, in our opinion, created some confusion in the minds of our customers about our commitment to British farming and to the Games,” a McDonald’s spokesperson told The Farmers Guardian.
“We are a proud partner of the London 2012 Games and have been a good customer of British farming for decades. We spend over £300m each year on our UK supply chain, purchasing from thousands of farmers across a wide range of categories from beef to free range eggs.”
McDonald’s stressed that it will only source UK-farmed chicken for sale at the four food outlets it will run at the London 2012 Olympics.
In a parallel move McDonald’s launched a scheme to help British and Irish farmers and improve environmental and animal welfare. The programme will see the food group invest £1m to help the industry by providing training and helping farmers improve the sustainability of their operations.
McDonald’s will provide 200 farmers in the first phase with a carbon calculator that is designed to help measure greenhouse gas emissions. After this trial the calculator will be offered to all beef farmers across the UK and Ireland.