With Americans spending more money on food at restaurants than in-home dining, forging strategic partnerships with food chains has become crucial to selling others on the virtues of dairy products. One such partnership is the relationship Dairy Management Inc. (the dairy farmer checkoff) created with McDonald's.
Don't take DMI's word for it, here's the take from Chef Dan Coudreaut, McDonald's executive chef and vice president of culinary innovation.
"Years ago, when we took one dairy foods scientist and put that person on our team, we would never have guessed how far we've come together. Having that dairy expertise on our team has fueled a tremendous amount of change and growth for both organizations," Coudreaut said.
"Now and forever, we are going to be 100 percent committed to dairy. Dairy has a special place on our menu and always will. We couldn't do it without you," Coudreaut went on to explain in a video presentation at the joint annual meeting of the National Milk Producers Federation and Dairy Management Inc.
"Earlier this month we launched ‘Breakfast all day.' Now that is going to drive our dairy category with more cheese on our sandwiches, more yogurt in our parfaits, and more cream and milk in our McCafés," he went on to explain to dairy farmers.
"And even more importantly, we recently replaced liquid margarine on 20 of our national sandwiches in 14,000 restaurants with real butter. We made these changes to increase confidence in the McDonald's menu, said Coudreaut. "People nowadays care increasingly more about what's in their food. So honest ingredients like real butter fit in beautifully with where our menu is going. More importantly, it tastes delicious. As a chef, I can't imagine a kitchen without dairy," concluded the McDonald's culinary leader.
(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2015
December 7, 2015
