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In conjunction with the 2006 Winter Games in Torino, Italy, McDonald's Corporation officially launched the global rollout of the Nutrition Information Initiative, which will provide consumers with nutrition information on product packaging.
Throughout 2006, McDonald's will continue the worldwide introduction of updated product packaging, which will display nutrition information using a new easy-to-understand icon and bar chart format.
McDonald’s two official Olympic venue restaurants at the Main Press Center and Torino Olympic Village, plus the 24 McDonald’s restaurants located in and around Torino, will feature the new product packaging. The remainder of Italy’s restaurants will introduce the new packaging and supporting communications materials beginning in March 2006. |
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Restaurants throughout Europe will rollout the packaging in the beginning of the second quarter of 2006, while the rollout in the U.S. will begin in March and continue throughout the year.
By the end of 2006, McDonald’s plans to have updated packaging in more than 20,000 of its restaurants worldwide including markets in Asia, Latin America and Canada. Exact rollout timing will be based on each country’s current packaging supply. At the end of 2006, any remaining restaurants will provide nutrition information on packaging as it becomes locally relevant and commercially feasible.
The icons were developed to represent the five elements that experts agree are most relevant to consumer understanding of nutrition - calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates and salt (sodium). The icons and bar chart work together to convert scientific information into a consumer-friendly snapshot of a product’s nutrition value and how it relates to daily nutrient recommendations. |
 U.S. Filet-O-Fish |
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 European French Fry Box |
McDonald’s Europe will use the bar charts and icons exclusively, allowing the communication to be non-language dependent, and the European packaging will include the first-ever pan-European nutrition reference values, called Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA), which have been established on a European level to avoid the need for country-to-country calculations. They refer to the average amount of calories and nutrients that should be present in a daily diet. The GDA for adults is 2,000 kilocalories for adults. European menu items that are part of a Happy Meal, including hamburger, cheeseburger, 4 piece Chicken McNuggets and small French Fries, will also show an icon and bar chart for children 4-7 years based on 1600 kilocalories.
European Nutrition Web site
More about the Nutrition Information Initiative
Nutrition Information Initiative Announcement |
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