McDonalds Removing Cheeseburgers From Happy Meal, Fries Made Smaller
McDonalds is aiming to reduce the number of calories from its Happy Meals and the humble cheeseburger appears to have the first casualty. The fast food giant recently announced that it will be removing the item from its standard happy meal line although customers will still be able to get it upon request.
According to USA Today, McDonalds is looking to have all Happy Meals in the US reduced to 600 calories by June this year. According to the chain, 10 percent of those calories will be coming from saturated fat and 10 percent from added sugar. Sodium will be limited as well.
Half of its franchises across the word are also expected to hit the threshold by 2022 where. Currently, in the 20 countries with McDonalds franchises, only 20% of Happy Meal combos meet the new standard.
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With these new calorie specifications, the cheeseburger will only be available upon request. Fries portions that come with the six-piece Chicken McNuggets will also be reduced. McDonald's is also cutting the amount of added sugar in chocolate milk and will be adding bottled water as a featured beverage choice on Happy Meal menu boards.
McDonalds will be looking to add new menu items that conform to the new standards. One of these appears to be the Junior Chicken, a grilled chicken sandwich introduced in Italy last month.
"It's a journey," said Julia Braun, the burger chain's head of global nutrition. "It's a delicate balance. Customers are looking for options today they can feel good about eating."
This is not the first time McDonalds made changes to the Happy Meal menu based on health. In 2004, the fast food chain started offering apples while in 2013, they began excluding soda from the Happy Meal section of its menu boards.
Currently, one in three American children eats fast food on a given day and on those days their daily caloric intake is higher than usual.
