UPDATE 1-McDonald's to offer first-ever organic burger, in Germany

(Adds details on sales, organic rules in Germany)
By Lisa Baertlein
Sept 25 (Reuters) - McDonald's Corp (NYSE:MCD) MCD.N will offer its
first-ever 100 percent organic beef hamburger for a limited time
in Germany, as a growing number of global diners demand food
that is more natural and less processed.
From Oct. 1 to Nov. 18 McDonald's will offer "McB" burgers,
made with organic beef sourced from organic farms in Germany and
Austria.
The move from the world's biggest restaurant chain by
revenue comes as it is revamping food-sourcing practices as part
of new Chief Executive Steve Easterbrook's effort to transform
McDonald's into a "modern, progressive burger company."
Germans, known for their love of sausages, are eating less
meat and more vegetarian food as concerns grow about health,
animal welfare and the environmental cost of livestock farming.
In Germany, beef certified as "organic" must come from
cattle that eat organically grown feed and graze on pasture
where synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides are not
used.
"We have made a great effort to secure sufficient quantities
of meat which satisfies the organic requirements and our own
quality claims," said Holger Beeck, chief executive of
McDonald's Germany.
McDonald's has tweaked menus and worked to improve service
in Germany, one of its top European markets. The company's
quarterly sales at established restaurants in Germany recently
grew for the first time since the middle of 2012.
A McDonald's U.S. spokeswoman declined to say whether the
company would roll out the burger to other markets.
Sales at McDonald's have slumped, in part due to competition
from newer chains including Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (NYSE:CMG) CMG.N ,
which for years has offered meat from animals raised without
hormones and antibiotics.
McDonald's USA said in March that within two years, it would
stop buying meat from chickens raised with antibiotics vital to
human health. ID:nL1N0W617J
That move was cheered by public health and consumer
advocates, who are concerned that overuse of antibiotics in meat
production is contributing to rising numbers of life-threatening
human infections from antibiotic-resistant bacteria dubbed
"superbugs."
Still, a shareholder group thinks the company has not gone
far enough. It is renewing its call for McDonald's to stop
buying any meat from animals raised with antibiotics vital to
fighting human infections. ID:nL1N11N3FN
Earlier this month, McDonald's said its 16,000 U.S. and
Canadian restaurants would switch cage-free eggs by 2025.
ID:nL4N11F530