Beef

New Zealand’s lush green pastures and temperate climate means our country produces some of the world’s best beef. Given the quality of our grass-raised beef, it’s little surprise we serve New Zealanders 6,500 tonnes of beef each year, including 654 tonnes of Angus beef from farms in regions such as King Country and Canterbury.

But it’s no well kept secret, in fact New Zealand is one of McDonald’s top ten beef producing markets and it’s such a hit with the rest of the world that on average 10% of NZ’s beef exports are to international McDonald’s markets. In 2019, 23,400 tonnes of beef was purchased by McDonald’s globally.

We partner with many Kiwi farmers who produce our beef, including those at the world-class Whangara Farms. Managed by Richard Scholefield, Whangara Farm was the first beef farm outside of Europe to be invited to the McDonald’s Flagship Farmers programme, a global partnership which recognises Whangara Farms’ ongoing commitment to measure and benchmark their sustainability efforts and share these with peers and fellow farmers.

In partnership with McDonald’s and New Zealand Beef + Lamb Whangara Farms has become the benchmark for sustainable farming in New Zealand.

ANZCO Foods, based in the small Taranaki town of Waitara (population 7,000), are responsible for making our 100% beef patties. About 90% of the staff at the Waitara plant are locals and they manage to produce around 460,900 patties each day in state-of-the-art, accredited facilities. Our quality beef cuts are minced and that’s it. No additives or fillers, just mince that is shaped in two sizes, the 4:1 (our Quarter Pounder patty) and the 10:1, before they’re flash frozen and sent to restaurants.

Cooking times vary between patties; regular patties take 41 seconds to cook through, Quarter Pounder patties take 114 seconds and the Almighty Angus patties taken 108 seconds. In restaurant they’re cooked with a sprinkling of salt and pepper and nothing else – simple as that.