This morning we had the opportunity to visit McDonald's Food Town located in Duisburg, Germany. Although there was not a McDonald's in sight, we still enjoyed many of our favorite foods. Food Town was developed around the concept of efficient logistics and distribution. Two of McDonald's largest suppliers, OSI Food Solutions and Fresh Start Bakeries, are built in tandem along with HAVI Logistics in order to help save on transportation costs. Since the three companies are all connected via warehouses, they are able to cut down the number of trucks and shipments made to the same McDonald's locations.

We began the morning with a stop at OSI Group, the main supplier of protein to McDonald's. This includes beef, pork, and chicken. The plant located in Food Town was a poultry processing facility. Our visit consisted of a tour of the two production lines- one was busy making McNuggets while the other was making "heart-shaped chicken patties" for the Russian market. From the initial stages of raw breast and thigh meat (it really is 100% white meat in those nuggets!) to the flash frying and freezing and the final packaging we saw it all! After learning more about the company and the volume of product it serves to McDonald's, we were surprised to learn that the two companies operate on a "Gentleman's Contract" that was entered into when McDonald's first started business. All of us were selected, due to our expertise, to take part in a quality assurance taste test on site. We sampled freshly made McNuggets and scored them based on appearance, taste, and aroma. Needless to say it took quite a few to get a quality sample!

After filling up on McNuggets we followed the smells of sugary bread and walked nextdoor to Fresh Start Bakeries (FSB). FSB supplies the normal hamburger buns and speciality buns which include buns for Big Macs, Quarter Pounders, McRibs, and English Muffins. It was incredible to see the giant mixers for the dough which were followed up by the even bigger ovens to bake the buns- Boy was it hot in there! They exhibited such a high level of consisteny throughout their products that it was hard to believe they were actual buns! Like at OSI, we were able to sample a fresh product at FSB (tasted just like a McDonald's hamburger bun is supposed to!). After the buns are packaged, they are stored in a freezer warehouse which is connected to HAVI Logistics.

At HAVI Logistics we were given a tour of the various warehouses on site. There are three temperatures- cold, colder, and freezing. The coldest warehouse was a whopping -23 degrees Celsius! They had over 1,000 products that were shipped on a weekly basis to approximately 1,400 German McDonald's. These products range from Coca-Cola syrup to bags of lettuce to fully frozen french fries.

Thanks to the companies located in Food Town our class learned a great deal in a very McTasty way!