Just read the label: Nutrition information on McDonald's core products focuses on five key elements that are most relevant to consumers: calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates, and sodium.
When it comes to nutrition, the more you know, the better
Experts agree that being able to read and understand nutrition labels is essential to making informed dietary choices. We couldn’t agree more. McDonald’s was one of the first restaurant companies in the world to provide customers with nutrition information about the products we offer back in 1973.
Since then, the ways we make our nutrition information available have evolved with emerging technology. For some years, we offered it on in-store trayliners, posters and/or brochures. Then we began offering it on the Web, and in 2006, on our packaging. Our expansion of alternative sources of nutrition information helps consumers make informed choices based on facts, not perceptions.
The Nutrition Information Initiative (NII) and beyond
As projected, we completed rollout of NII to 20,000 restaurants worldwide by the end of 2006. This industry-leading initiative provides easy-to-understand and globally relevant bar chart icons to illustrate the number of calories, fat, sodium/salt, carbohydrates and protein in most of our core products.
The development of this iconic approach to communicating nutrition information involved extensive research and consultation with our Global Advisory Council, the McDonald’s Europe Nutritionist Steering Group, other independent experts and government officials. We also solicited customer perspectives on the most user-friendly ways to communicate nutrition information.
The resulting format enables customers to grasp, at a glance, how our food can fit into a balanced diet. For example:
- The format focuses on the five elements experts agree are most relevant to consumer understanding of nutrition.
- For each element, the percentage of the daily recommended intake the product provides is indicated.
- The format is icon-based and designed to be understood independent of language. And although it provides a global model, it is flexible enough to be adapted to local needs, customs, menus and regulations.
Informing consumers in the future
We are reviewing the effectiveness of the NII and exploring other ways to make nutrition information practical for today’s consumer. Many McDonald’s local business units are already using the latest advancements in technology to make nutrition information even more available. In several of our markets, customers can create their own McDonald’s meal and get its nutrition facts – all with a few key strokes on a computer. McDonald’s Japan uses a code on packaging that allows customers to access nutrition information via web-enabled cell phones.
While we continuously work internally and with outside experts to develop better ways to communicate nutrition information, we are also committed to complying with local laws and regulations that lead to alternative methods for informing consumers. The recent legislation involving menu board labeling in some U.S. communities is an example.
We are not sure that menu board labeling is the most effective way to enable our customers to make individual choices, but we are in compliance with laws and regulations that have been implemented. We will continue to monitor the effectiveness of this approach, and we remain confident that as customers learn more about the nutrition profiles of our food and the choice and balance we offer, it will reflect positively on our commitment to serving responsible food.