Nuggets and Buns..... Oh What a Day!!!

What is always sure to bring a smile to a child's face? A Happy Meal from McDonald's!
Today we experienced the production of some of the key components of Happy
Meals--Chicken McNuggets--and other McDonald's favorites at the McDonald's Food
Town, in Duisburg, Germany hosted by Esca Food Solutions.

We began our day with a continental breakfast at the Landhause Misler Hotel, and were
ready to embark on our journey by 9:00.

At Esca Foods, we were divided into two groups and rotated between learning about the
company and touring the facility, where we witnessed the creation of McDonald's
chicken nuggets and chicken patties.It was interesting to see firsthand how some of the McDonald's products we eat are actually produced, particularly in such large quantities!The production process starts out with only white chicken meat and skin which is then ground up to create a chicken products found at any McDonald's around the world. This production process uses a variety of equipment that would fry, freeze, package, batter, dust, weigh and even sift he chicken patties that soon would become the famous Chicken McNuggets. After both groups were able to tour the plant and listen to the presentation, Esca
Foods generously provided us with a wonderful lunch consisting of a variety of
sandwiches and an abundance of soft drinks. After eating and visiting with some of the managers and executives, we headed to FSB, a bakery, where we then learned about how the McDonald's buns and English muffins are produced. We were
even able to sample buns that were fresh off the line!

From there, we walked to HAVI Logistics, the company that coordinates all of
McDonald's supply chain logistics. This tour through the warehouse started out
with a look at the complex that all three businesses, Esca, FSB, and HAVI,
operated in. Unlike many distribution centers that we are familiar with, this
distribution center had portions of its supply chain located with it. This is
called a "Wall-to-Wall" distribution because the businesses can just
move their inventory from their warehouse into the HAVI warehouse. When
distributing to McDonald's, HAVI has difficulty because of the type of products
it has to ship to the franchisees. The products that are shipped to the
locations are of three temperatures: frozen, refrigerated, and ambient. HAVI
has now created a system that is more energy- and cost-efficient; using only
one truck instead of the three they had previously been using, to supply the
McDonald's locations. Within the distribution system all of the products are
hand picked and palleted to be shipped to the various locations in Germany and
Eastern Europe. Our last stop on the tour was to the freezer where it was
negative 22 degrees centigrade. Many of the students, including one with a very
short hair cut, found the room rather cold and could not wait to get back onto
the shipping floor where it was warmer. From HAVI, Esca Foods took us back over
to their production factory for a special presentation.

Once we got back to Esca Foods, our presentation was a rather delicious one. Our group
was taught how to evaluate the quality and consistency of the Chicken McNuggets
produced at the factory. Perhaps the best part of the day was when we were able
to eat some of chicken products we had seen being made earlier. We were presented with a tremendous amount of chicken nuggets and various chicken patties by Esca Foods. Needless to say, we all feasted on the chicken until we were stuffed, utilizing various sauces, which to our surprise also included such flavors as chili and curry. We had learned about the different quality tests that were used for the chicken nuggets, so were were able to put this knowledge to use.  Additionally, we learned the four shapes of
the nuggets - bone, boot, ball and bell - and had fun identifying them as we
ate. Regardless of how many we ate, all of us were able to taste a variety of
products and see what the quality of meat does to create a good nugget or
pattie. All of the chicken we had was lecker, (Delicious). Upon leaving Esca
Foods we had to say auf wiedersehen! ("good-bye" in German) to Germany, and hallo
("hello" in Dutch) to the Netherlands. Tomorrow we start our last few
days in the European Union, but we will cherish every minute of it.

 

Posted by Dorothy Spencer, Ashley Arnold, Matt Briscoe, Lucas Wakefield