During 2022 we continued to work with our supply chain to build
understanding around the importance of procuring certified
deforestation-free soy, as well as the importance of being able to
provide information on volumes of soy used and the growing origin.
In 2022, 84,026 tonnes of soy were used in McDonald’s UK &
Ireland products, both as direct ingredients and embedded within the
animal feed for our meat. This figure is based on data from all our
suppliers who were in scope for reporting on their soy usage in 2022. We
rely on our suppliers to provide us with this data annually and are
working with them to improve the consistency and accuracy each year.
Cascading requirements
Raising the level of understanding among our suppliers around
deforestation is a key focus for us. Ahead of our annual soy reporting
process, we held a capacity building webinar for our suppliers in which
we set out our business’ commitments on soy and our expectations for
supplier actions and transparency.
As part of our commitment to the UK Soy Manifesto, and to help our
suppliers provide deforestation-free soy in the future, we have
continued to engage our suppliers on matching our commitments on soy.
Being able to show action on deforestation -free soy is now a key ask
for our suppliers as part of our annual supplier engagement process.
Since we have committed to the UK Soy Manifesto, suppliers representing
79% of our total soy footprint have already matched our commitment to
deforestation-free soy by the end of 2025.
Our approach to supply chain transparency
McDonald’s UK & Ireland participates in an annual collective data
collection process to monitor soy use in our supply chain. This process
is facilitated by 3Keel, an external sustainability consultancy. Since
2018 3Keel has managed a collective reporting process on behalf of
multiple European retailers, manufacturers and hospitality companies to
simplify and standardise soy reporting across the sector. McDonald’s UK
& Ireland’s participation in this collective process ensures that
our approach to monitoring and reporting on soy is consistent and
comparable across the sector and meets current industry-level standards.
The information requested as part of the reporting process is in line
with the UK Soy Manifesto and enables us to meet our commitment to
publicly report on our progress towards our 2025 target.
Certification
Of the soy within McDonald’s UK & Ireland products in 2022, 50.2%
was claimed as certified to a recognised deforestation- and
conversion-free standard. This includes 4.3% that was claimed to be
certified to a mass balance or segregated standard. A further 45.5% of
soy supported the sustainable production of soy through the purchase of
RTRS credits or other similar certificate-based schemes (see the
breakdown below).
In line with our global commitment, in 2022 100% of the soy sourced
for the feed of chicken used in our products supported
deforestation-free supply chains. We supported responsible soy
production through the purchase of RTRS credits to cover any volumes
that were not certified to a physical standard.
Traceability
38.1% of all of the soy used in our products was linked to specific
growing origin(s). 2.4% was claimed to come from a growing origins with a
low risk of deforestation. 23.8% was linked to a specific soy trader.