Is Wendy's "never frozen patties" a sustainable model

[kynight]

I dont eat burgers there but ill say this, the A.C. is always on high and is a clean place with internet that always works. Never frozen also gives them an edge, even if the burgers still suck the fact they're never frozen almost guarantees a relatively high level of quality.

[kynight]

Maybe they squeeze the beef out of a tube and make it round just before cooking to avoid freezing.

[Bobdreamz]

I had family who worked at Wendy's years ago and they always had fresh beef delivered every morning & they used a machine that stamped out the square patties.
As for the Chili itself , it's made from burgers that are over cooked and then boiled to soften up the meat.

[cjseliga]

In-N-Out Burger has been doing fresh meat since day one in 1948 (almost 70 years). That was one of the major problems with them expanding, since they only had one meat processing plant (until a few years ago) and it was located in SoCal, so all of the new In-N-Out restaurants had to be within a one day drive of the that single plant.

That's why they never had places outside of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Southern Oregon, then they built a new meat processing plant in Texas and started expanding there with new restaurants in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex, Austin, San Antonio and Waco.

[LegitBusiness]

quoting NJ Brazen_3133's post #1:

But do fresh burger patties really make that much of difference in taste, and health?

You know, logic tells me that fresh is better than thawed and I am not fully 100% on that so I searched the internet and here is what I found.

I found this neat blog entitled, "Doing science to stuff."
The writer made an entry he called, "Frozen vs. Fresh Rib-eye Steak"
https://blog.doingsciencetostuff.com...rib-eye-steak/
The author of this article goes the whole 100 yards and his conclusion was that frozen steak was better, but that he used low end product. He suggests that you might get different results if you used high end steak.

[maus]

Originally Posted by NJ Brazen_3133

Is Wendy's using fresh patties only as they are advertising a sustainable model?

I imagine they must over order and get constant delivery everyday, and locally sourced. Their overhead must be higher. But I think their business is better too.

But do fresh burger patties really make that much of difference in taste, and health?

It must be important to not open too many stores, and place the ones they have in best location.

I know Wendy's has been ordering fresh beef patties for a while. I'm familiar with one of the regional beef suppliers. This same beef supplier delivers the a very similar product (frozen) to Burger King, Kroger, and to other places (restaurant chains). I personally know that the hamburger meat is of high quality and well done that the beef patties have never been touched by human hands upon arrival at a restaurant.

If the refrigerated/freezer truck container does not have the correct temperature upon delivery, then the Wendy's store would return the load. There are all kinds of quality control checks when it comes to serving meat in a restaurant.

I rarely eat red meat but for fast-food burgers, I usually prefer the taste of Burger King's to Wendy's. Burger Kings beef patties are delivered frozen.

[mrvisa1]

Wendy's restaurants have been serving fresh, never frozen burger since 1969 - Dave Thomas believed the square patties symbolized the fact that Wendy's "never cut corners" in its food quality or customer service. I believe Wendy's has some of the best quality fast food, however, they've never seemed to market this feature very well - the fresh burger is one of the foundations of the organization and it wouldn't seem reasonable to think it will be discontinued.


Obviously, McD's thinks there's something special with "fresh" burgers or they wouldn't be moving in this direction.


With the improvement in packaging techniques which allows for longer shelf life, there is no reason to think that fresh product will not be sustainable - obviously, all beef is "initially" fresh when the animal is harvested so overall availability of beef really isn't an issue. Using good quality beef and maintaining the proper cold chain from harvest to restaurant location is key to keeping fresh beef safe without adding "other stuff" to it.


PS: Dry aged product (used in higher end restaurants) is what it says it is - i.e. dry aged in a controlled environment for a period of time - the process of "creating" dry aged product does not include freezing it.


Just some thoughts. a former employee of Wendy's and currently an executive at a beef processing facility.

[Mircea]

Originally Posted by mrvisa1

Obviously, McD's thinks there's something special with "fresh" burgers or they wouldn't be moving in this direction.

Exactly.

However, it'll take a lot more than "fresh" burgers for me to ever eat at a McDonald's again.