--- description: With meat shortages roiling the U.S., some Wendy’s restaurants have taken burgers -- their hallmark item -- off the menu. title: U.S. Meat Shortage Leaves Some Wendy’s Without Hamburgers image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta3002cceda7df376/698a0db2929fad76e5bf6134/wendys-beef.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Food & Drink](/tag/food-drink/) ## Food & Drink Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # U.S. Meat Shortage Leaves Some Wendy’s Without Hamburgers ## Video: COVID-19 Meat Shortages Could Last for Months. Here's What to Know Before Your Next Grocery Shopping Trip [Watch (HLS stream): COVID-19 Meat Shortages Could Last for Months. Here's What to Know Before Your Next Grocery Shopping Trip](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dR4X9lI3.m3u8) (5:17)  _Published 2020-05-01. By the end of April, the pandemic changed the economic and agricultural landscape so drastically that Tyson Foods, one of America’s biggest meat producers, warned in a full-page New York Times ad that the “food supply chain is breaking.”_ by [Sebastian Tong / Bloomberg](/author/bloomberg/) ## Sebastian Tong / Bloomberg Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 5, 2020 6:42 AM CUT  Wendy's logo seen in Midtown Manhattan Wendy's logo seen in Midtown ManhattanAlex Tai–SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images by [Sebastian Tong / Bloomberg](/author/bloomberg/) ## Sebastian Tong / Bloomberg Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 5, 2020 6:42 AM CUT With meat shortages roiling the U.S., some Wendy’s restaurants have taken burgers — their hallmark item — off the menu. Customers have taken to Twitter to complain they couldn’t order burgers from the restaurant, which touts its beef as fresh and [never frozen](https://www.wendys.com/fresh-beef "undefined") in its marketing. > [](https://twitter.com/m%5Fjessbrown77/status/1257441734532960260) A check on Wendy’s app showed that only chicken items were available for takeout or delivery orders from at least some of its stores in California. The situation has prompted a number of customers to ask “Where’s the beef?” on social media, invoking a Wendy’s catch phrase from the 1980s that poked fun of the small burgers sold by other chains. North America’s meat-supply chain has fallen apart as outbreaks shutter slaughterhouses, heightening the prospect that pork, beef and chicken may go missing from grocery shelves and restaurant menus. About a dozen slaughterhouses shut last month because of infections among employees jammed together on processing lines. Wendy’s spent years establishing itself as the first major fast-food chain to offer fresh-never-frozen beef. Rivals such as McDonald’s have followed suit. It’s a shift that has left some companies more vulnerable to disruptions to American’s beef supply chain than ones that still rely on imports from Australia and other countries. > [](https://twitter.com/amberlyno/status/1257422787234402304) For Wendy’s, the shortages appear to have only affected some areas so far. Items such as the “Baconator” bacon cheeseburger, for example, were still available to order in Chicago. Wendy’s didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. –With assistance from Jonathan Roeder and Lydia Mulvany. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5832053/wendys-meat-shortage/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5832053/wendys-meat-shortage/"},"headline":"U.S. Meat Shortage Leaves Some Wendy’s Without Hamburgers","datePublished":"2020-05-05T06:42:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T08:42:18.629Z","description":"North America’s meat-supply chain has fallen apart as outbreaks shutter slaughterhouses","url":"https://time.com/5832053/wendys-meat-shortage/","keywords":["Food & Drink","wire","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta3002cceda7df376/698a0db2929fad76e5bf6134/wendys-beef.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sebastian Tong / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta3002cceda7df376/698a0db2929fad76e5bf6134/wendys-beef.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"American international fast food restaurant chain Wendy's","caption":"American international fast food restaurant chain Wendy's","creditText":"Alex Tai–SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/food-drink/","name":"Food & Drink"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5832053/wendys-meat-shortage/","name":"U.S. Meat Shortage Leaves Some Wendy’s Without Hamburgers"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"COVID-19 Meat Shortages Could Last for Months. Here's What to Know Before Your Next Grocery Shopping Trip","description":"By the end of April, the pandemic changed the economic and agricultural landscape so drastically that Tyson Foods, one of America’s biggest meat producers, warned in a full-page New York Times ad that the “food supply chain is breaking.”","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/dR4X9lI3/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2020-05-01T19:22:12.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dR4X9lI3.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5832053/wendys-meat-shortage/","duration":"PT5M17S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5832053/wendys-meat-shortage/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```