Responsible Sourcing

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.

Our Recent Progress

• 98.8% of beef sourced for McDonald’s restaurants supported deforestation-free supply chains by the end of 2023.¹
  
  
• 93.8% of the fish sourced for McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish® sandwich was from more sustainably managed wild-caught fisheries, which is assessed and verified annually against the McDonald’s Sustainability Fisheries Standard by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership.²
  
  
• 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 2023.³
  
  
• 100% of soy sourced in 2023 for the feed of chicken used in McDonald’s products supported deforestation-free supply chains globally.⁴
  
  
• 99.9% of our ground and whole bean coffee was sustainably sourced in 2023.⁵
  
  
• 97.9% of our primary fiber-based guest packaging was sourced from recycled or certified sources in 2023.⁶
   

See our latest Purpose & Impact Report on the Goal Performance & Reporting page for more information and progress on our responsible sourcing efforts.

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Our Strategy

Our global supply chain presents a range of opportunities and risks related to topics such as land, water, animals and people. In the spirit of one of the Company’s core values Integrity – We do the right thing, we support the Company’s long-term goal to continue providing quality food to customers.

We take a two-pronged approach to responsible sourcing. On one side, we consider and manage risks that could impact supply chain resiliency and our ability to maintain a reliable supply to our restaurants and offices. On the other side, we seek to enhance the potential positive impacts of the Company’s supply chain – on topics such as the livelihoods of those who produce our food and the well-being of the planet and animals we rely on – by progressing against our wider impact strategy.

We aim to deliver more responsible sourcing programs that help drive lasting, meaningful outcomes on the environmental and social issues that are critical to the Company. To enable this, we focus on several topics: Animal Health & Welfare; Human Rights; Business Resilience; and Nature, Forests & Water.

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Driving Supply Chain Resilience

When it comes to driving resilience, we think and act holistically, considering the whole McDonald’s System. This includes our supply chain and how we secure raw materials. Effective supply chain management is vital to our success and we are developing and deploying technologies that enhance our understanding of potential supply chain risks to enable more timely decision-making.

Read more about our comprehensive approach on our Business Resilience page.

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Advancing Regenerative Agriculture Principles

We believe regenerative agriculture has the potential to drive action against a series of risks and opportunities to the Company, as well as the potential to deliver benefits for a wide range of stakeholders. That is why we are making the adoption of regenerative agriculture principles within certain categories of the Company’s supply chain a long-term, global priority for McDonald’s and a key step in our responsible sourcing efforts.

We also believe regenerative agriculture on farms and ranches can help address various environmental and social issues, including:

• Building a thriving food system that is increasingly resilient to climate change and other variables that impact a safe, assured food supply.
  
  
• Enhancing wildlife habitats and increasing biodiversity.
  
  
• Helping tackle climate change by building healthier, more productive soil that better sequesters carbon and is more drought and flood resilient.
  
  
• Decreasing use and long-term need for chemical inputs.
  
  
• Improving water aeration and retention, and fostering cleaner, safer runoff.
  
  
• Supporting farmer livelihoods, enhancing farmer prosperity and making processes more resilient in the long run.
   

Informed by our Regenerative Agriculture Framework, we are working with some of our suppliers, farmers, ranchers and other stakeholders to introduce or scale regenerative principles.

In working to understand and share our producers’ achievements, our Flagship Farmers Program helps amplify the voices of farmers who are leading the industry with pioneering sustainability practices. The program is a resource for producers worldwide to explore innovative solutions for soil health, more sustainable grazing techniques, biodiversity, ecosystem protection, emissions reductions and animal welfare.

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Advancing Our Commitment on Forests and Natural Ecosystems

Learn about our commitment to forests and natural ecosystems on our Nature, Forests & Water page. Additionally, read more about how we are evolving our approach to fiber sourcing and use in packaging on our Packaging, Toys & Waste page.

We are committed to eliminating deforestation⁷ and addressing conversion⁸ in our global supply chains by 2030, for commodities and regions where we can deliver the greatest impact.

Supporting Deforestation-Free Coffee Supply Chains

Read about our approach to coffee sourcing on our Nature, Forests & Water page.

We want customers to walk into any McDonald’s restaurant globally and enjoy an affordable, quality cup of coffee that benefits farming communities, supports a deforestation-free supply chain and is more sustainably sourced.⁵

We do this in a few ways, including:

• The coffee we source is certified to international sustainability standards through organizations such as Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade International and Fair Trade USA.
  
  
• The coffee we source is from farms participating in approved roaster-led programs that comply with the McCafé Sustainability Improvement Platform (SIP) program.
   

Minimizing the Impacts of Palm Oil Sourcing

Read about our approach to palm oil sourcing on our Nature, Forests & Water page.

Palm oil produced for McDonald’s³ for use as restaurant cooking oil, supplier parfry or as an ingredient in a McDonald’s global core product must be certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

McDonald’s is committed to working with stakeholders and the Company’s supply chain to support the development and improvement of a more sustainable palm oil production. We have engaged one of our major palm oil suppliers, Wilmar, on a series of projects to help improve transparency and sustainability outcomes for our supply chain, in collaboration with Proforest.

Wilmar and McDonald’s share a commitment to sustainably sourcing palm oil and supporting the delivery of NDPE (no deforestation, no expansion on peat and no exploitation) in palm oil production having both been engaged in the development of the NDPE Implementation Reporting Framework (IRF), through our participation in the Palm Oil Collaboration Group (POCG).

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Advancing Animal Health and Welfare

We believe we have a responsibility to improve the health and welfare of animals in our supply chain and work with our global network of suppliers to actively encourage industry and cross-sector collaboration. We are taking action across our beef, broiler chicken, egg and pork supply chains to help ensure animals in our supply chains are properly cared for throughout their lives. This includes striving to maintain a responsible approach to antibiotic use.

Read in detail about how we’re advancing Animal Health & Welfare and Responsible Antibiotic Use.

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Investing in Transformation Projects for Social and Environmental Impact

As well as advocating for regenerative agriculture and setting commitments that help support our responsible sourcing efforts, we invest strategically in projects to transform key commodity supply chains.

How McCafé SIP Works

McCafé SIP was launched in 2016 with partners including Conservation International, the Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA) and an advisory panel comprising several other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and certification bodies.

The program sets out the framework to engage and guide McDonald’s coffee supply chain in sustainable sourcing, as well as promote long-term investments by the McDonald’s System in coffee growers and their communities.

McCafé SIP provides visibility to coffee farms, enabling McDonald’s and participating roasters to invest in activities that meet the unique needs of each coffee-growing community in its supply chain.

In addition to mechanisms that provide greater confidence, McCafé SIP promotes transparency, allowing us to understand who grows our coffee; producer collaboration to provide relevant training and tools to farmer communities; and continuous improvements where performance and progress toward improved social, environmental and economic standards can be measured.

Developing Programs to Measure and Scale Beef Sustainability

In addition to our regenerative grazing programs, we collaborate with farmers, ranchers and other experts to develop and scale innovative approaches to beef production. See our Purpose & Impact Report (PDF – 6 MB) for examples of our latest projects in this space.

Palm Landscape Initiative

In Indonesia, we are engaging with Sustain Kutim, a palm oil sustainable landscape initiative, together with strategic partner Proforest, GIZ and several company funders to help reduce forestry and land-use emissions in Kutai Timur while supporting local communities, primary producers, palm oil and rubber plantation workers and the East Kutai district government.

See the Nature, Forests & Water (PDF – 6 MB) section within our Purpose & Impact Report to read more about this initiative.

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Strengthening Policies and Expectations

We believe embedding responsible sourcing standards across our global supply chain requires a targeted approach and collaborative effort from McDonald’s, our suppliers and industry peers. We set policies that clearly detail the Company’s expectations for its supply chain. We also engage with industry organizations and other relevant stakeholders to promote responsible sourcing across our wider industry.

Driving Change for Global Beef Supply Chains

Given the size and scale of our business, we believe we have an opportunity to help drive positive change across global food systems in collaboration with many farmers, ranchers and producers.

We use our influence as a global business to help galvanize action and collaboration between suppliers, producers and others. McDonald’s policies, standards and specifications for raw materials and finished products outline our expectations of our beef suppliers. These include strict requirements for food safety and animal health and welfare, as well as employee workplace accountability. Suppliers are audited annually by third parties and must be compliant to retain their ability to supply McDonald’s. To support forest-positive beef sourcing, we have a Deforestation-Free Beef Procurement Policy (DFBPP), which includes detailed requirements for beef sourced from Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Australia. We work alongside our monitoring partner, Agrotools, to utilize social and environmental criteria and monitor adherence to our DFBPP.

Collaborating on Beef Sustainability

We’ve worked alongside a diverse, global network of suppliers, NGOs and scientists for over a decade. Through these efforts, we’ve collaborated with farmers and ranchers to support long-term livelihoods and resiliency, as well as to embed beef farming methods that protect and maintain native landscapes, improve biodiversity and sequester carbon in soils.

In our in-scope markets (Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Poland, the U.K. and the U.S.), we have helped establish multi-stakeholder roundtable groups in collaboration with farmers, suppliers, industry groups, academia, civil society and the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB). We also helped establish the European Roundtable for Beef Sustainability (ERBS), which involves five of our top markets, plus Italy.

We were a founding member of the GRSB, an organization that convenes key stakeholders to advance, support and communicate continuous improvement in global beef value chain sustainability through leadership, science and multi-stakeholder engagement and collaboration. Our leadership and participation in the GRSB and multiple regional roundtables continues to support efforts to advance its objectives, set ambitious goals and empower its constituencies to drive progress.

Boosting Industry Sustainability for White Fish

McDonald’s believes that we have played an important role in helping improve the sustainability of the global white fish sector by implementing independently verified criteria for healthy fish stocks, impact on ecosystems, fisheries’ management and other key actions. We support global efforts to restore depleted fish stocks and conserve marine environment and we aim for all the wild-caught fish sourced for use in McDonald’s products to come from verified sustainable sources.

We work with organizations such as Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) and the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), to identify ways to help improve the health of marine ecosystems and promote respect for human rights for the people working across our fish supply chain.

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Footnotes

¹ 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.

² 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: 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 portions 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. 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.

³ 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.

⁴ 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, 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.

⁵ 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.

⁶ 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.

⁷ "Eliminate deforestation" refers to McDonald’s global pledge to tackle deforestation, and all of the social and environmental criteria in our Commitment on Forests and Natural Ecosystems (PDF – 126 KB) in our agricultural and forestry supply chains. In alignment with the definitions of the Accountability Framework initiative (AFi), we use the term “supporting deforestation-free supply chains” to more accurately reflect the actions we are taking to implement, measure and report progress toward our Commitment on Forests and Natural Ecosystems (PDF – 126 KB).

⁸ As aligned with Accountability Framework Initiative, conversion refers to: change of a natural ecosystem to another land use or profound change in a natural ecosystem’s species composition, structure or function.

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