A commitment to local supply chains and protection consortia, the desire to make PDO and PGI products more democratic and known, even to the younger generations, but also the idea of uniting the American DNA of the multinational with the Italian one of the Mediterranean diet: there is all this behind McDonald’s’ project of rooting itself in local traditions, started more than 15 years ago with the first collaboration with the Qualivita Foundation and this year in the sixth edition of its program My Selectionthat is to say the burger line selected by Joe Bastianich with the intention, precisely, of enhancing Made in Italy in Italy and abroad. In fact, they have been launched since mid-April three new recipes, with, respectively, Parmigiano Reggiano PDO and the Emilia-Romagna PGI pear, the Tuscan pecorino DOP and, finally, balsamic vinegar of Modena PGI.
McDonald’s “meets” the PDO and PGI products of Emilia-Romagna
«For Italian customers, agri-food culture is something very important – it is the premise of Giorgia FavaroCEO of McDonald’s Italy –, which also means seeing the fruits of one’s territory valued. From this awareness, as a company we increasingly try to focus on Italian territory: collaboration with protection consortia was the natural evolution of this path.”
«85% of our suppliers are Italian»
To date, in fact, 85% of the suppliers are Italian and I’m almost 415 million euros invested by McDonald’s in the country’s agri-food sector. And, according to the numbers, from 2008 to today, 21 ingredients have been included in 45 different recipes between PDO and PGI, for a total of seven thousand tons of raw materials. Per day, around one hundred thousand My Selection sandwiches they are sold throughout Italy.
The event in Bologna with the students of the hotel institute
As mentioned, in this vision there is also the desire to make the excellence of the area more democratic, accessible and known even to young people, who have always seen the chain as a point of reference and a meeting point. It is no coincidence that the people were also involved in the presentation of the new recipes today in Bologna students of the hotel institute and catering Luigi Veronelli of Casalecchio di Reno. «Even simply through a sandwich, despite their sometimes limited spending power, young people can thus have the opportunity to try tastes that are important for their gastronomic tradition and products that might otherwise be exclusive.”
The link with local producers
What began in 2008 as a vision, a challenge also for the producers, over time has therefore managed to take hold and to convince even small producers: «Within the consortium of Parmesan Cheese16 years ago, the collaboration with McDonald’s was much debated – admitted Riccardo Deserti, director of the consortium itself – because it meant putting together a thousand-year-old product with what was seen as the opposite of a certain type of quality in catering».
«Distrust between different worlds now overcome»
But in the end, the resistance was overcome, with mutual benefits: «Today we understood that all catering, in its various forms, can be an opportunity for value creation and communication”, added Deserti. And Federico Desimoni, director of the Modena PGI balsamic vinegar consortium, and Simona Rubbi, international relations manager of the Emilia-Romagna PGI pear consortium, also took the same line, especially at a time like the current one with the aftermath of ‘flood of 2023.
Bastianich: «Balanced and delicious breads»
«Place these products inside sandwiches which are truly part of the American DNA – he concluded Bastianich – in a balanced and delicious way was brilliant. And today we see a McDonald’s very different from what it was ten years ago.”
