McDonald’s Discontinues Use Of ‘Pink Slime’ In Burgers
No more slimeburgers? Until recently, 70 percent of burgers in the United States contained “pink slime”, also known as ammoniated boneless lean beef trimmings, a cheap beef filling unfit for consumption until it is gassed with ammonia. Now McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Burger King are dropping the magic additive following a campaign of withering criticism from celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. Via the Argus Leader:
McDonald’s and two other fast-food chains have stopped using an ammonia-treated burger ingredient that meat industry critics deride as “pink slime.” The product remains widely used as beef filling in burger meat, including in school meals.
The beef is processed by Beef Products Inc. in Iowa and in three other states. One of the company’s chief innovations is to cleanse the beef of E. coli bacteria and other dangerous microbes by treating it with ammonium hydroxide.
“Basically, we’re taking a product that would be sold at the cheapest form…
McDonald’s Accounted For Half Of May’s Job Growth
If you’re looking for a job, McDonald’s is the place to go. No really, it’s the only place for you to go. The Atlantic Wire writes:
We were joking when we wrote that McDonalds was singlehandedly reviving the U.S. economy by hiring 62,000 employees in a single day in April. At the time, it didn’t feel like the recovery hinged on the creation of low-paying, temporary McJobs. Well, on the heels of today’s pessimistic report saying that just 54,000 jobs were added in May, the fast food chain’s effect on the economy is looking impressive to MarketWatch.
Seasonal adjustment will reduce the Hamburglar impact on payrolls. (In simpler terms — restaurants always staff up for the summer; the Labor Department makes allowance for this effect.) Morgan Stanley estimates McDonald’s hiring will boost the overall number by 25,000 to 30,000.
Those 25,000 to 30,000 McJobs that Morgan Stanley estimated were the net additions that would…
McDonald’s Transgender Beating
Not sure what’s more shocking, the beating itself or the employees warning the women to get out before the police come as the victim has a seizure… From the Daily News:
The victim of a vicious beating at a Maryland McDonald’s is a transgendered woman, according to a LGBT advocacy group that’s calling for authorities to investigate the case as a hate crime. [Warning: Video footage may be disturbing to some people]
The shocking video, which went viral on the Internet this week, shows the woman being kicked in the head by two girls at the Rosedale fast food chain as some of the staff stood by laughing…
Sign of the Times: McDonald’s Received Over 1 Million Applications During Recent Hiring Event
To put this in prospective, according to Tampa Bay Online, 1 in every 188 Floridians applied. Leslie Patton writes for Bloomberg:
McDonald’s Corp. (MCD), the world’s biggest restaurant chain, said it hired 24 percent more people than planned during an employment event this month.
McDonald’s and its franchisees hired 62,000 people in the U.S. after receiving more than one million applications, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company said today in an e-mailed statement. Previously, it said it planned to hire 50,000.
The April 19 national hiring day was the company’s first, said Danya Proud, a McDonald’s spokeswoman. She declined to disclose how many of the jobs were full- versus part-time. McDonald’s employed 400,000 workers worldwide at company-owned stores at the end of 2010, according to a company filing.
The number of applications for unemployment benefits in the U.S. rose last week, a sign that progress in the labor market may be fading. Jobless claims increased…
Ronald McDonald Kidnapped – Ransom Demanded
A group calling themselves the Food Liberation Army has kidnapped Ronald McDonald and has a list of demands from McDonald’s. If the fast food megacorp fails to meet the demands god only knows what the ruthless Finns will do to him…
We are the Food Liberation Army, and we hope that this extreme action will take us towards a better and safer food future.
Two days ago we kidnapped Ronald McDonald from a McDonald’s Restaurant. If you do not answer all the questions we will execute Ronald on Friday February 11, 2011 at 6:30PM EET.
We love burgers, fries and McDonald’s, but we can no longer watch silent when the food we love is being destroyed and brought to shame because of greed and indifference. Because of your short-sightedness your burgers have become nearly inedible…
McDonald’s, CBS, Mazda, Microsoft Sued For Tracking Internet Users’ Histories
Always remember — the vacant, shining, plastic eyes of Ronald McDonald are upon you. A lawsuit claims that internet users’ browsing histories are tracked and shared among corporations that use the data to tailor advertising. Via MediaPost:
A New York resident who recently sued behavioral advertising network Interclick for allegedly violating her privacy by using history-sniffing technology has filed a related lawsuit against McDonald’s, CBS, Mazda and Microsoft.
In a complaint filed Tuesday with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Sonal Bose alleges that McDonald’s and the other companies “acted in concert with Interclick,” to mine users’ Web surfing history for marketing purposes. “Defendants circumvented the privacy and security controls of consumers who, like plaintiff, had configured their browsers to prevent third-party advertisers from monitoring their online activities,” Bose alleges.
The lawsuit alleges that the companies violated the federal computer fraud law, wiretap law and other statutes. She…
New Years Resolution, Diets And Obesity
New Years is a celebration of starting over, the time when many people make resolutions to improve the following year. The most popular resolution in America is to lose weight and be more healthy. According to disinformation’s book 50 Facts That Should Change the USA, written by Stephen Fender, it is also the least kept resolution. With Fact #40: 65% of American adults are overweight, 30% are obese, and these proportions are growing, Americans should reconsider how they keep their resolutions throughout the whole year:
65% of American Adults Are Overweight, 30% Are Obese, And These Proportions Are Growing
“I myself am very well in body, mind spirits, quite stout,” an immigrant wrote from Pittsburgh to his brother back in Manchester, England in 1837. “I weigh 182 lbs so you may think how I am, a man of my size. Am very corpulent.” Those were the days—when fat was a sign of success…
San Francisco Bans McDonald’s Happy Meal
San Francisco has enacted a law prohibiting restaurants from giving toys away with high-fat and sugary meals, including the American staple: the Happy Meal. This was done in hopes that children won’t opt for unhealthy food just because they receive a toy as well. The New York Daily News reports:
The McDonald’s Happy Meal went the way of Prop. 19 in San Francisco Tuesday when the city’s board of supervisors voted to forbid restaurants from offering toys with meals that contain too much fat and sugar.
Restaurants would also need to provide fruits and vegetables with meals that come with free toys. The city said the measure was an effort to combat childhood obesity.
“We’re part of a movement that is moving forward an agenda of food justice,” Supervisor Eric Mar told the Los Angeles Times. “From San Francisco to New York City, the epidemic of childhood obesity in this country is making our kids sick, particularly…
McDonald’s Tells Employees They Must Vote Republican For Raises
Whoops, turns out it’s actually illegal to bribe/threaten your employees into voting the way your company wants. ThinkProgress writes:
This election season, a local McDonald’s franchise in Canton, Ohio is telling employees how to keep the company happy: vote Republican. Along with their recent paychecks, employees received a pamphlet on company letter head that stated “if the right people are elected we will be able to continue with raises and benefits at or above our present levels. If others are elected we will not.”
McDonald’s Food Is Immortal!
Photographer Sally Davies has stirred up a lot of interest in the weird science that goes into making McDonald’s “food” resistant to decay. She has an amazing series of photos at her flickr site where you can see daily progress, or lack thereof, of an ageing McDonald’s Happy Meal (example below).
Photo: (c) Sally Davies (www.sallydaviesphoto.com)
According to New York Magazine’s Grub Street blog, Davies plans to keep the experiment going “until something happens, but she’d better be ready for a long haul: A twelve-year-old McD’s burger surfaced a few years ago looking shockingly well-preserved”!
McDonald’s Death Video
I’m no fan of McDonald’s, and as Morgan Spurlock proved, eating too much of the processed junk they pass off as food is calamitous for your health … but this ad from the nonprofit vegan group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine takes criticism of Mickey D’s to a whole new level!
A Happy Meal 137 Days Later
Artist Sally Davies runs the classic, terrifying “McDonald’s burger time-lapse” experiment. The goal of course is to see how long it takes food from McDonald’s to alter in appearance even the slightest bit. At 137 days and counting, this meal looks identical to how it did at the time of purchase. Via Refinery 29:
Asterix – French Comics Hero – Endorses McDonald’s
As you might expect, the French are more than a little testy about the offending ad, shown at right, part of a BETC EuroRSCG publicity campaign for McDonald’s. Report from Reuters:
A new McDonald’s ad featuring Gallic champion Asterix enjoying a burger and fries has sparked outrage among French comic purists who see it as an insult to their national heritage.
The billboard shows the fearless Gaul and friends celebrating their traditional banquet at the fast-food chain — with Cacofonix the bard tied to a tree outside as usual.
“My childhood hero sacrificed like a wild boar! What next? Tintin eating at Subway?” said one horrified blogger called sirchmallow.
“How ironic, the indomitable Gauls making an advert for the invaders,” was another outraged comment on Twitter.
The ad is of three designed by advertising agency Euro RSCG for McDonald’s’ “Come as you are” campaign…
[continues at Reuters]
Ohio Woman Flies Into a Rage Over Lack of McNuggets (Video)
Feed me! Feed me! WTF lady, it’s not even real chicken … The AP via Google News reports:
TOLEDO, Ohio — A security video from a McDonald’s in Ohio shows a woman punching two restaurant employees and smashing a drive-thru window because she couldn’t get Chicken McNuggets.
The tantrum caught on tape in Toledo earlier this year shows the customer reaching through the drive-thru window, slugging one worker and then another. She then grabs a bottle out of her car and tosses it through the glass window before speeding off.
It happened early on New Year’s Day. Police say Melodi Dushane was angry that McNuggets weren’t being served, because it was breakfast time.
McDonald’s Not So Happy Meals
Looks like Mickey D’s is about to undergo another round of public and media lashing now that childhood obesity is a major priority in Washington. As the Los Angeles Times reports, a watchdog group says giving away toys with Happy Meals contributes to childhood obesity and threatens to sue:
Weeks after a Silicon Valley county became the first in the nation to ban toys from McDonald’s Happy Meals and other food promotions aimed at children, a public health watchdog group called on the fast food giant to remove the playthings from all its meal packages.
Citing toys aimed at promoting the latest “Shrek” movie, the Center for Science in the Public Interest said that the plastic promotions lure children into McDonald’s restaurants where they are then likely to order food that is too high in calories, fat and salt.
The organization on Tuesday served the fast food giant with a letter expressing its intent…
Could McDonald’s Replace Beef Burgers With Seitan? Would Anyone Notice?
Nick Aster writes on triplepundit:
I sometimes like to write harebrained posts postulating some kind of zany idea. So here’s today’s:
I ate at an airport McDonald’s the other day for the first time in ages. It was at once delicious and disturbing. I looked at the beef. Was it really beef? I mean, seriously, it was definitely some kind of beef-flavored-matter, and the advertisement did say 100% beef. But as I walked off with that greasy post-McDonald’s flavor (that lasts for hours) in the mouth, I got to thinking: that patty was almost no different than the wheat or soy-based stuff used to make vegan food (seitan and so on).
I walked away 100% convinced that McDonald’s could replace all its beef with beef-flavored seitan and NO ONE would notice the difference. McDonald’s would save a fortune, health would be improved, and the carbon and resource footprint of McDonald’s would be massively slashed.
Does…
Mapping The American Burger Wars
The excellent WeatherSealed by Stephen Von Worley graphically illustrates the battle for dominance in the American fast food stakes:
Imagine, if you will, the burger force – a field of energy that radiates from every freshly-cooked patty, earth-penetrating and inverse-squared with distance, compelling the hungry carnivore to seek out and devour the well-done ground beef at the source.
Now, wrap that concept in a Star Wars motif – set in the present day, with the second-tier burger chains as the rebels – each, by themselves, without mutual aid, battling the 12,000-plus restaurant McEmpire. The situation is most dire, for the upstarts control but a few significant islands of territory amid the overwhelming and darkly-rendered influence of the McForce:
Territory controlled by the eight largest U.S. burger chains.
In this and the following graphic, each individual restaurant location has equal power. The entity that controls each point casts the most aggregate burger force upon it, as calculated by the inverse-square law – kind of…
Weight Watchers Endorses McDonalds
How to destroy your brand fast! As reported in the Guardian:
McDonald’s is hardly an ideal dining location for anyone struggling to stay slim. But the fast food chain scored a PR coup today when Weight Watchers agreed to endorse some of its products in New Zealand – a move met with outrage by nutritionists and obesity experts.
As part of the deal, which the company says is the first of its kind in the world, McDonald’s will use the Weight Watchers logo on its menu boards and Weight Watchers will promote McDonald’s to dieters.
The link-up is the fast-food chain’s latest attempt to improve its reputation by securing endorsements. In January, to the horror of gastronomes, Italy’s agriculture minister, Luca Zaia, helped launch the McItaly range of burgers. For a representative of one of the world’s greatest culinary nations to do such a thing was “a sign of the moral bankruptcy of…
Star Wars Teams Up With… Ugh… McDonalds
Great commentary by Killer At Large producer Bryan Young, in the Examiner:
Perhaps I have a different perspective on this than a lot of people, but I’ll explain it and hopefully you’re all with me on this.
Star Wars is doing a Happy Meal promotion with McDonald’s for their Clone Wars series starting Februrary 26th. (More information on that here). The 8 year old in me jumps for joy. The parent in me is filled with disappointment and disgust. My kids aren’t allowed to eat food of such poor quality and now I’m going to have to tell them they can’t have these Star Wars toys because I refuse to buy them junk food.
I understand that this makes sense from a marketing perspective, but the problem is that marketing junk food to kids with beloved characters and properties like Star Wars is morally reprehensible. I spent two years making a documentary about the…
