7/29/2019 Mc Donalds India Cold Chain

1/3

McDonalds Indias Cold Chain

Spreading The Spirit Of Enterprise All Over India

A unique sense of dedication and commitment characterizes McDonald's India acommitment to be driven by the leadership of local owners. Commitment to providequality products and fast friendly service at a real value to support other Indianbusinesses through local sourcing and imparting new skills and to generate localemployment by being a part of the local culture. This commitment has translated intoenduring benefits to the businesses at the grass root level, in the areas of introduction ofnew crops, new agricultural practices and food processing methods and procedures.

McDonald's unique 'cold chain', on which the QSR major has spent more than six years

setting up in India, has brought about a veritable revolution, immensely benefiting thefarmers at one end and enabling customers at retail counters get the highest quality foodproducts, absolutely fresh and at great value.

Explaining the concept, Mr. Amit Jatia, J oint Venture Partner & Managing Director,McDonalds Western India, said, "Every year, Rs. 50,000 crore worth of food produceis wasted in India because of lack of proper infrastructure for storage and transportationunder controlled conditions. These range from physical damage and vermin infestationto improper temperature, humidity and air-flow."

"McDonald's, through its unique cold chain, has been able to both cut down on its

operational wastage, as well as maintain the freshness and nutritional value of raw andprocessed food products. This has involved procurement, warehousing, transportationand retailing of perishable food products, all under controlled temperatures."

Setting up this extensive cold chain distribution system has involved the transfer of state-of-the-art food processing technology by McDonald's and its international suppliers topioneering Indian enterprises who, today, are an integral part of the McDonalds coldchain.

From Field To 2C In 90 MinutesTrikaya Agriculture, a major supplier of iceberg lettuce to McDonald's India, is one such

enterprise that is an intrinsic part of the cold chain. Exposure to better agriculturalmanagement practices and sharing of advanced agricultural technology by McDonald'shas made Trikaya Agriculture extremely conscious of delivering its products with utmostcare and quality.

Initially lettuce could only be grown during the winter months but with McDonald'sexpertise in the area of agriculture, Trikaya Farms in Talegaon, Maharashtra, is now ableto grow this crop all the year round.

7/29/2019 Mc Donalds India Cold Chain

2/3

McDonald's has provided assistance in the selection of high quality seeds, exposed the

farms to advanced drip-irrigation technology, and helped develop a refrigeratedtransportation system allowing a small agri-business in Maharashtra to provide fresh,high-quality lettuce to McDonald's urban restaurant locations thousands of kilometersaway.

Post harvest facilities at Trikaya include a cold chain consisting of a pre-cooling room toremove field heat, a large cold room and a refrigerated van for transportation where thetemperature and the relative humidity of the crop is maintained between 1C and 4C and95% respectively. Vegetables are moved into the pre-cooling room within half an hourof harvesting. The pre-cooling room ensures rapid vacuum cooling to 2C within 90minutes. The pack house, pre-cooling and cold room are located at the farms itself,

ensuring no delay between harvesting, pre-cooling, packaging and cold storage.

With this cold chain infrastructure in place, Trikaya Agriculture has also a plan to exportthis high value product to other international markets, especially to McDonald's MiddleEast and Asia Pacific operations. McDonald's expertise in packaging, handling and long-distance transportation has helped Trikaya to do trial shipments to the Gulf successfully.

In addition to export, McDonald's assistance has enabled Trikaya Agriculture to supplythis crop to a number of star-rated hotels, clubs, flight kitchens and offshore cateringcompanies all over India.

Flavour And Freshness Locked In At - 35CVista Processed Foods Pvt. Ltd., McDonald's suppliers for the chicken and vegetablerange of products, is another important player in this cold chain. Technical and financialsupport extended by OSI Industries Inc., USA and McDonalds India Private Limitedhave enabled Vista to set up world-class infrastructure and support services.

This includes hi-tech refrigeration plants for manufacture of frozen food at temperaturesas low as - 35C. This is vital to ensure that the frozen food retains it freshness for a longtime and the 'cold chain' is maintained. The frozen product is immediately moved to coldstorage rooms.

With continued assistance from its international partners, Vista has installed hi-techequipment for both the chicken and vegetable processing lines, which reflect the latestfood processing technology (de-boning, blending, forming, coating, frying and freezing).For the vegetable range, the latest vegetable mixers and blenders are in operation. Also,keeping cultural sensitivities in mind, both processing lines are absolutely segregated andutmost care is taken to ensure that the vegetable products do not mix with the non-vegetarian products.

7/29/2019 Mc Donalds India Cold Chain

3/3

Vista now offers a very wide range of frozen and nutritious chicken and vegetableproducts. Ongoing R&D, both locally and in the parent company, work towards

innovation in taste, nutritional value and convenience. These products, besides beingsupplied to McDonald's, are also offered to institutions like star-rated hotels, hospitals,project sites, caterers, corporate canteens, schools and colleges, restaurants, food serviceestablishments and coffee shops.

Today, production of better quality frozen foods that are both nutritious and fresh hasmade Vista Processed Foods Pvt. Ltd. a name to reckon within the industry.