Make up
your own mind

1 We’ve all heard the stories…

Here we were again on our travels, Stanley and me. This is our second Quality Scout visit on behalf of you, the public, and this time we were going to find out all the gory details about what goes into the famous McDonald’s burger, lets see what we could pin on them, surely something! We’ve all heard the stories, certainly I’ve had plenty of friends say to me what they think goes into the burgers (some of it not very nice.)

This time we traveled to Scunthorpe in England to visit a supplier that makes burgers for McDonald’s.

Here are some interesting facts about Esca. This plant was opened in 1989 and has McDonald’s as the sole customer. Don’t think its small scale though, they use a lot of beef to make the McDonald’s burgers - in 2005, Esca’s annual beef production was 662,000kg per week. The meat they use is only flank and forequarter, which comes from 22 beef suppliers across the UK. Among these are Scot Beef, Highland Meats, St Merryn Meats, Dunbia, Romford Meats, and Foyle Meats - to name some of them. These all contribute to the 7,000 head of cattle (a farming term, not that there are literally 7,000 heads used) per week in the U.K. alone.

That gets rid of one or two of the Myths surrounding McDonald’s, such as…

• They don’t use British farmers.
• They use meat that cannot be traced.
• It’s not meat in the burger.

On the day of the visit I was quite apprehensive about going to the plant, I had questions running through my mind like “Will I see dead cattle lying somewhere?”, “Will it be bits of scrap meat that are used in the burgers?” or “Will the plant smell of dead animals?”

The answer to all those questions was no, no and no!

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2 The truth about a Quality Scout Visit

You know what I’m learning about these visits…

• There is always more to the process than you imagine, (and I have vivid imagination I can assure you).
• The people you come across are more educated than you give them credit for.
• The processes are more technical than you think, although not complicated.
• There is more care taken in the making of the finished product than you imagined.
• They are proud of the ingredients that they use.
• They all work really hard to keep the consumer happy with the finished article.
• The farmer is happy with the product he’s supplying, it’s of good quality and it can be traced to the source.
• Health and safety regulations are strenuously adhered to.
• McDonald’s keep everyone on their toes, whether it’s the farmer or, as we found out, Esca. They regularly check the traceability procedures in place, giving them 4hrs to trace where a box of burgers was sourced from.

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3 The day itself.

So in we went, where, after meeting everyone involved at Esca, we were given a briefing on the company and the day ahead. We then donned the very fetching white overalls, safety helmets, hair nets, wellies etc. - standard issue I’m afraid.

As I am finding with these visits next to Traceability, Hygiene is a big word.

Hands thoroughly washed and wellies sanitized before you enter the factory - onwards we went. This process is also repeated on leaving the plant.

In the area known as the dock, we saw where the meat enters the plant in its raw state. Here it is checked for things such as traceability, freshness, colour, smell. The large metal bins it has been transported in have plastic liners inside them to avoid the meat coming in contact with the metal of the bin thus reducing the risk of any contamination. And at any time they will refuse the meat if it is not up to standard.

From here some of the meat is stored in the chiller area which is kept at a temperature of -4c, -5c and the rest goes in the freezer. Moving into the production area I really liked a sign on the wall, it says “Keep it Cold, Keep it Clean, Keep it Moving.”

We then moved into the production area, where I thought I might be proved right in my concerns.

1st stage – The meat comes into the factory in its raw state…

2nd stage - The meat then goes through a massive mincing machine…

3rd stage – The minced meat is "formed", shaped nicely to you and me…

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4 That was it?

Was I wrong? Had I missed something? No that’s it, that’s what they do. No funny business, there had been nothing added, no fillers no binders, there was meat and only meat, nothing else. That’s the lot, you now have your burger.

The patties are then frozen and packed ready for distribution.

Onto the Quality Control kitchen and we got to sample the finished product and here there was something added ………………………………Salt and Pepper.

Again there are checks made in the quality control area every hour, they take a box randomly from the line and test the quality of the patty for diameter, shape, taste once cooked etc. So that was it, really quite normal, just like you would do at home just on a massive scale.

We came away from Esca fully convinced that its beef and only beef that goes into the burger you eat from McDonald’s. Forget the stories you hear…

We know. We’ve been, seen and eaten it.

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