Country Flag
Expatica logo

Expatica news

McDonald’s in Spain to use 100% Spanish beef from now on

According to president of the Spanish branch of the global fast-food giant, Mario Barbosa, McDonald’s will only use meat from cows that have been reared at one of the 30,000 farms distributed across the country that it relies on.

Approximately 10,000 tonnes of Spanish beef will be purchased every year and served as McDonald’s hamburgers in restaurants all over Spain.

Barbosa has explained that the meat served in restaurants in this country does not contain any preservatives nor additives, and comes from whole pieces of meat obtained from the shin (forequarter) and skirt. This is then shaped into a hamburger and immediately deep-frozen so that they can then be cooked on a grill at a later stage.

McDonald’s receives beef from around 30,000 different cattle farms, which is around 20% of the total in Spain. The farms can be found largely in Extremadura (50.4%) and Galicia (34.5%), although some are also in Cantabria (3.6%), Castilla-La Mancha (2.9%), Cataluña (2.5%), Andalucía (2.4%), Castilla y León (1.9%) and Aragón (1.8%).

At present, McDonald’s purchases 75% of its meat in this country (181 million euro) and the remaining 25% from other EU counties, but this will now change.

As well as beef, the fast-food chain also orders 6,500 tonnes of fresh vegetables, 282 tonnes of fruit and almost 6,500 tonnes of chicken, collaborating with 60 Spanish companies and supporting 60,000 employees within the primary sector.

In addition to ensuring that 100% of the meat used will now come from national farms, Barbosa has also promised to carry out sustainable, environmental and animal friendly practices.

All of the factories in Spain are open to the public at any time, so that the consumer can see what he is putting into his body. Barbosa has placed particular importance in transparency, which has been one of the main priorities of the company over the last few years.

Amongst its plans for the next few years, between 2015 and 2018, McDonald’s hopes to open 100 new restaurants and employ an extra 3,000 staff. This will be in addition to the 500 restaurants that have already been established in this country and the 24,000 people that work in them.