McDonald's and Butter

All 14,000 McDonald's restaurants in the United States are making a change by replacing liquid margarine with real butter. The move means that more than 20 national menu items at McDonald's will soon be made with butter. Tom Gallagher, the CEO of Dairy Management Inc. which manages the national dairy checkoff says this change is due in large part to the work of dairy checkoff scientists and other experts working directly on site with McDonald's. "It's a specialty and if we don't have the people on site, we are not going to be top of mind. So that is a relationship that has given the farmers and the industry and enormous amount of incremental sales. Pennsylvania dairy farmer Harold Shaulis who also serves as the national checkoff director says the switch by McDonald's to real butter made from milk will have a strong impact in the dairy marketplace. "The difference in just McDonald's taking butter as the mainstay on its menu making those dollars, the hard earned dollars, that our dairy farmers are putting into the checkoff to get things to happen, the bottom line is, we are selling more dairy product." And Tom Gallagher says the changeover to butter at McDonald's will serve as the catalyst for others watching what this industry leader does