Producers on their marks to meet Olympian food demands in 2012

McDonald's is gearing up to serve a fifth of the 14 million meals required over the four weeks of next year's Olympic Games in London.

And British and Irish farmers are set to reap the benefits as the ubiquitous burger chain sources all its beef, pork, organic milk, free-range eggs and most of their potato requirements from Britain and Ireland. The London Olympics will be the world's largest peacetime catering operation.

"The Olympics will present a great opportunity for British farmers as we will need a huge volume of food for our four restaurants at the Olympic village where we will be providing 20 per cent of the meals," Warren Anderson, McDonald's UK head of supply chain, said yesterday.

He was speaking at Kipps Farm, Linlithgow, one of 17,500 farms in the UK and Ireland which supplies McDonald's beef requirements. Finished cattle from host farmer, Billy Aitken, and his sons, Scott and John, are sold to Scotbeef of Bridge of Allan, which is the biggest supplier of beef to McDonald's burger suppliers, Scunthorpe-based OSI.

"We spend 530 million a year on produce from British farms, including 35,000 tonnes of boneless forequarter and flanks from the carcases of 400,000 cattle," said Anderson.

"Our consumer surveys show that 58 per cent of our customers want to eat food produced in the UK and we are responding to that demand. All our beef comes from British and Irish farms and 100 per cent of our pork is home produced."

Anderson said the farms supplying the Olympics should become "standard bearers" in terms of exacting quality and welfare standards. Kipps is one of seven farms supplying McDonald's selected to stage open days to raise the awareness of the key role British farms will play in providing produce for the Olympics and encouraging best practice on supplying farms.

"We are delighted to be selected to open our gates to the general public to show people what we do on the farm and that it's not just people in London who are involved in the success of the Olympic Games," said Aitken.

Visitors later visited McDonald's Grangemouth restaurant - one of 94 in Scotland - where they were given the opportunity of cooking their own burger.

Scotland's 200 metre and 400 metre champion, Lee McConnell from Glasgow, who is also British 400 metre champion, stressed the importance of a sensible, balanced diet in preparing for the Olympics.

"The Olympics will give British farmers a chance to shine," she said. "It is important for athletes to know that they can look forward to top quality food from Britain's farms in the Olympic village."