Questions answered
There are 17 questions about “Animal welfare” in the “How do you operate?” topic.
Click on a question to read our answer.
- 16. l would like to know how your meat is slaughtered for your burgers etc...is done according to the book ie the Torah or the bible ?
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There is no religious input into McDonald's approach to animal rearing or slaughter. The question has come up quite a lot on this website, but currently McDonald's UK lacks the necessary infrastructure in its supply chain to guarantee the requirements of Halal or Kosher food. McDonald's ensures that the slaughter of animals is carried out in a humane and compassionate manner by qualified personnel. The company does not work with any supplier that cannot adhere to these high standards, and to all those required by the most stringent UK and EU legislation.
JUNE'07 UPDATE: McDonald's trials Halal chicken at a restaurant in Southall, London. (June 2007)
SEPTEMBER '09 TRIAL RESULT: McDonald’s began this trial because we wanted to assess customer demand for certified Halal food in our UK restaurants. We have learnt that Halal is only popular with a very small percentage of our customers and to offer it we would need to make significant changes to our kitchen procedures and supply chain. Given this, we have decided that we are not currently in a position to roll out Halal food in the UK.
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What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon - 17. Why is it that, despite the fact that the "force chickens to breath knockout gas" system (that is employed in many slaughterhouses to stun the birds) has been proven to be more effecient, you still use chickens that have been killed in inhumane ways (by ((sometimes unsucessfully)) dipping the birds into electrified water ((the birds that survive this are fully awake when they are decapitated))
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The first thing to say is that you can rest assured that McDonald’s has the very highest standards in place to ensure that the rearing and slaughter of poultry is carried out in the most humane and compassionate manner currently on offer in any given country and is monitored by qualified personnel and independent vets. McDonald’s will not work with any supplier that does not adhere to both the internal requirements created in conjunctions with independent animal welfare experts alongside those required by UK and EU legislation.
In terms of your specific question, there are very few chicken slaughterhouses in the UK that use controlled atmosphere stunning (CAS), the knockout gas you refer to, and it is not a method used by McDonald’s suppliers in the UK. On mainland Europe, some plants use CAS and McDonald’s may source meat from suppliers using this system when demand requires it. However, it is worth noting that animal experts have advised that this method is humane.
The electric stunning process is the more universal method of slaughter and, as such, has been the focus of many checks to ensure that it is as compassionate a method as possible. However, McDonald’s is committed to working very closely with researchers to provide even more humane methods of slaughter and this might include the development of the use of controlled atmosphere stunning in poultry slaughterhouses.
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