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.

It has also been sued by customers who claimed they became fat by eating McDonald's foods, although only one case is still pending. In addition, McDonald's was the subject of "Super Size Me," a movie released in 2004 in which the filmmaker Morgan Spurlock chronicled the nutritional dangers of eating too much fast food.

Still, McDonald's approach to labeling represents a significant detour from the approach that nutrition groups and several legislators have been pushing for. Earlier this year, Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat who is the ranking minority member on the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, introduced a bill that would require all chain restaurants with more than 20 outlets to list calories, fat and sodium on menus and menu boards, not on individual products.

Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a vocal nutrition group that supports Senator Harkin's bill, said he thought McDonald's new initiative did not go far enough and would ultimately have little impact on consumer health. He said he would like to see calories also listed on the menu boards customers look at when deciding what to order.

"This information on the package is useful, but it doesn't offer people an opportunity to compare products," Mr. Jacobson said. "Having it on the menu board would spur a lot of people to switch to a smaller order of fries, a diet soda, or a regular hamburger instead of a cheeseburger, for instance."

Mr. Jacobson also said that menu labeling would require McDonald's to tell customers before they order that the various combo meals can have as many as 1,000 calories. With McDonald's package labeling, customers have to do the math.

Michael Roberts, McDonald's president and chief operating officer, said the company opposed menu board labeling because it would require restaurants to be constantly updating the board and because it could be confusing for customers.

"It gets complicated when you have different variations of products and seasonal items that you're adding," Mr. Roberts said. "We think this is the simplest way for customers to get this information."

Unlike manufacturers of packaged food sold in grocery stores, restaurants are not required by law to publish any information about their products' ingredients or nutritional components. As Americans spend more money in restaurants and less in grocery stores, nutrition advocates have become concerned that consumers have no way of knowing what they are eating.

While McDonald's said that its new labeling was all about helping the customer, one legal expert noted that it might also help the company on the legal front. McDonald's has been singled out in at least three suits related to obesity and nutrition.

"If they have the information out there, easy to understand and in people's faces, then at that point the burden of responsibility switches to people protecting themselves," said Richard A. Daynard, associate dean at Northeastern University School of Law and head of its Obesity and Law Project at the Public Health Advocacy Institute. "It's a very strong argument and one McDonald's hasn't had until now."

Ralph Alvarez, McDonald's president for North America, said he hoped the new labels would open consumers' eyes to McDonald's range of choices. "The options are better in many cases than they think," he said.

McDonald's packaging will also provide a nutrition facts panel listing trans fat, saturated fat, fiber, sugar and certain nutrients.

Whether the prominent display of all this information will have any effect on what people order at McDonald's is unclear. John Glass, a restaurant analyst at CIBC, said that from a financial point of view, the company was taking a "calculated risk."

"If people started eating less Big Macs and Double Cheeseburgers, it would be a problem," Mr. Glass said. "Those are nice high-margin items for McDonald's."

According to Wade Thoma, vice president for menu management at McDonald's, Double Cheeseburgers, Chicken McNuggets and Big Macs are the three most ordered items at McDonald's in the United States.

James A. Skinner, McDonald's chief executive, told reporters that he hoped that the new labeling would encourage other fast-food competitors to follow suit. "We would like to have our leadership be followed by others, because nutrition information is important in terms of how people pursue their balanced lifestyles," he said.

So far, other chains are not responding. YUM Brands, which owns KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, said it had no plans to provide labeling on packaging. Jonathan Blum, a spokesman, said that the company already offered nutrition brochures in its stores and information on its Web site. "We think that placing information on the packaging that people see after they order their food isn't helpful for making choices," Mr. Blum said.

A spokeswoman for Burger King, a unit of Texas Pacific, said the company already posted nutritional information on its Web site and had no plans to do labeling.

October 26, 2005

BY ERIC HERMAN Business Reporter
(Chicago Sun Times)
Need something to read while eating your Big Mac? Read about the calories, protein and fat you're scarfing.

McDonald's plans to serve up nutrition data with its burgers and fries, executives said Tuesday. The Oak Brook-based company will place reader-friendly charts on its packaging that tell customers the nutritional content of their order. Each chart will show the protein, fat and sodium levels, as well as the number of calories and carbohydrates.

"Customers are hungry for good food and nutrition information," said McDonald's chief executive Jim Skinner.

WHAT CUSTOMERS ARE SAYING "I suppose if you're cutting calories but . . . a fry is a fry. It's still basically calories." --Yvonne Johnson, bank representative, 45 "This is McDonald's. You don't really look for nutrition at McDonald's." --Stacy Coleman, data entry, 34 "I think that'd be wonderful because I work out every day. I count calories. If it's on the food, you might actually pay attention to it." --Ellie Hollis, administrative assistant, 27 "It's an excellent idea. I read [nutrition labels] now. ... If McDonald's is doing it, everybody should be doing it." --Leticia Perez, works for Web-based product firm, 35 "I think it's a good thing. At least I'll know what it is I'm eating. ... I think it will be useful on cups. I do see [nutrition information] on the cups at Subway." --Jason Patterson, business analyst, 28 In U.S. restaurants, the new packaging will come in Spanish and English. Symbols will help make the charts readable. For example, fat will appear next to a tape measure, and sodium by the top of a salt shaker. McDonald's will introduce the packaging at the Winter Olympics in February, and plans to have it in two-thirds of its restaurants worldwide by the end of 2006. At a time when obesity is a pressing public health issue, McDonald's move puts it ahead of its competitors in the fast food industry, who have generally not taken such steps. Lawsuit over advertising "It's a significant action, and useful to many consumers," said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. But Jacobson noted that, because the information comes on the food wrappers, customers will not get it until after they have made their purchase. "The most important thing that McDonald's and other companies could do is provide calories right on the menu board," Jacobson said. "That would provide people with information before they bought the product," he said. But McDonald's executives said market research -- conducted in the U.S. and overseas -- showed customers preferred getting the information from the packaging. In recent years, McDonald's has been the target of criticism by health advocates, who say its food contributes to obesity. The company faces a federal lawsuit alleging it uses misleading advertising to entice children to eat its food. The documentary "Super-Size Me" added to the company's image problem. The new packaging could be an effort to forestall criticism and limit legal exposure, Jacobson said. McDonald's could also be trying to undercut proposed legislation that would require menu labeling, he said. The McDonald's graphics use guidelines set by the Food and Drug Administration -- the same that determine labeling on packaged foods. The regulations assume the average person should get 2,000 calories per day. With 560 calories, a Big Mac amounts to 28 percent of the recommended calorie intake, and 47 percent of the recommended fat. Web site feature But proper consumption varies depending on age, sex and activity level, said Cathy Kapica, McDonald's Global Director of Nutrition. For example, a 51-year-old sedentary female should only consume 1,600 calories per day, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. McDonald's plans to add a function to its Web site, so customers can customize their nutrition needs and compare it to the contents of the food. The site will use the USDA guidelines, Kapica said. The packaging will not show the level of trans fats, which allegedly contribute to heart disease. But that will be in a small print box on the packaging, executives said. Data on soft drinks will not be printed on cups because of the wide variety of beverages, Kapica said.

McDonald's goes public with nutrition info
By Jennifer Waters, MarketWatch
Last Update: 4:59 PM ET Oct. 25, 2005 
Jennifer Waters is Chicago bureau chief for MarketWatch.
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Firing back at its nutrition critics, McDonald's Corp. said Tuesday it will begin packaging most of its foods next year with information telling customers how much calories, protein, and fat are in them.

In a first for its industry, McDonald's said Big Macs, French fries and chicken sandwiches will be wrapped in packages citing nutritional information in numerals and an icon-and-bar-chart form by late 2006. The world's largest fast-food restaurant chain will introduce the new packaging at McDonald's restaurants at the Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy, in February.

Two years in the making, the move underscores McDonald's efforts to shift public perception about fast food being unhealthy to the consumer's responsibility to manage their own food choices.

"This is an open window on McDonald's food," said Cathy Kapica, the company's global director of nutrition. "The math tells the real story -- that McDonald's has the balance consumers are looking for."

The first leg of the packaging changes will take place in 20,000 stores in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. The remaining 10,000 stores will put nutrition information in place as it becomes "locally relevant" and "commercially feasible," Chief Executive Jim Skinner said at a news conference at the chain's flagship Chicago store.

"We'll pick those off as we are able," he said. Some countries, for example, don't require nutrition information on packaging and are reluctant to allow McDonald's to do so, Skinner said.

Although the change in packaging will be pricey, Skinner said "costs were not the issue" and said they will not be material to earnings.

Company officials declined to say how much the effort will cost.

The packaging will be twinned with more detailed information on the company's Web site as a means of encouraging consumers to create their own menu. A calorie-count dieter, for example, can balance the 260 calories in a McDonald's hamburger with other foods consumed throughout the day.

The icons are innovative and, for the most part, language free. Protein, for example, has a pyramid of three building blocks, while sodium is the top of a salt shaker. Fat is shown as a tape measure and carbohydrates, which "fuel" the body, look like a gas gauge. The fifth element is calories, which is abbreviated as "cal."

The bar chart is designed to represent the average daily requirements of each element based on a 2,000-calorie diet. A dotted line on the first third of the chart depicts one-third of average daily allowance. Each element then has a percentage amount and shading in the bar.

The fat-count bar for Chicken McNuggets, for example, will say 15%, accompanied by corresponding shading of the entire bar. In the U.S., the information will also include gram counts, such as 10g for the McNuggets.

"This is easy to understand and is the next generation of nutrition information," Kapica said.

McDonald's has taken a number of steps in recent years to dispel the long-held disparagement that its food is bad for people who are watching their health or diets, with its biggest jab coming from the documentary movie "Supersize Me."

In 2003, McDonald's eliminated most of its super-sized portions and began offering fruit and juice choices, for example, in Happy Meals rather than fries and sodas. The company also launched a line of premium salads, which have been big hits among women.

McDonald's also has fended off an array of fat-related lawsuits, the most famous of which was filed in New York in 2002. The suit was filed on behalf of two obese children who claimed McDonald's failed to provide enough information about what ingredients and processing went into its food items. As a result, the two chubby children -- who consumed McDonald's products for most meals -- blamed the fast-food giant for their weight and health problems.

A federal judge ultimately tossed the case out, but not without commenting on what he called "McFrankenstein" products, or food that through processing has lost its healthful attributes.

The company also introduced a farm-to-table virtual tour of products such as the Egg McMuffin and the cheeseburger. Added Skinner: "We're committed to being transparent."