Today is National Burger Day and one in five burgers sold in McDonald’s across Europe is of Irish origin.
McDonald’s says it buys beef from 18,000 Irish family farms and it is the largest purchaser of Irish beef in volume terms every year.
McDonald’s buys 40,000t of Irish beef which is then exported to other European markets.
Burger King, another American franchise, in 2013 entered into a new partnership with Irish-owned Kepak Group to supply its restaurants in Ireland and the UK with 100% Irish and UK beef.
“There are people who love gherkins and for us it’s part of the build of the Big Mac,” he said.
Doug Armstrong, UK vlogger and presenter, went to see how exactly McDonald’s burgers were made; from the farm to the restaurant.
At the time of the horsemeat scandal, in the four weeks ending February 17 2013, sales of burgers in Ireland fell by 42% due to the horsemeat scandal, figures from Kantar Worldpanel show.
Eddie Rockets, the 1950s-style diner, also sources 100% of its beef from Ireland. Its Irish beef comes from Robinsons Meats in Chapelizod, Co. Dublin.
The Dublin-based company has been supplying Eddie Rockets for over 25 years and customers of Eddie Rockets consume over 2m burgers in the joint every year.
Supermac’s’ burgers are 100% Irish, according to the company which says it sources  beef for its burgers from Rangeland Food in Castleblaney.
The company recently launched its 5oz fresh meat Beef Burger. The burger is also be the first fresh meat burger available in a quick service food chain in Ireland.
Burger King recently wrote an open letter to its rival with a proposal to sell a ‘McWhopper’ burger for charity.
The idea was to create a combination of each company’s signature burger – Big Mac and Whopper – and sell it at a pop-up restaurant in Atlanta for one day with the proceeds from the ‘McWhopper’ going to a charity that promotes world peace.
However, McDonald’s has declined the offer.