McDonald’s tests fresh beef hamburger patties
13 May 2016
McDonald's is testing whether consumers would warm up to hamburger patties that did not come out of the freezer.
The company said it was testing hamburgers made from fresh beef in 14 locations in the Dallas area. Rather than frozen patties, burgers like the Bacon Clubhouse and Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese were being moulded from freshly ground beef.
In case of a nationwide rollout, the move could help McDonald's repel competition from rival chains like Shake Shack and In-N-Out, both of which use fresh, never frozen, beef in their burgers.
The patties were made of the same grade of beef as the frozen variety, and employees were cooking them as customers ordered.
The test had been ongoing since November, but "it's very premature to draw any conclusions" yet, spokeswoman Lisa McComb said. Considering McDonald's had 14,000 locations in the US, rolling out fresh patties to all of them would be a huge undertaking, without doubt.
"Like all of our tests, this one, too, is designed to see what works and what doesn't within our restaurants," McComb said, adding that the company was monitoring operations, customer response and price points, USA Today reported.
Fast-food chains had been in the line of fire of health advocates and customers for menus high on processed food and a lack of fresh options.
"Like all of our tests, this one too is designed to see what works and what doesn't within our restaurants by considering the operational experience, consumer response, price points and other important information which may inform future decisions," a spokeswoman from McDonald's told CNBC.
The burger giant is also testing smaller and larger Big Macs in Texas and Ohio restaurants. According to commentators, The Grand Mac was an attempt to take on chains like Smashburger and Five Guys that served larger burgers, while the Mac Jr gave Wendy's Jr Bacon Cheeseburger a run for its money.