Global supply chains face growing scrutiny over labor and human rights, and quick-service restaurant brands are no exception. McDonald's has restructured how it verifies working conditions across its supply base, moving away from a brand-specific audit toward a widely recognized industry standard.
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McDonald's suppliers and Sedex SMETA: What the supply chain human rights program means for you
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For suppliers, distribution centers, and manufacturers in the McDonald's supply chain, understanding this shift – and what it now requires – has become a practical compliance priority.
From supplier workplace accountability to Sedex SMETA
McDonald's Supply Chain Human Rights (SCHR) program was previously known as Supplier Workplace Accountability (SWA). The brand has since transitioned to Sedex SMETA, a change designed to reduce the number of separate audits a single facility has to undergo. Because SMETA is used across many retail and food industry supply chains, a facility that already holds a current SMETA report for other customers can often reuse it, instead of preparing for a McDonald's-specific assessment from scratch.
The program is managed on McDonald's behalf by its IPM team (Intertek Program Managers), which coordinates scheduling, scope questions, and audit outcomes with markets and suppliers.
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Who falls in scope
All facilities in the McDonald's supply chain, apart from warehouses, are expected to acknowledge McDonald's Supplier Code of Conduct. Whether a site also needs an on-site audit depends on what it supplies:
- Finished goods manufacturers, distribution centers, and abattoirs generally fall in scope for a Sedex SMETA audit.
- Other facility types may be included or excluded depending on the product supplied and a site-specific risk assessment.
- Where scope is unclear, McDonald's, the supplier, and the IPM team are expected to discuss and agree on the right approach together.
This risk-based logic mirrors the direction most human rights due diligence frameworks are taking: audit intensity should track actual exposure, not apply uniformly to every entity in a supply chain. Our overview of supply chain due diligence audits looks at that broader shift in more detail.
The supplier code of conduct, updated
Alongside the move to Sedex SMETA, McDonald's has tightened several provisions in its Supplier Code of Conduct, including lower maximum weekly working hours, a higher minimum working age, and clearer expectations around responsible recruitment, child labor remediation, migrant worker protection, grievance mechanisms, and the rights of Indigenous peoples. Suppliers are expected to hold their own subcontractors and labor agencies to the same standard, not only their own sites.
New suppliers typically complete a self-assessment questionnaire during onboarding and may be selected for an on-site SMETA 4-Pillar audit based on risk. From there, ongoing compliance is verified through periodic third-party audits, with corrective action plans required wherever non-compliances are found.
What a Sedex SMETA audit actually covers
SMETA itself hasn't changed its foundations: it still evaluates labor standards, health and safety, environmental practices, and business ethics against the ETI Base Code, in either a 2-Pillar or 4-Pillar scope. What has changed is the methodology. The current SMETA 7.0 revision moves auditors beyond a single-day snapshot toward assessing whether a company has a functioning management system behind its labor practices, and introduces a “Collaborative Action Required” designation for systemic issues – such as living wages or responsible recruitment – that no single facility audit can resolve on its own.
We've covered the mechanics of a SMETA audit and the SMETA 7.0 revision in more depth elsewhere, including what a SMETA audit involves in practice, what changed with SMETA 7.0, and how CAPRs, follow-ups, and result-sharing create value after the audit.
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A Sedex-approved partner for every market
For suppliers operating across several countries, one practical question tends to come up quickly: can the same audit partner support every site, wherever it happens to be? DQS can cover McDonald's Sedex/SMETA audits worldwide. As a Sedex-approved audit company with operations across around 60 countries, DQS brings industry-experienced auditors and local market knowledge to every site, so multi-market suppliers can work with a single, consistent partner rather than coordinating separate providers market by market.
Requirements can also differ slightly by product category and region, so it's worth confirming current scope and timing directly with your McDonald's market contact or IPM team before scheduling. More detail on scope, pillar options, and how to prepare is available on our Sedex SMETA Audit page, or in our free SMETA audit checklist for a practical starting point.
In short
McDonald's has consolidated its supplier audits around Sedex SMETA and refreshed its Supplier Code of Conduct, with facility scope decided case by case rather than applied uniformly. For suppliers, the practical task is straightforward: confirm where your sites sit in scope, keep your Sedex membership and self-assessment current, and work with an approved audit partner that can support every market you operate in.
Tell us about your company
Talk to an expert about Sedex SMETA audits for your McDonald's supply chain and your company's needs.
Author
Angel Bojorges
Angel's work helps communicate the world-class quality for which DQS is globally recognized, in certification and auditing services, to companies across industries.
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