Healthier Happy Meals on the way
Even cheeseburgers at risk, McDonald’s says.
McDonald’s is making cheeseburgers available in Happy Meals only by request, reducing the portion of french fries that come with Chicken McNuggets and making other changes to its kids’ meals to reduce calories, fat and salt.
For some children, the changes may make Happy Meals a little less happy. But they will be more nutritious.
The fast-food giant announced Thursday that by the end of 2022, at least half of Happy Meals listed on menus worldwide will have no more than 600 calories, with 10% of those calories coming from saturated fat and 10% from added sugar. Sodium will be limited as well.
By June, all Happy Meals in the U.S. will hit the calorie, saturated fat and added sugar targets, and 78% will meet its sodium target.
Besides making cheeseburgers available in Happy Meals only if customers request them and reducing the order size of the fries with the six-piece Chicken McNuggets, McDonald’s is cutting the amount of added sugar in chocolate milk and adding bottled water as a featured beverage choice on Happy Meal menu boards.
The Oak Brook, Ill.-based company said it also will explore adding new foods to Happy Meals, such as the Junior Chicken, a grilled chicken sandwich McDonald’s restaurants in Italy introduced last month.
McDonald’s said it plans to use marketing, new packaging and order-taking kiosks and mobile apps to promote the healthier food and drink options in Happy Meals.
McDonald’s has made changes in the past to Happy Meals, such as offering apples starting in 2004, excluding soda from the Happy Meal section of its menu boards in 2013 and swapping regular juice for a less caloric and less sugary organic equivalent late last year.