What's your beef? It's all Canadian at McDonald's

Thursday, December 3, 2009

This fall, the Beef Information Centre (BIC) commended McDonald's Canada for its support of Canadian beef, refuting an Internet e-mail hoax which spread false information about McDonald's beef source practices.

McDonald's is the largest food service purchaser of beef in Canada and "McDonald's Canada has made a commitment to Canadian beef, which today translates into the company using 100 per cent Canadian beef for all its burger offerings," says John Gillespie, BIC chair and a producer from Ayr, Ont.

The key word in that statement might be "today." In May 2002, Better Farming reported that a statement on McDonald's Canada's website said: "The majority of McDonald's Canada's beef comes from Canada. However, in conjunction with this commitment to quality and value, we searched the world and found an additional supply of McDonald's quality beef in Australia and New Zealand. This is sourced from globally proven beef suppliers with whom McDonald's has solid, long-standing relationships."

Susan Evans, BIC's communications manager, says McDonald's needs to source more beef from other countries periodically. She says BIC announced its support for McDonald's after the hoax re-surfaced recently, appearing to be a complaint from the Alberta Cattle Feeders Association that imported beef was replacing domestic meat.

McDonald's Canada says it uses 63 million pounds of beef annually. BF