Customers at McDonald’s will be able to see how many calories are in their Big Macs and other items on restaurant and drive-thru menus starting this month.

“At McDonald’s, we recognize customers want to know more about the nutrition content of the food and beverages they order,” said McDonald’s USA President Jan Fields in a news release. About 15 percent of Americans accurately estimate the number of calories needed for weight maintenance, according to the International Food Information Council Foundation.

This fall, about 750,000 McDonald’s employees will participate in a nutrition e-learning program to teach them about the menu and its nutrition offerings. The chain will also offer test options, like more grilled chicken and the McWrap, which starts at 350 calories, in 2013.

McDonald’s released its first nutrition progress report Sept. 12. According to the report, McDonald’s is committed to including produce and low-fat dairy in its Happy Meals and reducing sodium by 15 percent across its menus, excluding beverages, by 2015. During the summer, the chain introduced a “Favorites Under 400” menu with items like medium fries at 380 calories, Filet-O-Fish at 380 calories and fruit and maple oatmeal at 290 calories.

A Big Mac sandwich is 550 calories; 10 chicken nuggets are 470 calories and a Caesar salad with grilled chicken is 190 calories not including the dressing. More information and the progress report are available at http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/food_quality/nutrition_choices.html.

Tags: Jan Fields, McDonald's, nutrition

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 18th, 2012 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Dining Out, Food, Special Section, Star.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.