The hamburger giants McDonald’s Corp have set new standards for the suppliers of their chicken. The standards are for raising and slaughtering of chickens that are served in their restaurants and this latest rules will affect menus such as McNuggets.
Animal activists have stated that the efforts put in by McDonald’s are little compared to the ones done by rival restaurants like Burger King and sandwich chain Subway, claiming that the company hasn’t really addressed the primary issue concerning their method of chicken production, which is birds bred to grow quickly to large sizes.
With the updated guidelines under McDonald’s, their suppliers like Tyson Foods Inc. and Cargill Inc. must all comply by the year 2024. The new set of rules will cover lots of area such as the amount and brightness of light in chicken houses, providing the birds with access to perches that promote natural behavior and also take other necessary steps to ensure that the welfare of the animals is improved upon.
McDonald’s stated that it is committed to conducting trials with their suppliers in order to measure the health of the different breeds of chicken. Temple Grandin, a livestock researcher who started the humane slaughterhouse practices and currently works with McDonald’s stated that “I think it’s one of the most comprehensive programs that I’ve seen for chickens,”
Consumers have taken interest in how animals are treated by restaurants as animal welfare groups have been raising awareness about the abuse of animals at facilities all over the country. McDonald’s diets have been affected by their guidelines before as they previously ceased to purchase chicken meat for their U. S restaurants from birds that are raised with antibiotics, even though it is considered good for the human health. They have opted to go for cage-free eggs in the U.S and Canada.
Even though such move raise costs for the producers, McDonald‘s, has maintained that it will not increase the menu prices due to the new standards that are been put in place. Bruce Feinberg, a senior director at the company while commenting on the requirements said that “While this might not be a direct impact on sales at McDonald‘s, it might help certain segments of our customer base make purchasing decisions that they might not have otherwise made,”
