The potato. It’s the Swiss Army Knife of produce with the ability to turn into a myriad of things from fries to croquettes to gnocchi.
Today, it’s International Fry Day, and to celebrate McDonald’s New Zealand is giving away a free medium fries to anyone who orders medium fries and scans the ‘two for one’ offer on the McDonald’s app.
McDonald’s NZ orders more than 12,000 tonnes of potatoes from their local supplier McCain Foods each year in order to meet the demand of Kiwi’s fry habits. In fact, when New Zealand shifted from Alert Level 4 to 3 in May, McCain filled a 233,467kg McDonald’s potato order to ensure Kiwis were able to get their hands on one of their favourite foods once again.
With a company trading in such a wide variety of markets, McDonald’s has strict global criteria their local suppliers must adhere to, to ensure the same delicious flavour, golden colour, and crispy texture across the world.
“Globally, there are eleven types of potatoes that are approved for McDonald’s French fries, and three of them grow beautifully in fertile New Zealand soil,” explained Dave Howse, McDonald’s New Zealand Managing Director.
McDonald’s requires more than 120 analytical and sensory checks to be completed from incoming raw material to finished product to ensure product quality as well as safety.
“In New Zealand we grow Innovator, Russet Burbank and Shepody potatoes on our farms in Canterbury for McDonald’s. Each of those three potato species has low defect rates and good tuber length for a good average length of fry,” noted John Jackson, Agriculture Director ANZ at McCain Foods.
Part of McDonald’s requirements is that potatoes need to be of a certain length to make the long, crispy fries they’re famous for. Potatoes are harvested, washed, quality checked and cooked in the same canola and sunflower oil blend globally to ensure consistency in taste and then frozen to be shipped to restaurants nationwide.
“We are committed to the quality of our delicious French fries; any product that fails to meet the strict analytical and sensory criteria required by McDonald’s will not be released to the market. We’re proud to be working with our growers and our hundreds of employees to produce them right here in New Zealand for McDonalds,” said Jackson.
McDonald’s proudly sources 85 percent of their ingredients and produce from Kiwi suppliers.
