NYT: McDonald's to Add Facts on Nutrition to Packaging

[DeepModem Mom]

McDonald's to Add Facts on Nutrition to Packaging


What the new McDonald's cheeseburger wrapper will look like in the United States with the nutritional information.

By MELANIE WARNER
Published: October 26, 2005


CHICAGO, Oct. 25 - That Double Quarter Pounder With Cheese? It has 730 calories. A Sausage Biscuit With Egg? It will use up 49 percent of an adult's daily recommended fat intake.

That information and more will be on the packaging of most McDonald's food items starting next year, the company announced at a news conference in a Chicago restaurant Tuesday. The nutrition labeling, which is intended to be even easier to read than the labels on packaged foods, will tell customers how many calories, grams of fat, protein, carbohydrates and sodium are in each product and will include a chart showing the percentage of the government's recommended daily intakes.

Such information is already available to consumers in brochures in McDonald's restaurants and on the company's Web site. But McDonald's executives said Tuesday that they had decided to make it more available and more accessible to customers. "This format makes it easier to understand and to read our nutrition information," said Cathy Kapica, global director of nutrition at McDonald's.

McDonald's said the new packaging would be in 20,000 of its 30,000 restaurants worldwide by the end of 2006.

The move comes as McDonald's, the world's largest restaurant company, continues to face criticism for contributing to rising obesity rates and other health problems....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/business/26food.html

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

1. they need to expand the category boxes

bovine growth hormone_____% ?
pesticide concentration___x times greater than sprayed fruit
bone fragments that may contain prions_____% ?
# of preservatives present___?
rain forrest lost for grazing_____?acres per day
adrenaline released into the tissue at time of death from terror__?

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Very good, NT -- thanks!

[flygal]

8. Wow

at first that struck me as funny - but it's really pretty frightening.
I'm reading Morgan Spurlock's book about his Super Size Me film - it's a real eye opener. I had organic whole grain pasta and spinach for lunch.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

11. you go ! organic is the safest!!---->super size me was a cool film

and we really can eat pretty well on organic whole grains, fruits ,and vegetables--

-There's a raw food restaurant opening in my area soon-(can't wait!)-
just tried some free samples Saturday at the nutrition expo show
at the L.A Convention Center.-- it was Unbelievablely good!!
You don't have to sacrifice flavor to eat healthy!!

[u4ic]

12. and what % is sawdust.....n/t

[KittyWampus]

13. You are brilliant. I will be stealing your list, hope you don't mind

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

16. -please do steal that list ! ------->pass it on ---!!!

[chalky]

3. What the heck at Mickey-D's only has 310 calories???

Is that wrapper for one of their french fries?
Or am I missing the "servings per container=6" somewhere on that wrapper?

[daleo]

4. The 310 calories is if you eat the wrapper and throw out the food. n/t

[Occulus]

15. I'll toot my horn a little bit and say

calories don't much concern me at the moment- I tend to burn up most of what I consume as I do my job; pushing around carts of mail that weigh 700-1500 lbs. all day does that- but look at the sodium.

That's for a cheeseburger. I can tell you, also from experience working there, that there's no "exact science" to determining just how much "seasoning" each McD's "all beef" patty has on it. The actual sodium level could, in fact, be much much higher than what is listed.

I'd hate to know how much sodium is in, say, their double quarter pounder. Yikes!

But that's not even the worst there is. The very very worst is a sandwich Burger King sells- they call it the "meatnormous omlette"; *I* call it food porn.

Here's a pic:



730 calories. I don't want to know how much sodium it has; I'll not eat it, regardless.

[melody]

5. My guess is it's a Halloween promotion n/t

[lakemonster11]

6. Good

I don't care what kind of crap fast-food restaurants sell as long as they give fair warning to the consumer.

[pinniped]

7. Time for others to step up to the plate.

I commend McDs for this PR move, even though they still suck.

[wickerwoman]

9. Yeah,

I still almost never eat there but the last time I did I saw that you could get a value meal with water and a salad instead of fries and Coke. The beef wasn't half bad either (but this was in Britain where I suspect they are held to higher standards.)

Their sales must be hurting big time.

[KittyWampus]

14. PR Move? Yeah, To Curtail Possible Lawsuits. Oh, That's Right, Congress

is or has just enacted a law giving them immunity.

[Javaman]

10. Just what I suspected. mcdonalds is doing the content listing, not the FDA

This way they can put what ever the hell they want on the package.

More colossal bullshit from a company that serves bullshit.

[wmills551]

17. This is really important cause a lot of people thought it was health food