Verified sustainable beef supply chain proof of concept: A McDonald’s and Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) pilot project

Summary

The purpose of this project was to learn how to verify sustainable beef through the supply chain in a way that is scalable, requires ongoing measurement of performance, assumes third party assurances and delivers credibility and transparency.  

As of the end of July 2020, 119,058 head of cattle had been sourced from 34 farms/feedlots approved as meeting the program requirements and processed through six verified processing facilities. This translates to 33,144,720 kg of carcase weight.

Feedback was sought from all participating processors and producers, along with the wider industry who were presented with the project and its results, and given the opportunity to discuss the merits of a wider voluntary verified sustainable beef program. The recommendation to the red meat industry was to investigate the potential of an industry wide, voluntary sustainability program.

Objectives

The main objectives of this projec were to:

• facilitate measurement, verification and alignment of reporting systems as a foundation for communicating the sustainability of the beef to consumers
• help businesses along the supply chain understand and inform consumer and customer about sustainable beef production
• help drive continuous improvement in the Australian beef industry’s care of people, animals and natural resources
• promote the industry’s commitment to producing high quality, safe and sustainable beef to the community and customers.

Key findings

As of the end of July 2020, 119,058 head of cattle had been sourced from 34 farms/feedlots approved as meeting the program requirements, and processed through six verified processing facilities. This translates to 33,144,720 kgs of carcase weight.

Of this beef raw material, 1.4million kg of beef trimming was supplied to McDonald’s beef pattie suppliers in Australia. This raw material sourced through the verified beef sustainability supply chain program produced the equivalent of 31 million 100% beef cheeseburger patties for McDonald’s Australian restaurants.

Based on producer feedback, a practical on-farm/feedlot self-assessment tool was developed (see attached appendix) to assess performance of operations to the standards, versus a traditional audit structure. The self-assessment tool became the primary interface with the program for participating producers.

Benefits to industry

The project produced many learnings, including:

• how to carefully articulate the value proposition for producers and considering how to increase the value to them to encourage participation
• ensuring that continuous improvement is encouraged and facilitated through self-assessment
• harnessing the benefits of remote verification
• ensuring equivalence with other programs is incorporated to reduce duplication and promote simplicity
• looking at ways to simplify the self-assessment tool/functionality and considering how to communicate the program to consumers to maximise its value.

MLA action

Results and learning from this project were presented to an industry workshop, with over 90 attendees. Participants included grassfed beef producers, processors, peak industry councils, state farming organisations and businesses in the McDonalds supply chain.

Findings from the pilot and feedback from the workshop were presented to the Integrity Systems Taskforce for consideration towards development of an industry wide voluntary sustainability program aligned to LPA.

Future research

The recommendation from this project is for industry to strongly consider a voluntary sustainability program, taking the learnings from this proof of concept and building and improving on it to:

• develop a wider program for the benefit of the whole industry and supply chain
• build and maintain consumer trust
• grow market share, particularly in higher value markets.