McDonald’s to Roll Out Fresh Beef Nationwide | Eater

"After a multi-year rollout, fresh (rather than frozen) Quarter Pounders are now being served across most U.S. locations (excluding Alaska and Hawaii), a change described as the most significant operational shift since All Day Breakfast. Implementing it required major supply-chain and infrastructure work — specially designed packaging to preserve quality during transport, new refrigerators with tailored compressors, dedicated blue containers and gloves for handling fresh patties, and expanded training and tightened food-safety procedures. Franchisees have raised concerns about potential food-safety risks and slightly slower service because the fresh patties are cooked to order (adding roughly a minute), but early tests found the new sandwiches juicier and more flavorful and produced notable sales gains in test markets. The move is part of a broader “better ingredients” strategy that previously included removing artificial preservatives from nuggets and switching to cage-free eggs, and it demonstrates the chain’s scale as a dominant buyer whose changes can reshape the wider food industry." - Whitney Filloon