McDonald’s Corporation
today launched the official global rollout of nutrition
information on its product packaging in restaurants in the 2006 Olympic Winter
Games host city, Torino. The 26 restaurants in the Torino area are the first
McDonald’s restaurants in the world to have the updated packaging for
customers.
“We listen closely to our customers and understand how important
transparency is to them. That’s why we’re putting nutrition information right
into their hands,” said Mike Roberts, McDonald’s President and Chief Operating
Officer, who today unveiled the new packaging at a press conference in Torino.
“Our ongoing efforts to provide menu choice and variety and be an advocate for
physical activity are further demonstrated here today.”
McDonald’s two official Olympic venue restaurants at the Main Press Center
(MPC) and Torino Olympic Village, plus the 24 McDonald’s restaurants located
in and around Torino, feature nutrition information on food packaging. The
new icon and bar chart format provides information on a menu item’s nutrition
value and how it relates to daily nutrient guidelines. The icons represent the
five elements that experts agree are most relevant to consumer understanding
of nutrition — calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates and salt (sodium).
McDonald’s Europe will use the bar charts and icons exclusively, allowing for
consistent packaging across Europe. In addition, the new packaging will
include the nutrition reference values, called Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA),
which for the first time have been calculated on a pan-European basis.
Comprehensive and user-friendly background information to help familiarize
customers with this new format and explain how they can apply it to their
daily lives will be added to in-restaurant materials including brochures and
trayliners and McDonald’s websites. During the Games, unique kiosks will also
be placed in select restaurants in Torino to help customers access
personalized nutrition information using this new format.
Nutrition information on packaging, which was announced by Chief Executive
Officer Jim Skinner in October 2005, is a first for the quick-service industry
and builds on McDonald’s 30-year history of providing nutrition information to
customers.
“We are proud that the world’s visitors to Torino, both spectators and
athletes, will be the first to experience our new packaging with nutrition
information,” said McDonald’s Italy Chairman Mario Resca. “It is now even
easier for customers to see the variety of quality menu options we offer and
how McDonald’s can be a part of daily meal choices.”
Guideline Daily Amounts
McDonald’s Europe is the first in the restaurant industry to utilize GDA,
nutrition reference values which have been established on a European level,
and are based on guidelines recommended in European countries as well as by
the World Health Organization. The GDA for key nutrients will be measured
against a daily energy guideline of 2,000 kilocalories for adults. Those menu
items which can be part of a Happy Meal, including the Hamburger,
Cheeseburger, 4-piece Chicken McNuggets(R) and Small French Fries, will also
have information that is based on a GDA of 1,600 kilocalories, an appropriate
value for children ages 4 to 7.
