Washington - McDonald's announced a major change to the
Quarter Pounder on Thursday: By next year, it will contain fresh - rather than
frozen - beef patties.
The announcement comes after a year of pilot tests at
locations in Dallas and Tulsa. The switch to fresh meat has been hyped as the
chain's "most drastic menu change in decades." It comes in response
to consumer demands for fresher ingredients - which has seen many turn to
brands like Wendy's and Five Guys, which advertise the fact that their burgers
are never frozen.
But while "fresh" may appeal to consumers, it
also carries risks - risks made apparent in the infamous E. coli outbreak at
Chipotle. When the investment firm Nomura surveyed 27 franchisees representing
200 McDonald's locations during fresh beef trials last summer, several
expressed concerns about increasing the risk of foodborne illness by switching
from frozen to fresh.
"If we do not handle the meat perfectly there is the
opportunity for bacterial invasion of our product," one wrote.
"An uncaring employee [could do] something that puts
the entire system at risk," said another.
Chains like McDonald's have traditionally minimized these
risks through highly standardized, centralized systems that limit the number of
people who can accidentally contaminate food or mishandle it in a way that
leads to pathogen growth. Produce is chopped in central kitchens where it can
be tested for microbes and -- crucially for McDonald's next big step -- burgers
arrive frozen, a state which retards E. Coli growth. They are stored in
freezers until the moment they go on the grill, and those grill tops will not
release until the patty has been on the heat for a certain period.
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It is, as Donald Schaffner, an extension specialist in
food science at Rutgers University, told the Post in January, a system that has
"engineered human frailty out."
By switching to fresh patties, however, McDonald's is
adding a small amount of human frailty back in. For safety reasons, fresh beef
cannot contain even trace amounts of E. coli when it leaves the manufacturing
facility, said Bill Marler, a food-safety lawyer who has been involved in
litigation against McDonald's and several other restaurants.
Small risk
While freezing greatly slows E. coli growth, the bacteria
multiply rapidly at room temperature. And at no point can the worker flipping
your fresh burger leave it unrefrigerated.
"If I was them, I would ramp up the training for the
people handling the food," Marler said. "They've got to keep it in
the fridge. If you stack 30 patties out while you're cooking when it's 70 or 80
degrees in the kitchen, you're going to have bacteria growth. And that could be
a problem."
Marler cautions, however, that the risk is very small -
so small, in fact, that he's not worried. And that says a lot about the
tremendous gains that chain restaurants and the beef industry have made when it
comes to food safety.
The issue has been an industry priority since 1993, when
a strain of E. coli found in Jack in the Box burgers killed six children and
hospitalized more than 170, said Juelene Beck, a former vice president at
Burger King, speaking to the Post in January. In the aftermath of that tragedy
- which prompted a number of lawsuits and a national outcry - suppliers
considerably beefed up their in-house testing practices, and chains like
Donald's ramped up oversight.
"The beef industry has done a remarkable job putting
me out of business," joked Marler, who has seen his burger-related cases
dwindle to almost nothing.
As a result, E. coli contamination in restaurant-served
beef is relatively rare today. Restaurants like Wendy's have developed complex
supply chains and audit procedures to accommodate fresh beef. That may explain
why McDonald's feels confident making the switch now, after several decades
with frozen meat.
McDonald's isn't taking the plunge all at once. This
switch applies only to the Quarter Pounder, meaning that the beef used in many
of McDonald's other burgers, including the Big Mac, will still come frozen. So
will many of the chain's other offerings, including fries and McNuggets.
When can we expect to see those products fried up fresh
in stores?
McDonald's says only that it is "accelerat[ing] the
pace of change around how we source and serve our food" - and that,
cryptically, "we're just getting started."