The glide path to that perfect burger

The burger, that heavenly assembly of bun, patty, veggies, cheese and sauces, is an epicurean blessing, just waiting to be feasted. The science behind the creation of a simple-looking burger goes back months, when each ingredient is carefully grown and sourced, processed, and put together.

The legendary American quick service restaurant (QSR) giant McDonald’s that popularised the burger has also pioneered the way the delight is made. McDonald’s has a menu for each market, which means local ingredients are a must. No wonder it has built a supply chain — the farm to fork model — perfected over six long years, based on its tested processes in the US.

“Over 90-95 per cent of the company’s ingredients and supply chain is localised, barring fish, and toys (for happy meals). Over $200 million has been spent on the effort, with a multi-tier rung of suppliers, and crops being sourced from farmers,” McDonald’s India Director (Supply Chain and Quality Assurance) Vikram Ogale says.

On a visit to the sylvan precincts of Coonoor, in the Nilgiris, one can get a glimpse of the green bed of iceberg lettuce waiting to be cut and put in a burger. Lettuce, a green leafy salad vegetable resembling a cabbage, is one of the most important ingredients going into a burger, adding to the crunch. Containing almost all water, lettuces require careful cultivation and storage.

McDonald’s partner for iceberg lettuce, Green Earth, ensures that over 500 contract farmers planting the crop on around 300 farms get the produce right in time for dispatch. “A young lettuce seedling takes over a month to grow in the nursery, following which it is introduced into the field. In due course, the lettuce heads are cut and sent to a processing-cum-holding centre, where they are washed and kept cool at controlled temperatures. The vegetable’s shelf-life is six hours in ambient temperature. We take immense care to maintain its freshness,” Green Earth’s Magesh Kumar C, a planter and farmer for over 20 years, says. The lettuces, part of the tier-II supply chain, are then sent in temperature-controlled trucks to another processing centre (tier-I supply chain) in Bengaluru, from where they are chopped and dispatched to restaurants.

The lettuce from Coonoor caters to restaurants in the South and the West, supported by a similar model in the North and East, fed by plantations near Kullu in Himachal Pradesh. The company consumes about 2.5 tonnes of processed lettuce every day, with over 1,200 tonnes annually. McDonald’s happens to buy 50 per cent of all the lettuce produced in India.

Overseen at each stage
Ogale said each stage of the supply chain is carefully overseen. The process involves procurement, warehousing, transportation and retailing of perishable food products, all under controlled temperatures. “We have succeeded in bringing down wastage to 2-3 per cent, as against the 40 per cent market norm,” Ogale claims.

The company has partners running four distribution centres at Noida, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kolkata, aiding neighbouring markets. It has helped transform agricultural practices by introducing better drip irrigation, pest management, and mechanical cultivation.
Quality is high priority for McDonalds. At each stage, there are 72 safety protocols conducted every single day at restaurants. It carries out 25,920 safety checks annually. “Our endeavour is to get the product right. If any mistake is seen, it must be fixed immediately. That’s our assurance. We don’t want to jump suppliers, but instead, we plan to partner with good suppliers for long,” Ogale says.

Frozen vegetables (green peas, carrots, etc), poultry (chicken and eggs), dough-based confections, baked items, fresh vegetables, sauces and cheeses (dairy) are few of the products used on a daily basis. Vista Processed Foods, an entity of global McDonald’s produce partner OSI, has eight facilities in India, from where it runs the tier-I supply chain.
Fresh vegetables (such as onion and tomato) and non-vegetarian products (chicken patties and nuggets) are processed at a facility in Taloja, near Mumbai. Sirhind, in Punjab, also takes care of vegetarian products. Washing and coating of eggs takes place at Hyderabad, fresh produce processing also takes place at Bengaluru and Greater Noida, and dough-based products are made in Pune, while processed vegetable (patties) are made at Madanapalle, in AP.

Vista’s Madanapalle plant produces patties that go into the McAloo Tikkies and McVeggie burgers. “Under controlled conditions, workers at the plant carefully process the raw materials, looking for metallic adulterants and inaccuracies, add the right flavours, and churn, process and freeze the patties at around -20 degrees Celsius,” Vista Processed Foods Head (Fresh Produce) Neeraj Kumar says.

With large rival QSRs coming to India, McDonald’s is thinking outside the box. Its two master franchisees — Hardcastle Restaurants (South and West) and Connaught Plaza Restaurants (North and East) — are looking at holding onto market share. Each year, around 180 million customers are served in 202 restaurants across 24 cities, in the South and West alone, with 366 restaurants serving more of them, nationally.

Westlife Development, the holding company of Hardcastle Restaurants, plans to expand McDonald’s footprint in the South and West in the next 3-5 years by opening about 200 more restaurants at a cost of around Rs 750 crore.

So what are the processes that each of the ingredients goes through while moving from farm to fork? The tomatoes are chopped; lettuces are processed, shredded and packed; so are the onions; the vegetarian and chicken patties are frozen to be fried or grilled; the eggs are washed and coated to be steamed later. A visit to a kitchen of any McDonald’s Family Restaurant provides enthusiasts with the visual treat of all the final processes leading to that perfect burger. Separate teams of trained personnel handle separate bays for vegetarian and non-vegetarian orders. It is they who ensure that the McDonald’s fast food assembly line works flawlessly, just as it worked when it was invented decades ago, so that the best burgers and the crispiest fries reach the customer’s plate as ordered.   
         
(The author visited lettuce farms in Coonoor and the Madanapalle plant of Vista Processed Foods at the invitation of McDonald’s India)