McDonald's New Zealand launches nutrition labels

Click to enlarge
Cheeseburger nutrition labelling as at 27 September 2006

Click to enlarge
Cheeseburger %DI labelling as at 27 September 2006

Thursday 28 September 2006

McDonald's New Zealand launches nutrition labelling and %DI

McDonald’s New Zealand today announced plans to roll out nutrition labelling and Percent Daily Intake (%DI) on packaging.

Director of Marketing Ian Sutcliffe, said McDonald’s New Zealand is setting a new benchmark for the quick service industry with the introduction of nutrition labelling with %DI.

“Our commitment to customers is to provide them with information so they can make informed choices,” he said.

“From next month we will be introducing nutrition labelling and %DI on our packaging so customers can see what percentage of their total daily intake of energy and nutrients are in our products. This includes our burgers, fries and salads.”

%DI represents the ideal daily intake of energy, protein, fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, sugar and sodium for an average adult. This is intended as a guide to help people make choices about the foods they eat.

Daily intakes are based on an average adult diet of 8700kJ as determined by Food Standards Australia New Zealand. Individual’s daily intake may be higher or lower depending on energy needs, which vary from person to person depending on gender, age, weight and physical activity levels.

To help customers understand the labelling, McDonald’s will embark on an education campaign which will include in-store communication, a TV commercial and information on its website.

“McDonald's New Zealand has been providing nutrition information to our customers for many years. This has been done through brochures, traymats and with information on our website - www.mcdonalds.co.nz”

Nutritional labelling is just one of the many innovations that McDonald’s will introduce in the next few months.

“We are also evaluating additional cooking oil options to further improve the nutrition profile of our products,” Mr Sutcliffe said. “And we are rolling out new packaging to highlight where some of our ingredients come from.

“We will continue to find ways to improve the quality of our food, to expand the choices available on our menu and how we communicate to customers.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media