麥當勞菜單配料大變樣

麥當勞菜單配料大變樣

為重塑自己在消費者中的地位、注重健康及天然食品配方，麥當勞周一更新了多項食品的配料。備受喜愛的麥樂雞除了被停止使用防腐劑，還將棄用雞皮、紅花油和檸檬酸。

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識：

artificial preservatives 人造防腐劑

McNuggets 麥樂雞，麥香雞塊

high-fructose 高果糖['fr?kt??z]

syrup 糖漿，果汁['s?r?p]

cage-free 無籠；散養(yǎng)

spur 鼓舞，刺激[sp??]

mainstream 主流['me?nstri?m]

ingredients 材料；佐料[?n'gri?d??nts]

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McDonald’s overhauls its menu ingredients （528words）

By Lindsay Whipp in Chicago

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McDonald’s has eliminated controversial ingredients in about half of its menu in a move that highlights how pressure from US consumers is driving changes to the country’s food culture.

The $100bn fast-food chain said on Monday it had removed artificial preservatives from its Chicken McNuggets, sausage patties, omelettes, bagel and biscuit breakfast sandwiches and its scrambled eggs.

It has swapped high-fructose corn syrup in its buns for sucrose and has met a pledge a year early to remove antibiotics important to human medicine from chickens it uses, amid concerns that these pose health risks. It is also working towards a goal of using only cage-free eggs by 2025, a move it said about 100 companies were following.

Consumer demands for healthier food options, fewer artificial ingredients and more transparency in the food chain were until a few years ago met mostly by smaller innovative companies, which had to rely on a limited supply chain. However, spurred on by pressure from social media, those demands have been pushed into the mainstream, forcing McDonald’s and its rivals to make significant changes to the food they offer, and having a knock-on effect on companies such as Tyson in their supply chain.

McDonald’s has faced criticism for not moving fast enough given that smaller rivals such as Chick-fil-A had already made similar moves, including banishing the use of all antibiotics in its chickens.

But the sheer size of McDonald’s, with its 14,200 US restaurants, means that when it starts making such changes it has a far bigger impact on supply chains. After it introduced apple slices as a side dish in 2004, the group was soon purchasing 10 per cent of the domestic harvest.

McDonald’s said that while some of these changes create higher costs, it would not be passing them on to the consumer. It said it was able to offset those costs through savings in its purchases of other food commodities and by using financial hedging tools.

As farmers scale up to meet demands of a company as large as McDonald’s, and other companies make similar changes, prices are also expected to come down. Mike Andres, president of McDonald’s USA, said the changes to its supply chain had posed challenges but he was pleased with the progress.

“If you look at the food industry today, any time that you’re dealing with this many different suppliers, certainly from the farmers’ perspective, it’s going to be challenging,” he said.

Marion Gross, senior vice-president of supply chain management, added that planning and collaboration with suppliers were vital so it could be sure the infrastructure was in place to scale up changes to its ingredients.

The moves come at a time when restaurant chains are facing slowing sales and fierce competition from each other and from supermarkets. The inflation gap between eating at home and outside is at its widest in a decade, said Mr Andres. This has produced stiff competition in the form of promotions across restaurants. Grocers from Kroger to Walmart have been beefing up their offerings of fresh and organic produce, and making their deli counters more exciting as they too seek to benefit from consumers’ shift to fresher ingredients.

請根據(jù)你所讀到的文章內(nèi)容，完成以下自測題目：

1. What was removed from McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets, sausage patties and omelettes?

A. artificial preservatives

B. margarine

C. margarine

D. industrial salt

2. When is the deadline for the goal of using only cage-free eggs?

A. 2017

B. 2020

C. 2025

D. not mentioned

3. Why has McDonald’s faced criticism as mentioned?

A. moving slowly

B. negative news

C. too big impact on supply chains

D. tax evasion

4. Who will pay the higher costs because of the changes as McDonald’s said?

A. government

B. McDonald’s

C. consumers

D. suppliers

[1] 答案 A. artificial preservatives

解釋：麥當勞宣布在麥樂雞和豬肉香腸餅、蛋卷式雞蛋和炒蛋等早餐菜單中移除人工防腐劑。

[2] 答案 C. 2025

解釋：麥當勞正努力爭取在2025年以前實現(xiàn)全部使用散養(yǎng)雞蛋。

[3] 答案 A. moving slowly

解釋：作為全球最大的漢堡快餐連鎖店，麥當勞此前因為對健康菜單行動不夠迅速，不如競爭對手福來雞（Chick-fil-A）而遭到外界批評。

[4] 答案 B. McDonald’s

解釋：麥當勞表示雖然部分改變提高了產(chǎn)品成本，但它不會將成本提高轉(zhuǎn)嫁給消費者。該公司表示自己能夠通過節(jié)省食品采購費用，以及運用金融避險工具來抵消成本增加。