McDonald’s is removing artificial preservatives from their chicken nuggets in an effort to appease and attract health conscious customers.
The behemoth fast food chain is experimenting with their ever-popular nugget recipe in order to make a product with simpler ingredients to put consumers at ease.
The new nuggets are now in the testing phase and are only available in about 140 of their chains in the Washington and Oregon areas, reports Crain’s Chicago Business, a business media platform based in Chicago.
McDonald’s hopes to make the new nuggets available countrywide before the 2016 Olympics in August.
Although the company did not fully explain the new recipe, sodium phosphate is for sure one ingredient that is getting the boot, according to the Associated Press.
Sodium phosphate was used in previous versions of the nugget in order to keep the chicken moist. The nuggets will no longer be fried in oil with the preservative TBHQ, the AP notes.
This move comes after a series of other decisions by McDonald’s in attempts to win customers back after struggling for the past few years. Last year, they announced that they were removing antibiotics from all their chicken.
Some health experts note that although some consumers might appreciate McDonald’s attempts, it doesn’t quite make the nuggets healthy.
“The move to take out the artificial preservatives is designed to attract customers who want their food good, clean, and fair,” Marion Nestle, a Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health professor at New York University told Huffington Post. “It’s a nice thing to do, but doesn’t change the calorie content or improve the nutritional composition.”
Who knows if these changes will be successful in attracting consumers, Marion concluded.
“Will it work to attract those customers? We will see,” she said.
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REFERENCES:
1. “McDonald’s Is Stripping Artificial Preservatives From Their McNuggets.” TheHuffingtonPost.com. Huff Post, n.d. Web. 1 May 2016.
2. “McDonald’s Tests McNuggets without Artificial Additives.” The Big Story. Associated Press, n.d. Web. 01 May 2016.
3. “McDonald’s Plans to Launch ‘cleaner’ Chicken McNuggets.” Crain’s Chicago Business. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2016.
