The Major Food Supplier Behind McDonald's Fish

McDonald's Filet-O-Fish almost didn't make it onto the menu at all but thank goodness it did. The iconic fish sandwich is a staple of the menu, perfect for those looking for something to eat besides burgers and Chicken McNuggets, and this is especially true during Lent, when sales go through the roof. The Filet-O-Fish is made using wild-caught Alaskan pollock, always sourced from sustainable fisheries. And a major supplier behind McDonald's fish is none other than giant Keystone Foods, a subsidiary of Tyson Foods as of 2018.

Keystone Foods is a massive company that delivers animal protein products like fish fillets and chicken nuggets to countries around the world. It sends 15 million pounds of fish to McDonald's alone every year, along with 300 million pounds of chicken and 150 pounds of beef (via McDonald's). Needless to say, the fast food chain certainly keeps Keystone Foods busy, and the partnership has been going strong since the '60s.

Keystone Foods may be a major supplier of fish for McDonald's restaurants around the world, but it's not the only one the company has credited. McDonald's also sources its fish from individual fishermen, like Kenny Longaker, who gets his Alaskan pollock supply in the Bering Sea, off the coast of Alaska. Longaker has been catching and providing McDonald's with fish for its Filet-O-Fishes for many years — and, at one point, his fish supply also went toward making a different menu item.

Back in 2013, something called "Fish McBites" had a short-lived stint on the McDonald's menu, and Longaker appeared in the fast food chain's print ads for the menu item as a means to market them. These were essentially chicken nuggets, but in fish form. However, they were so wildly unpopular, that they were discontinued after a mere three months on the menu (despite being promoted by an earworm of a commercial that was hard to get unstuck from your head). Regardless, the Filet-O-Fish lives on, keeping Longaker — and Keystone Foods — on the hook indefinitely as some of McDonald's fish suppliers.