Who Provides The Beef Patties For McDonald's Burgers?

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McDonald's sells a staggering 714 million pounds of beef a year, much of it dedicated to their top-selling Big Macs — yet only two suppliers handle it all (via McDonald's): Keystone Foods and Lopez Foods. That seems almost impossible, given the sheer volume, until you learn that Keystone Foods and Lopez Foods essentially built their own empires as they grew alongside McDonald's.

The partnerships have certainly been mutually beneficial. While McDonald's brought huge growth to both suppliers, they, in turn, created innovations that helped the fast food chain appeal to more customers. For instance, Keystone's founder invented Individual Quick Freezing (IQF), a method that preserves meat's taste and freshness that McDonald's says it still uses today. (Curious? Watch McDonald's burgers being made, all the way through the IQF process.)

Later, when consumer preference shifted toward fresher food, Lopez Foods piloted a regional program transitioning Quarter Pounder patties from frozen to fresh (via Oklahoma Farm Report). The pilot succeeded, and fresh Quarter Pounder patties rolled out nationwide. They're still fresh today (and it's the only burger cooked fresh on the menu)!

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It's no coincidence that both suppliers have deep roots with McDonald's, since the chain seems to prefer partners who understand its business well enough to help it innovate.

Herb Lotman, a butcher's son from Philadelphia, grew a family business into the international empire known as Keystone Foods (via Philadelphia Inquirer). The Inquirer reports that, when beef prices skyrocketed during the 1970s oil crisis, Lotman invented the IQF process, which was a significant breakthrough that vaulted Keystone into the big leagues. He didn't stop there. In the 1980s, he partnered with McDonald's to invent the Chicken McNugget. By 2010, Keystone ranked on Forbes' list of top private companies (via LA Times). Now a Tyson Foods subsidiary, it supplies McDonald's with beef, chicken, and fish.

Lopez Foods has an equally remarkable origin story. In the early 1990s, McDonald's approached John  C. and Pat Lopez, who had been among the first Hispanic McDonald's franchisees back in the 1970s, and asked if they'd be interested in buying a food processing plant to become a McDonald's beef supplier (via 405 Magazine). Now their sons run the company, alongside Ed Sanchez, who worked his way up from McDonald's crew member to president of McDonald's Latin America and Canada before joining Lopez Foods. Today, Lopez Foods also sells to Walmart, Starbucks, and Burger King. Much like the double patties in a Big Mac, Keystone Foods and Lopez Foods seem to be proof that great things come in twos!