McDonalds announced Thursday that it will start selling healthier foods and will add more fruits and vegetables on its menu. The move is part of its commitment to help combat obesity.
The planned changes to its menu will be rolled out in 20 of the company’s biggest markets that account for more than 85 percent of its overall profits, including overseas. However, it will take more than a couple of years to make it happen in at least half of its branches worldwide, and the other half may not have changes until the year 2020.
McDonalds is currently the world’s largest hamburger food restaurant in the world with chains in 119 countries ahead of Burger King and Wendy’s. It caters to an average of 68 million customers on a daily basis. In cooperation with the Clinton Foundation’s campaign to decrease childhood obesity, the menu change will include meals low in fat, salt or sugar than its usual burger and fries meals.
The company, though it offered fruits, raw vegetables and salads to its menu before, has had its usual sales in its U.S. and Europe branches and announced earlier this summer that there would be minimal changes to its financial aspect anytime soon. The new generation, that is very much fascinated with fast-casual restaurants like Panda Express and Fazoli’s, are not great fans of McDonald’s.
“Companies like McDonald’s play a powerful role in shaping the culture and environment that influences the health-related behaviors of young people,” said Howell Wechsler, chief executive of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, to N.Y Times.
This new McDonalds campaign was presented at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York on Thursday.
Former President Clinton stated that akin agreement with the soda companies to curb the sales of sugary drinks in schools were intended at dropping the amount of sugar children consume.
Clinton said in a press release, “If we want to curb the catastrophic economic and health implications of obesity across the world, we need more companies to follow McDonald’s lead and step up to the plate and make meaningful changes.”
