A Look at McDonald’s New Multi-front Nutritional War

Yesterday was a big day for McDonald’s. They’ve long been in a tense battle with opposition who’ve criticized their highly accessible brand and the lack of nutritional options available to their broad customer base. On July 26th, the McDonald’s USA president Jan Fields announced the company’s long-term comprehensive plan entitled “Commitments to Offer Improved Nutrition Choices.”

While McDonald’s has expressed interest in offering more nutritionally viable menu options in the past, their plans have never been presented with such tangibility as they have in their most recent initiative.

One of the biggest parts of the new initiative is the roll out of their new Happy Meal in September 2011.

The new Happy Meal will automatically include apple slices and a new smaller size French fries (1.1 ounces) along with the choice of a Hamburger, Cheeseburger or Chicken McNuggets. The beverage choice will include a new fat-free chocolate milk and 1% low fat white milk. Upon request, you can ask for two bags of apple slices in place of the French fries. McDonald’s hopes to have these new Happy Meals available at all 14,000 restaurants by the end of 2012’s first quarter.

The estimated impact will be a 20 percent reduction in calories of the most popular Happy Meals, according to McDonald’s. Along with the apples, the company plans to include nutrition and/or active lifestyle messages in 100 percent of their national kids’ communications.

By 2020, McDonald’s aims to reduce added sugars, saturated fat and calories through “varied portion sizes, reformulations and innovations.” More interestingly, by 2015 the brand aims to reduce sodium an average of 15 percent overall across its national menu of food choices.

To increase information flow, McDonald’s has made available mobile apps across the major smartphone platforms to allow customers to access nutrition information on-the-go. Free apps are currently available for the iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, and Android devices.

For more on everything that’s going down with McDonald’s new commitment to long-term changes, read the full press release here.

Does this feel like a legitimately genuine effort by McDonald’s? Or is this yet another public display for the sake of a public display?