KFC has started using a mix of lettuce and cabbage in its burgers and wraps in Australia as it faces shortages of lettuce caused by extreme flooding, BBC News reported.
The fast-food giant said on Monday that flooding across New South Wales and Queensland meant they had to substitute the traditional lettuce filling with a combination of cabbage and lettuce due to ongoing shortages, per BBC News.
KFC Australia did not immediately respond to a request for comment made outside of normal working hours.
Torrential rain and flooding engulfed parts of eastern Australia earlier this year, forcing residents out of their homes and destroying crops.
The blow to crop production threatens to worsen Australia's food supply, which has also been hit by ongoing supply chain constraints caused by the pandemic, the conflict in Ukraine, and extreme weather hampering food supplies across the world.
Earlier this year, McDonald's locations in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Taiwan were also forced to ration French fries as the fast-food giant faced potato shortages, partly due to flooding and landslides in Canada, Insider's Mary Meisenzahl previously reported.
In January, KFC Australia also had to compromise its menu as a result of chicken shortages after Australia's largest supplier faced pandemic-related staff shortages, per the BBC.
The ongoing conflict in Ukraine threatens to worsen the global food supply as blockades have affected the distribution of grains. The head of Ukraine's biggest food producer, MHP, said the food crisis could become catastrophic, Insider's Urooba Jamal previously reported.
The climate crisis was already causing harm to crop production through droughts and storms, the head of MHP recently told Insider, adding that the conflict is what “broke the camel's back.”
McDonald's restaurants in Asia have been struggling with fry supplies
Taiwan isn't the only territory that was hit by a french fry shortage. In April, McDonald's Philippines took to social media to announce to its customers, “The supply of our World Famous Fries is limited because of the global freight crisis. That's why you haven't been seeing our fries in big red fry boxes (medium, large and BFF) in the stores” (via Inquirer.net). There is no sign that the large sizes have made a comeback. Japan, Malaysia, and Indonesia had the same supply chain problems with their McDonald's French Fries in January this year, with Malaysia calling their problem a “large sacri-fries,” per Insider.
McDonald's restaurants across Asia are heavily reliant on potato imports from the United States and Canada, which is why the shipping disruptions and bad weather which took down mustard plants in Canada at the beginning of the year had such a dramatic impact on menu items found on the other side of the world.
Read More: https://www.mashed.com/866524/why-mcdonalds-taiwan-had-to-stop-selling-fries/?utm_campaign=clip
Source: MSN
John Carter has been a content and ‘ghostwriter' for many popular online publications over the years. John is now our chief editor at NewsGrab.
