McDonald's Distributor Quality Management Process (DQMP) Audits

A McDonald's DQMP audit checks that a distribution center meets McDonald's Distributor Quality Management Process, the company's food safety and quality standard for warehouse and distribution operations that deliver to its restaurants. It covers how product is received, stored and transported. A full audit is typically two days, unannounced and done every year by an approved audit firm.

DQMP stands for Distributor Quality Management Process, the name McDonald's uses in its Purpose & Impact reports. McDonald's November 2024 food safety fact sheet calls it the Distribution Quality Management Program. Both refer to the same McDonald's standard for distribution centers.

Warehouse and distribution operations that deliver to McDonald's restaurants need a DQMP audit, including their storage facilities and delivery trucks. Food and packaging manufacturers fall under SQMS or GQSR instead. If you store product upstream for a supplier and aren't sure, ask your McDonald's contact before booking.

SQMS (Supplier Quality Management System) is McDonald's standard for companies that make its food, such as patty, nugget and fry suppliers. DQMP is its standard for the companies that store and deliver that food to restaurants. Both are audited every year by approved audit firms, but they cover different sites and requirements.

McDonald's says its distribution partners follow its DQMP (Distributor Quality Management Process) standards and are audited every year by third-party auditors. Its public requirements include continuous temperature monitoring from dispatch to delivery and clean delivery trucks. In the U.S., FDA's Sanitary Transportation rule and the cGMP warehousing and distribution requirement (21 CFR 117.93) also apply in most cases, and other customers may ask for GFSI storage and distribution certification.

Only third-party audit firms McDonald's has approved can perform DQMP audits, so a certification body needs McDonald's approval for DQMP, not just accreditation for a GFSI-recognized scheme. McDonald's doesn't publish a list; firms announce their own approval. The Kiwa group announced in July 2023 that it is approved to deliver McDonald's SQMS and DQMP audits, and Kiwa ASI delivers DQMP audits for U.S. distribution centers.

To meet McDonald's DQMP, confirm with McDonald's that your distribution center is in scope, prepare against the current DQMP standard McDonald's gives you and complete the annual audit with a McDonald's-approved audit firm. DQMP isn't a certification scheme like SQF or BRCGS: McDonald's reports results as whether a site was found operating consistently with its standard.

A full DQMP audit is typically unannounced, so you won't get a fixed date. Keep records available and trained people on every shift. If you add DQMP to your SQF or BRCGS audit, ask how that combined audit is scheduled.

A full DQMP audit typically takes two days on site. As an add-on to an SQF or BRCGS Storage and Distribution audit, the DQMP time is added to that audit, and Kiwa ASI quotes the days for your site. Confirm with your McDonald's contact which format they expect.

DQMP audits are done every year. McDonald's says its distribution partners are audited annually by third-party auditors to check compliance with its requirements.

Yes. Kiwa ASI can run the DQMP audit as an add-on to your SQF Storage and Distribution audit, or to a BRCGS Storage and Distribution audit. It isn't an SQF addendum: SQFI's three McDonald's addenda cover produce, food manufacturing and packaging suppliers, so DQMP stays McDonald's own audit. Confirm with your McDonald's contact that the add-on format suits your site.

A GFSI + DQMP addendum audit is a DQMP audit run alongside a GFSI-recognized certification audit at the same site, offered as an alternative to the full two-day DQMP audit. Kiwa ASI offers it with SQF and BRCGS Storage and Distribution audits. McDonald's doesn't publish which format it expects for each site, so confirm with your McDonald's contact first.

McDonald's public documents name DQMP as the standard for distribution centers and don't publish a separate GFSI certification requirement for them. Other customers may ask for GFSI-recognized storage and distribution certification, such as SQF or BRCGS Storage and Distribution, so check each customer's requirements.

McDonald's requires continuous temperature monitoring from dispatch to delivery and clean delivery trucks; the detailed DQMP requirements come from McDonald's and aren't public. U.S. law adds a baseline: FDA's Sanitary Transportation rule (21 CFR 1.908) and, for facilities solely storing unexposed packaged food that hold refrigerated food needing temperature control for safety, 21 CFR 117.206.

Public sources describe a DQMP audit covering receiving, storage, cold chain and continuous temperature monitoring, delivery truck cleanliness, traceability, and a documented food safety and quality management system. A franchisee's filing adds foreign material control, shelf life, security and crisis management. The full checklist comes from McDonald's and isn't public.

There's no published price for a DQMP audit. Cost depends mostly on audit days, typically two for a full audit, plus auditor travel, the number of sites and any follow-up work. Ask each approved audit firm to quote the same scope, with audit days, travel and fees shown separately.

Findings must be corrected; ask your audit firm how closure is verified. Not every site meets the standard: McDonald's reported that over 98% of the 250+ distribution centers audited in 2023 were operating consistently with DQMP. One franchisee's SEC filing says its own distributor must comply with DQMP to keep its McDonald's-approved supplier status.

In most cases, yes. The rule covers shippers, loaders, receivers and carriers moving food by motor vehicle or rail, including temperature-controlled food in closed containers. Businesses averaging under $500,000 a year in revenue, adjusted for inflation, aren't covered, and facilities regulated exclusively by USDA throughout the entire facility are excluded.

Yes, if you receive or ship foods on FDA's Food Traceability List, you must keep traceability records linked to each traceability lot. FDA proposed moving the compliance date to July 20, 2028, and Congress directed FDA not to enforce the rule before then. Records are kept for two years.

First confirm with your McDonald's contact that your site needs a DQMP audit and when it's due. Then request a quote with your site details: location, size, temperature zones, fleet and current certifications. We'll recommend a full DQMP audit or an add-on to your SQF or BRCGS Storage and Distribution audit and send a quote. Call 1 (800) 477-0778 or email US.Info@kiwa-asi.com.