McDonald’s Halal Trial - the Quality Assurance Manager’s view
We do our best to listen to customers - their tastes evolve and we need to evolve our menu with them. In this case, we have had many requests from around the UK for Halal food and we have spent the past two years looking into how we might accommodate them.
We started by working closely with the Halal Food Authority to understand the exact requirements for Halal food, and also with leading animal welfare groups. We wanted to know if we could prepare and serve Halal food that met not only the requirements of the Halal Food Authority but also retained the welfare standards already employed by McDonald's in the UK, standards that meet and often exceed government regulations. We have, and will continue to work closely with the RSPCA and the Food Animal Initiative (FAI). The FAI project has been set up in conjunction with Oxford University's Zoology Department on a farm in Oxfordshire, and aims to develop commercially robust alternative farming methods that significantly raise animal welfare standards, and address human health and environmental concerns.
So, two years on, we are ready to trial a Halal chicken menu in one restaurant in Southall. Chicken was chosen because our current abattoir methods - “stun to stun” (an electrical shock to knock out the chicken painlessly so that it is unconscious), followed by the kill - meant that Halal accreditation is possible once a verse from the Koran is recited during the slaughter by the appropriate person. This is the only change in our abattoir procedure.
The trial allows us to look into a number of things. First and foremost, how our customers feel about the menu change - those with an Halal diet and those without. Secondly, the preparation in the kitchen: Halal food must be kept separate from other meat and our staff need special training. It’s a big upheaval for the restaurant and the suppliers. We need to be confident it’s manageable and sustainable.
At the moment, it remains a trial, though feedback from customers has been really positive. Any plans to roll out an Halal chicken menu would be limited to those communities with a strong demand for Halal, and an alternative McDonald’s nearby for any customers who would prefer not to eat Halal chicken. So please sign up in the Keep in Touch section to hear about any future news on the trial - or ask a question here if it hasn’t been answered.
The Quality Scouts report videos require flash player 7 or above. Please download the latest version of flash player.
The Halal Trial: Inside the restaurant
We took our cameras to the restaurant in Southall to get a behind-the-scenes view of how the Halal trial was implemented. As well as looking into the kitchen, we interviewed customers to see what they thought of it. Take a look at our short film to find out what happened.
Take a closer look at the Halal preparation
