During BEEF magazine's BEEF Quality Summit last November, a panel of the top purchasers of U.S. beef addressed the crowd of 160 attendees. Moderated by Oklahoma State University's Brad Morgan, the trio included Rob Cannell of McDonald's, Tony Ribble of Wal-Mart, and David Burns of Outback Steakhouse. Here is a review of some of their comments:

McDONALD'S

Rob Cannell is chief beef and pork buyer for McDonald's, which today sells about as many hamburgers in one day — 15 million — as it did in all of 1953. Serving 25 million customers daily in its nearly 14,000 U.S. outlets, the McDonald's menu has grown greatly, but beef remains the core of the firm's success. McDonald's is the single largest beef purchaser in the U.S., nearly 1 billion lbs., at about $1.3 billion in value annually.

“The only thing we buy more of than beef in the U.S. is potatoes,” he says. McDonalds is also the nation's largest U.S. seller of chicken strips and sandwiches.

Cannell says McDonald's built its success on an unchanging commitment to beef quality — “100% beef, always has been and always will be. We also offer the taste our customers want, and high-quality products they can trust as safe and wholesome — the sort of products they'd serve to their families.”

Q: Does McDonald's see an all-natural burger coming soon to either its menu or that of a competitor?

“At this time, I don't think we have that quantity of all-natural beef available (in this country). But just like we've done with every other product over the years, if our customers ask for it, we're going to respond.”

Q: Do you see age- and source-verification and national animal ID as being intertwined programs, or are they separate?

From McDonald's perspective, we're not the right people to construct, or be architects of, the right system for the beef industry. We're not experts in the cattle livestock industry, the feeding industry, or the packing industry.

“What we care about from our perspective is that there's a system in place and that it's useful. If we can ID cattle when necessary, that ID data can be used to protect our industry — that's really our ultimate desire.”

Q: What percentage of the beef you each serve is of overseas origin?

Up until three years ago, all the beef we used came from U.S. source plants, until there was an extreme shortage of lean beef in the U.S. for grinding. It was a difficult decision for McDonald's.

We import some beef raw materials from Australia and New Zealand. And those plants have to meet all our same requirements that we hold our U.S. plants to; which includes animal welfare and food safety, testing — everything. Currently, the usage percentage is less than 10% but varies by availability.

OUTBACK

Steak makes up 60% of the Outback Steakhouse mix, says David Burns, joint venture partner with Outback Steakhouse restaurants in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas. Outback's top-selling steak is the sirloin (35% of sales) and the firm is the largest retailer of Choice beef among U.S. restaurants.

Burns began his career with Steak & Ale in 1982 and started with Outback in 1993 as a managing partner in Lubbock, TX. After 10 years of consecutive sales growth, he was promoted to his current position as joint venture partner for the Heartland Region.

“As a company, we define ‘quality' as always working to improve, attention to detail, exceeding and meeting our customers' standards. Our customers define it as a thick ribeye, or a thick, high Choice sirloin that's tender and has a lot of flavor,” Burns says.