McDonald’s to use fresh beef for its Quarter Pounders by mid-2018

OAK BROOK, Illinois — McDonald’s USA Thursday, March 31, announced that by mid-2018, it will serve fresh beef, prepared when ordered, instead of frozen beef in all Quarter Pounder burgers in most of its restaurants.

The fresh beef burgers, cooked right when ordered, are the latest step the company has made to meet customers’ changing expectations.  All McDonald’s burgers use 100 percent pure beef with absolutely no fillers, additives or preservatives.

“Over the past two years, we’ve made a series of bold, tangible changes for our customers,” said McDonald’s President and Chief Executive Officer Steve Easterbrook.  “Serving All-Day Breakfast, moving to cage-free eggs and testing delivery are all proof of our commitment to build a better McDonald’s. And we are committed to transforming more aspects of our business, including offering a more modern and enjoyable dining experience, adding new levels of convenience and technology, and making more positive changes to the food we serve.”

Delivering fresh beef, cooked right when ordered, in Quarter Pounder burgers is one of the company’s latest customer-led initiatives that builds on several other recent milestones, including:

• In 2015, the company announced a number of changes to how it serves and sources its food by offering All-Day Breakfast, committing to only sourcing cage-free eggs by 2025, and committing to only serve chicken not treated with antibiotics important to human medicine* that was completed nearly a year ahead of schedule in 2016.
• Last year, the company removed artificial preservatives from several menu items, including Chicken McNuggets and eliminated high fructose corn syrup from the buns used on Big Macs, Quarter Pounders, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, Filet-O-Fish and McChicken sandwiches.

“Today’s announcement is part of a continuing food journey for McDonald’s,” said McDonald’s USA President Chris Kempczinski.  “Over the last two years, we have accelerated the pace of change around how we source and serve our food. Delivering fresh beef that’s prepared when our customers order their food is just another example of how we are raising the bar.  We’re just getting started, and can’t wait to show you what’s next.”

“This represents a strong partnership between McDonald’s, Lopez Foods and their other beef suppliers to support this initiative and deliver McDonald’s quality standards,” said Ed Sanchez, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lopez Foods. “It was exciting to be part of the test and we look forward to bringing fresh beef to more McDonald’s customers in 2018.”

Quarter Pounder burgers using fresh beef, cooked right when ordered, were initially tested in 325 restaurants across the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas area and 77 restaurants in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Quarter Pounder burgers include the Quarter Pounder, Quarter Pounder with Cheese, Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, the Quarter Pounder with Cheese Deluxe and Signature Crafted Recipe burgers.

“We received overwhelmingly positive feedback from customers and employees and we’re proud to have been part of a test that is creating a watershed moment for McDonald’s,” said McDonald’s Dallas/Fort Worth Franchisee Joe Jasper.  “This test was driven by the Franchisees, our region and insights from what our customers are asking for when they visit McDonald’s.”

* Farmers still use ionophores, a class of antibiotics that are not prescribed to people, to keep chickens healthy.