Beef production

“Quality is our recipe, ” says Liliana Esposito, Wendy’s chief communications officer, during a press conference at the 2016 Cattle Industry Convention and Trade Show in San Diego, Calif.

Esposito shared that Wendy’s is a U.S. company with 5, 374 stores across the U.S. The chain also has a presence in Canada with 359 stores and another 395 restaurants around the world. Wendy’s serves 5 million patties daily; the beef is 100% heifer or steer, 42 months or younger, processed in the U.S., 100% North American beef. The raw product never exceeds six days old, and the finished patties are never served beyond 13 days. The company does E.coli testing on all raw products, and also pulls fresh patties to test samples.

Dennis Hecker, Wendy’s senior vice president of quality assurance, worked with Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas from 1980-2002 when Thomas passed away. Becker shared Thomas’ vision for serving quality beef.

“From a beef standpoint, we truly believe we have one of the best supply chains in the country that produces 100% fresh beef for Wendy’s, ” said Hecker. “Quality starts with the people we have partnered with to help us.”

Hecker shared Wendy’s priorities to achieve a quality burger for its customers, including:

• Provide fresh beef for a great tasting hamburger. Deliver fresh beef to customers every day. Develop an industry-leading animal welfare and auditing process. The company is transparent in all it does, transparency is key to identifying and resolving problems quickly, it engenders safety and trust for suppliers, franchisers and customers.
• Wendy’s builds relationships with its core supply base through open and honest auditing based on mutual respect for understanding the needs of the Wendy’s system.
• The well-being and safety of customers will always be the most important consideration in times of concern and crisis.
• Data drives decisions on quality; scientific data, company values and an abundance of caution drives decisions on food safety.