The menu shake up is the latest in a long line of changes to “build a better McDonald’s” and evolve the menu to satisfy the demands of consumers who want less artificial ingredients.
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Now, the chain’s chicken nuggets are free of artificial flavors and colors – a huge move from the once pink slush days. Pre-scrambled eggs, used on the hotcakes platter and in some other menu items, will also lose artificial preservatives. It will also remove corn syrup from burger buns, opting instead for natural sugar.
Once ubiquitous in products ranging from soda to ketchup, high-fructose corn syrup has fallen out of favor since scientists and consumer advocates identified a possible link between consumption of the compound and obesity and diabetes.
No chicken treated with antibiotics important to human medicine.
One of the ways to get more customers, Andres said Monday, is to talk more openly about foods in an effort to change consumer attitudes toward McDonald’s.
From the type of oil it uses to making sure its meat is from happy hens, it’s all part of their plan to change the way we eat – and think about fast food – forever. When it announced it would phase out antibiotics in its chicken, it promised to do so by March 2017.
The company announced in a presentation it posted on Twitter that it has “achieved a major commitment to only serve chicken not treated with antibiotics important to human medicine”. McDonald’s spokeswoman Becca Hary told USA Today on Monday that McNuggets, for instance, will have “ingredients that sound more familiar to people”.
But Gross couldn’t provide any details on why the company hadn’t yet found a way to source beef raised without antibiotics.
In praising McDonald’s, Consumers Union called on Yum Brands to take the same step, demanding that meat and poultry suppliers limit or discontinue antibiotics use. “McDonald’s and its suppliers have worked to identify appropriate alternatives for sustaining broiler flock health while implementing protocols to ensure that animal welfare is not compromised”. In the case of industry leading fast-food giant McDonald’s, it’s the chicken, but the egg isn’t far behind.
But the chain’s latest initiative may have more to do with perception than with actual health concerns.
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September 2015: Pledge to move to 100 percent cage-free eggs by 2025 in the U.S and Canada. The chain has made changes to its salads, replacing iceberg lettuce with a mixture of romaine, baby spinach, baby kale and red leaf lettuce. It ditched margarine in favor of real butter.
