Yesterday, McDonald’s opened its kitchen doors to us! We were given a special tour by Mr. Fayez Ismail, Operations Manager for McDonald’s UAE.
The Open Door Program is open to the public and aims to educate and assure customers that McDonald’s is committed to serve quality products, prepared in the highest standards of safety and cleanliness.
Children under 10 years old are not allowed inside the kitchen for safety purposes. My kids were only allowed inside because they we were invited as media guests. McDonald’s Bin Soughat Center branch was not busy during our visit. We were assisted by 3 staff during the tour to ensure that the kids are safe from any hot surface and sharp objects.
We stepped in the kitchen with hairnets and proceeded to hand washing area. Kids were taught to sing “happy birthday” twice (total of 20 seconds) while washing hands. Mr. Fayez then showed us staff corner, walk-in freezers and different cooking stations. Watch the video below to see what happened during our tour.
Kuya V listed some things he learned:
- All McDonald’s employees working in the head office (yes, even the boss) are required to work at least 2 months in one of the McDonald’s restaurant. They all need to know how each meal is made and the whole process behind it.
- Everyone working inside the restaurant needs to wash at least once every hour. Singing “happy birthday” twice while washing hands ensures that all germs are gone.
- They have walk-in freezers to store meat, fruits and vegetables.
- They make their own ice that is used in all drinks.
- Burger patties are made from 100% pure beef meat, they only add salt and pepper when its done cooking on the grill.
- Your meal is cooked only the moment you paid for it at the counter. They are doing this to maintain quality of food and ensure less food waste.
- Blue gloves are used to handle uncooked food and white or clear gloves for cooked food.
- They use different fryer for each food item. One for fries only, another for nuggets and another one for crunchy chicken patty. Each one use dedicated vegetable oil as well.
- A special gadget is used to check if oil is still good to use.
- They don’t throw away used oil. Used vegetable oil is collected and transported to a biorefinery located in the UAE which converts it to 100% biodiesel. All of McDonald’s UAE delivery trucks runs on biodiesel.
Visit McDonaldsArabia.com to book your kitchen tour.
Cuddles and Crumbs 
Interesting, Grassroots leadership develoment was applied in their management system. No wonder Mc Donald become one of the leading fast food restaurant in the whole world.
It was really interesting to learn more about the company. Having a chance to get a glimpse of the whole process they do to ensure food quality and safety was something I needed to know and answered a lot of my questions.
Interesting. Good to know all the facts. Thanks for sharing
It was a good move for Mc Donalds, this clears every parents doubt that every time they let their kids go eat Mc Donalds food, their feeding them junk which is not the case. I worked for Jollibee in the Philippines and they adhere to the highest standards of food prep just like MD.
This is quite informative! I’m sure the kids enjoyed understanding the process behind the food.
Great to know they are dedicated to not wasting food and helping the planet too. Thanks for sharing!
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