Three of Canada’s largest fast food retailers say they are remaining patriotic in their beef use, at least for now.
McDonald’s says it will buy and serve all-Canadian beef in its restaurants until such time “as the (BSE) crisis is over.”
It moved to an all-Canadian content “in support of the Canadian industry and will remain in support,” said company spokesperson Ron Christianson.
McDonald’s is the country’s largest market for ground beef at 24 million kilograms annually.
“We use to source 70 to 80 percent Canadian, but we wanted to support the industry, one that we are part of.”
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Burger King Canada’s Leslie Root said that company started buying 100 percent Canadian beef Aug. 11 and will continue with the domestic product “as long as possible.”
John Champagne of Dairy Queen said his company will remain at 100 percent Canadian beef as “long as we can.”
He said the chain wants to make sure “we are a good corporate citizen and will support the industry until such time as it is no longer feasible to do so.”
All three companies said for a time the price of Canadian beef also fell below that of imported product, which benefited their businesses by lowering costs.
Canadian meat is now nearly on par or in some cases higher priced than American or offshore beef.
Root said the price of imported beef, especially frozen, can be tempting when the company is using “13 million pounds a year.”
“We use a mix of fresh and frozen product in our recipe and the frozen portion is under some (pricing) pressure.”
