McDonald's to make Happy Meals more healthful (quivering before the Beast)

LA Times ^ | 7/26/11 | Emily York

[markomalley]

Under pressure from health and children's advocacy groups, McDonald's Corp. is making changes to its famed Happy Meals.

The fast food chain will add a serving of fruit or vegetable to all of the meals, which are aimed at children, and shrink the portion of French fries.

The changes, to be announced Tuesday, will take effect in September in some markets and then roll out to all 14,000 McDonald's restaurants in the U.S. by April.

McDonald's said it first experimented with cutting fries entirely from the Happy Meals, but children and parents rebelled.

"People come to McDonald's and, first of all, they want the choice and the control to be theirs, but their expectation of a Happy Meal does include a fry," said Jan Fields, president of McDonald's USA. "When we did it without fries, there was a huge disappointment factor."

The new French fry holders in Happy Meals will contain 1.1 ounces of potatoes, down from 2.4. Apple slices will often be included as the healthful side dish, but it could also be carrots, raisins, pineapple slices or mandarin oranges, depending on the time of year and the region in which they're being served, Fields said.

Although subject to variation depending on what's ordered, the new meals will represent, on average, a 20% decrease in calories, the chain said.

[IYAS9YAS]

Copy paste brain fart. This:

"In suburban areas move to boxes at the end of the street, or at least the end of the driveway—this would allow for nearly double the amount of mail delivered in the same time."

was supposed to be this:

But this does bring to mind, when was the last time you heard of people getting e-coli from a potato vs fruit.

[Oztrich Boy]

Somebody needs to splain McDonald’s that they are in business to make money,

You don't think they will be raising the price?