Food Quality & Sourcing

We embed strict food safety standards and protocols in the Company’s processes, from food sourcing to menu development, packaging and distribution, and the running of McDonald’s restaurants.

McDonald’s mission is to create delicious, feel-good moments for everyone. We listen to our customers and evaluate our menu to identify ways to evolve our offerings while maintaining the great taste people know and love.

The road to serving McDonald’s menu items that delight customers is long and complex. Our global supply chain spans countries, continents and industries. We approach responsible sourcing holistically, understanding that our work can impact the livelihoods of people, the health of our shared planet and the well-being of animals. We believe we must respect them all.

We believe that serving safe, quality food requires sourcing animals that are properly cared for throughout their lives. This is why the Company prioritizes animal health and welfare and responsible antibiotic use.

Recent Highlights

Food Safety

• As of the end of 2023, 96% of McDonald’s restaurants had fully implemented the move from a paper-based to a digital food safety management platform.
  
  
• More than 1,800 third-party audits were performed in 2023 through the Company’s Supplier Quality Management System (SQMS), of which McDonald’s standards were fully met by over 90% of the food suppliers.
  
  
• More than 250 distribution centers completed third-party food safety and quality audits in 2023. Over 98% were found to be operating consistently with the McDonald’s Distributor Quality Management Process (DQMP) audit standard.
  
  
• More than 60,000 food safety audits were conducted at McDonald’s restaurants in 2023.
  
  

Nutrition & Marketing Practices

Across our 20 major markets:

• In 2023, 61% of Happy Meal Bundle Offerings met our Global Happy Meal Nutrition Criteria for balanced meals. These criteria mean that meals must have less than or equal to 600 calories, 10% of calories from saturated fat, 650 mg of sodium and 10% of calories from added sugar.
  
  
• In 2023, we maintained the removal of artificial flavors, added colors from artificial sources and artificial preservatives where feasible from Happy Meal Bundle Offerings in our 20 in-scope markets.¹
  
  
• 100% of Happy Meal nutrition information was available on all participating market websites and mobile apps as of Q1 2024.
  
  
• 99% of Happy Meal Bundles shown in advertisements on third-party media met our Global Nutrition Criteria in 2023.
  
  • We featured water, milk or juice as the Happy Meal beverage, and fruit, vegetable or dairy items as one of the Happy Meal sides in 100% of the ads the Company directed to children.
     

Responsible Sourcing

• 98.8% of beef sourced for McDonald’s restaurants supported deforestation-free supply chains by the end of 2023.²
  
  
• 93.8% of the fish sourced for McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish^® sandwich was from sustainably managed wild-caught fisheries, which is assessed and verified annually against the McDonald’s Sustainability Fisheries Standard by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership.³
  
  
• 100% of the palm oil used in McDonald’s restaurants and as an ingredient in McDonald’s products supported the production of more sustainable palm oil in 2023.⁴
  
  
• 100% of soy sourced in 2023 for the feed of chicken used in McDonald’s products supported deforestation-free supply chains globally.⁵
  
  
• 99.9% of our ground and whole bean coffee was sustainably sourced in 2023.⁶
  
  
• 97.9% of our primary fiber-based guest packaging was sourced from recycled or certified sources in 2023.⁷
  
  

Animal Health & Welfare

• We are currently on track to achieve our eight Broiler Welfare Commitments across our in-scope markets, which are expected to be fully implemented by the end of 2024.
  
  
• As of the end of 2023, more than 96% of our pork purchased in the U.S. comes from suppliers that have phased out the use of gestation stalls (small, enclosed pens) for housing confirmed pregnant sows.
  
  
• As of the end of 2023, McDonald’s USA has achieved its commitment to sourcing 100% cage-free eggs by 2025 – two years ahead of schedule.
   

Responsible Antibiotic Use

• We have established market-specific targets for the responsible use of antibiotics in our global beef supply chain for 10 in-scope markets and, since 2023, have been working with our suppliers to establish data systems that will help enable future measurement of antibiotic use against these targets.⁸
  
  
• We are actively working with our supply chain to collect antibiotic use data associated with global beef industries across our 10 in-scope markets,⁸ leveraging independent third parties to facilitate data aggregation.
  
  
• Highest Priority Critically Important Antibiotics (HPCIAs) in human medicine have been eliminated for use in raising chickens for Australia, Brazil, Canada, Europe, Japan, South Korea and the U.S., with China expected to comply before the end of 2027.
  

Related News

• 10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets®
  
  
• McDonald’s Achieves Goal of Sourcing 100% Cage-Free Eggs in the U.S.

Reporting Across Our Purpose & Impact

For a comprehensive view of our progress and actions in 2023, please see our Goal Performance & Reporting page.

This section of our website – Our Purpose & Impact – acts as the primary platform for our foundational approach, strategies and policies over each of our priority environmental and social issues, alongside recent progress highlights. In addition to our overall approach to issues, our goals and performance work in tandem to advance transformation across our four Impact Areas helping us drive meaningful impact.

Related Issues

Additional issues across our four pillars include:

• Nature, Forests & Water
  
  
• Business Resilience
  
  
• Human Rights

Footnotes

¹ In our 20 in-scope markets.

² Beef. Scope: Includes all beef raw material used in beef patties sourced for McDonald’s products from beef patty manufacturers that supply McDonald’s restaurants in the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Germany, Ireland, France, New Zealand, Canada, the U.K. or Poland. Includes all McDonald’s restaurants owned and operated by the Company and its Franchisees in these countries, which collectively represent over 80% of our global beef volumes, as of the end of 2021. The Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB) aims to define the principles of and criteria for beef sustainability globally. The five core principles are focused on the following: managing natural resources responsibly; respecting people and communities; caring for the welfare of animals; ensuring the safety and quality of beef; and driving efficiency and innovation to reduce waste and improve economic viability. These principles allow for national and regional interpretation, given the significant variation in production systems, legal frameworks, sociopolitical factors and climates that exist across the globe. Exclusions: Beef used as secondary ingredients.

³ Fish: Fish refers to any type of fish species used as an ingredient in a McDonald’s product and listed on the product’s ingredient statement. Wild-Caught Fish refers to fish that come from seas, rivers and other natural bodies of water. Filet-O-Fish sandwich refers to the McDonald’s menu item containing wild-caught fish. Verified sustainable sources refers to wild-caught fish, sourced by suppliers to the McDonald’s System, from fisheries that are annually verified as compliant with the McDonald’s Sustainable Fisheries Standard by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership. MSC Certification is optional to McDonald’s markets. Fisheries may also be independently certified as meeting the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Principles and Criteria for Sustainable Fishing where a certificate of conformity to an MSC Standard has been granted. Source: https://www.msc.org/. McDonald’s may display the MSC certification logo in some of its markets where fisheries and restaurants are certified against the MSC Chain of Custody traceability standard. Scope: Includes all wild-caught fish sourced for Filet-O-Fish sandwich portions served in McDonald’s restaurants. Filet-O-Fish sandwich represents over 97% of the total fish volumes used in the McDonald’s System (by weight). Includes all suppliers of wild-caught fish for Filet-O-Fish sandwich to the McDonald’s System and all McDonald’s restaurants owned and operated by the Company and its Franchisees that sell fish. Exclusions: Products that are not Filet-O-Fish sandwich containing wild-caught or farmed fish. We estimate that these products represent less than 2% of the total fish sourced by McDonald’s by weight and may include products such as tuna, prawns, shrimp, salmon and calamari; other breaded products; and locally sourced products. The Company has set an expectation that these products are sustainably sourced, although they are not included in this global performance measure given the local, and often promotional, nature of these items. In 2022, we saw a decrease in the percentage of our fish sourced from sustainably managed wild-caught fisheries. This was due to impacts on our supply chain from the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and McDonald’s decision to exit the Russian market in 2022.  This resulted in an increase of fish sourced from fisheries whose Fishery Improvements Projects are not yet compliant with our standards. Moving forward, we have plans in place to reduce sourcing from non-compliant fisheries and will increase our supply of fish sourced from compliant fisheries as new facility options become available.

⁴ Palm oil. Scope: Includes all palm oil (including crude palm oil, palm kernel oil, derivatives and fractions) sourced for McDonald’s restaurants for use as restaurant cooking oil and all palm oil sourced by McDonald’s suppliers and used directly as an ingredient in a McDonald’s product and listed on the product’s ingredient statement. Includes all suppliers of products containing palm oil in the McDonald’s System and all McDonald’s restaurants owned and operated by the Company and its Franchisees that use palm oil. All countries are currently identified as high-deforestation priority regions for palm oil and all volumes are required to be covered by Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification or credits. All RSPO supply chain models applicable to RSPO are applicable to McDonald’s ‒ RSPO Identity Preserved (IP), RSPO Segregated (SG), RSPO Mass Balance (MB) and Book and Claim (BC) ‒ although McDonald’s is committed to increasing traceability by specifying physical certification for the palm oil used in the McDonald’s System in the greatest volumes (IP, SG or MB). Exclusions: Palm oil, palm kernel oil or their derivative used as secondary ingredients in McDonald’s products. This is when palm oil is used as an ingredient within an ingredient, for example, an emulsifier.

⁵ Soy (for chicken feed). Scope: Includes all soybean volume used in the feed of chicken sourced for McDonald’s products by all chicken suppliers to the McDonald’s System and all McDonald’s restaurants owned and operated by the Company and its Franchisees that sell chicken. Europe refers to Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and Ukraine. Countries with regions currently identified as high-deforestation priority regions for soy include Argentina (Chaco biome), Brazil (Amazon and Cerrado biomes) and Paraguay (Chaco biome). Given the complexity of soy supply chains, we consider that, unless demonstrated, all of McDonald’s sources of soy for chicken feed fall into high-deforestation priority regions, with the exception of chicken sourced in North America, where soy used in chicken feed is locally produced and considered low risk. Exclusions: Soy used as an ingredient in McDonald’s products sold in restaurants, for example, soy oil.

⁶ Coffee. Scope: Includes all ground and whole bean coffee, including decaffeinated coffee, used in espresso-based drinks and coffee brewed at McDonald’s restaurants, and all ground and whole bean coffee in McDonald’s branded retail products. Includes all suppliers of coffee to the McDonald’s System. Market scope includes all McDonald’s restaurants owned and operated by the Company and its Franchisees that sell coffee, and retail outlets selling McDonald’s-branded coffee products. Countries with regions currently identified as high-deforestation priority regions for coffee include Honduras, Indonesia and Vietnam. McDonald’s requires all coffee sourced from these regions to be Rainforest Alliance Certified. Exclusions: Coffee extracts and ingredients used in products such as frappés and coffee in baked goods; coffee in cold brew drinks if they are brewed off-site; coffee extract in ready-to-drink retail products; and other locally sourced products containing coffee.

⁷ Fiber. Scope: Primary fiber-based packaging refers to products that are used to package guest food on premises at McDonald’s restaurants. This type of packaging includes containers, cups, wraps, bags for food, beverages, napkins, folding cartons, clamshells, food service bags, napkins, salad bowls, Happy Meal cartons, drink carriers and cup carriers. Includes all suppliers of primary-based packaging to the McDonald’s System and all McDonald’s restaurants owned and operated by the Company and its Franchisees. In 2021, the primary fiber-based packaging scope was expanded to include plastic alternatives such as wood stirrers and cutlery, and paper straws and lids. This broadened scope has resulted in a slight decrease in percent compliance. All volumes of contingency items sourced from suppliers compliant with our standards but not integrated into our data reporting system were counted as non-compliant. Countries with regions currently identified as high-deforestation priority regions for fiber include Argentina, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Russia and Vietnam. McDonald’s requires all wood fiber sourced from these regions to be Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) certified or FSC® controlled wood sources with full chain of custody certification. Exclusions: Primary fiber-based packaging in food packaged off-site McDonald’s restaurants; tray liners, straws and limited locally sourced items.

⁸ Beef antibiotic use: For purposes of this goal, in-scope market refers to the country from which the product is sourced. This goal focuses on Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Poland, the U.K. and the U.S., which represented our top 10 beef sourcing countries and accounted for over 80% of our global beef supply chain as of the end of 2022.

Back to Top