McDonald's to Introduce Leaner McNugget

AP via Austin Statesman ^ | today | ap staff

[Rodney King]

CHICAGO (AP)--McDonald's plans to introduce a new, all white-meat Chicken McNugget with less fat and fewer calories, the latest move by the fast-food giant to offer healthier fare.

In the next six weeks, McDonald's will begin offering the smaller McNuggets in all of its 13,600 U.S restaurants, the Chicago Tribune reported in Sunday's edition.

The revamped McNuggets are designed to meet a growing consumer preference for chicken breast meat. The change is a big, and some say risky, move for the Oak Brook-based company.

Ever since McDonald's first unveiled McNuggets in 1983, they have been one of the restaurant's most popular entrees, especially among children.

But the company says extensive consumer tests over the past six months show the time is right to shift from a McNugget that is 30 percent dark meat to one that's 100 percent white meat.

``It's clear now that consumers prefer white meat, so we started to work on how we might evolve the McNugget to a situation where it is now all white meat,'' said Wendy Cook, McDonald's vice president of menu innovation.

In September, the hamburger chain unveiled it was test marketing an adult version of its Happy Meal. Rather than a burger and a toy, the new Go Active meal will include a salad, an exercise booklet and a pedometer meant to encourage walking.

The new six-piece McNuggets will contain 260 calories, down from 310 calories, and 16 total grams of fat, down from 20 grams.

William Mikel, a University of Kentucky professor and specialist in meat processing and product development, wonders if consumers will reject the new McNuggets the way they rejected Coca Cola's New Coke in the mid-1980s.

``I think they probably have a good idea, but we as consumers, we're a fickle bunch,'' he said.

[Rodney King]

I was in Zurich this summer and the nuggets there were just awesome. I can barely eat them here, but I had them all the time there. The meat was much better quality and the skin tasted better too. I wonder if perhaps they were all white meat? Anyway, whatever they do in Zurich is what they ought to do here (except for charging 12 bucks for the meal!)

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[nhoward14]

It will still be chicken butt meat... just all white chicken butt meat now.

[nhoward14]

When will the NAACP begin its protests of McDonald's for eliminating the 30% representation of African-American chicken meat in its McNuggets?

[BunnySlippers]

I don't care if they are high fat or low fat. Until McDonald's can make food that tastes good I'm staying away. And they are not clean ... total dumps!

[southernnorthcarolina]

``It's clear now that consumers prefer white meat, so we started to work on how we might evolve the McNugget to a situation where it is now all white meat,'' said Wendy Cook, McDonald's vice president of menu innovation.

Is this woman a former bureaucrat?

[Physicist]

I suppose I'm alone in scrounging through the pack of McNuggets, looking for the dark-meat ones. I'm disappointed when I bite into one, only to find that white chicken-foam stuff inside.

I also don't mind finding a crunchy piece of gristle inside. It reassures me that the product was once a form of meat.

[Joe Hadenuf]

A friend came over once and threw down a half eaten big mac. My German Shepard walked up and just sniffed it and walked away....We had a good ol belly laugh....

[GeronL]

McCardboard!

[GeronL]

Most Americans don't know how much things cost in other countries, places where most make less than the average American too.

[freedumb2003]

View of new white chickin nuggets:

[motzman]

No, you're not alone. They've ruined them, now there just embarrasing themselves.

It was the batter that made the original McNuggets great.

In my High School yearbook ('85) I have Chicken McNuggets listed in the "likes" section of my bio.

On my Freeper bio, I've also noted my distaste for new McNuggets.

[RonF]

Whoops. A typo in your title. Given that these new McNuggets will be low fat and have no dark meat, it's easy to see the problem, though.

McDonald's to Introduce Leaner Leather McNugget.

There. Fixed it. No need to thank me, I live to serve.

[jwalburg]

16 grams of fat? I was cheering until I saw that. Why bother?

[Fletcher J]

I like the new nuggets.

My family and I stopped at a Burger King for lunch today after church. As usual, I was disgusted, and promised myself this time that I would no never eat at BK again.

I remember as a kid that a Whopper was a real treat. Now, they are just gross, and the fries are worse.

Maybe it's just me, but I think BK makes McDonald's seem like a gourmet restaurant. The new Hardee's burgers are really good, but Hardee's fries are the same gross "coated" fries as BK.

Fletcher J

[polemikos]

McJerky?

[kenth]

How can they still call them McNuggets if they use breast meat instead of the chicken's nuggs?

wonders if consumers will reject the new McNuggets the way they rejected Coca Cola's New Coke in the mid-1980s.

I doubt that it will cause the uproar the change in Coke did. What should be reason for uproar is the change in fries. The fries used to be a determining factor when deciding upon which sorry, but fast, burger joint to go to. Now, there is no reason to go to McDonalds.

[CFC__VRWC]

No you're not alone. The dark-meat McNuggets are the only ones worth eating. The only way I can handle the white meat ones is to drown them in that McD's faux BBQ sauce, which is nothing more than ketchup with some caramel coloring and a LOT of corn syrup.

[strela]

Mickey Ds lost about 9/10ths of my business when they switched from fried to baked apple pies.

[bicycle thug]

Kittys shouldn't be fed too many of the old McNuggets.