McDonald’s will soon remove cheeseburgers from its Happy Meal in an effort to minismse the calories, sodium, saturated fat and sugar that kids consume while visiting their restaurants.
If that news was a bitter burger for the kids to swallow, the fast-food giant also plan to remove chocolate milk as a drink option in a Happy Meal.
Diners can still ask for cheeseburgers or chocolate milk with the child’s meal, but McDonald’s said that not listing the items will reduce how often they’re ordered. Four years ago when McDonald’s removed soft drinks from the Happy Meal menu, requests for the fizzy drink fell 14 per cent.
Pressure from health advocates have encouraged McDonald’s to change-up its junk food image. In the past McDonald’s has made many changes to the Happy Meal including adding fruit and replacing an apple juice with one that has less sugar.
McDonald’s said on Thursday, that it wants all its Happy Meal options to have 600 calories or fewer and 650 milligrams of sodium.
The latest changes will occur in the United States by June, yet it is unclear if these exact changes will occur in Australian restaurants. However, McDonald’s said international restaurants must change their menus so that at least half of the Happy Meal options available meet its new nutritional guidelines.
