McDonalds shows ongoing commitment to Welsh agriculture at The Royal Welsh Show
For some time now, provenance and quality has been of utmost importance to McDonalds and significant investment has seen improvements to the quality of the ingredients at the heart of the menus most popular meals. This is why McDonalds is encouraging visitors to the stand to find out more about McDonalds supply chains and learn that McDonalds only uses organic, semi-skimmed milk from British farms in its coffees, teas, porridges and Happy Meal milk bottles.
In addition to McDonalds investment in the quality of its produce, customers too are placing greater importance on provenance and quality and in particular over three quarters of the Welsh (79%)* claim that food quality is of such high importance now that it influences where they choose to eat out. Its with this in mind that the stands creative was developed.
Visitors to the stand will find a variety of different activities to take them right back to the start of the McDonalds supply chain and exemplify the quality of its ingredients, including:
- Interactive question and answer units for families to test their knowledge on
- Representatives from the beef, milk, egg and potato supply chains, who are behind the sourcing of quality ingredients, to answer questions
- And a McDonalds quiz for kids of any age to take part in and enjoy a free McDonalds fruit bag afterwards to keep them going
Commenting on the activity, Brian Mullens, McDonalds Senior Vice President states: “McDonald’s is a proud to be a major supporter of British agriculture and last year purchased 16.6 million litres of semi-skimmed organic milk, locally sourced from British farmers. In addition, throughout 2009 McDonald’s used 35,000 tonnes of British and Irish beef for our world famous beef patties, 91 million free-range eggs from the UK, and over 181,000 tonnes of British potatoes.
McDonald’s is committed to supporting British farmers while providing customers with quality products which are value for money”
The Royal Welsh Show will be taking place at the Royal Welsh Showground, Llanelwedd, Builth Wells, between the 19th and 22nd of July and people can find new interactive stand in Avenue D on stand number 314.
* research taken from Eating Out in the UK, 2009 A Comprehensive Analysis of the Informal Eating Out Market is an independent piece of research carried out by Allegra Strategies Food Strategy Forum, and sponsored by forum member, McDonalds UK
- McDonalds has proudly run its business in Wales since 1984. Last year we had almost 50 million customer visits to our 61 restaurants across the country.
- But McDonalds in Wales is about more than the number of restaurants we operate. Its a success story of Welsh suppliers, franchisees and staff working together. Its about the investment we are making together in Wales, in our supply chain, in our restaurants and in our 3,500 staff. Its about the skills and opportunities we offer and its about the ways in which we support our local communities.
- The new-look investments in the local Welsh economy go beyond the high street in 2009 McDonalds sourced beef from nearly 1,000 Welsh farms. On top of this we spent 31million on packaging from Welsh suppliers
- Around one-third of our Welsh restaurants have a brand-new look with fresh, vibrant colours and the 2010 investment means that over half of our estate in Wales will be redesigned by the end of the year
- McDonalds is a founding partner and sponsor of the Food Animal Intitative (FAI), a long-term farming project in Oxfordshire, in conjunction with Oxford Universitys Zoology Department. The FAI is committed to developing commercially robust alternative farming methods that significantly raise animal welfare standards and address human health and environmental concerns.
- A balanced diet and active lifestyle are important to us all. McDonalds approach is to educate and raise awareness of nutritional information, as well as work where possible to make changes to the menu to help make these balanced choices as easy as possible.
- McDonalds has provided customers with nutritional information since 1984. Guideline Daily Amounts represent nutritional value in clear tables on much of McDonalds packaging.
- Detailed nutrition, allergen and ingredient information is available on www.mcdonaldsmenu.info
- In 2007 McDonalds created www.makeupyourownmind.co.uk to provide people with the opportunity to ask any question about its food or business and receive a personal reply.
- Get active, find a local restaurant or see whats in store at www.mcdonalds.co.uk