Making a burger more lovable

Date: 23/02/06

Europeans risk losing the benefits of a balanced diet by dividing foods into 'good' and 'bad' groups, according to the European director of fast-food giant McDonald's.

For Denis Hennequin, director of the restaurant chain since last summer, the challenge for McDonald's in the 21st century is not to replace fries with oatmeal, but to offer as much choice as possible.

"There is a danger we will lose sight of the need to eat a little bit of everything [to have a healthy diet]," he said.

Hennequin said he did not like the modern trend to consider some foods as always unhealthy. "Some people now talk about 'traffic foods'. Are all burgers going to be labelled with a red light?"

Stressing that he did not recommend a diet made up only of red meat, he pointed out that burgers do contain iron, while "someone who lives off salads will at the end of the day not be healthy, even though he eats 'healthy' foods".

Because it is important to eat a wide variety of different foods McDonald's is now working hard to shed its burgers and fries image.

Additions to the McDonald's menu since the 1980s include fresh salads and fruit juice, both of which have proved popular enough to stay on the menu alongside traditional burgers and Coca-Cola.

The biggest seller, however, remains the Big Mac.

But customers this year will have to decide whether they still want the double beef burger sandwich when its 512 calories and 26g fat content are emblazoned on the packet.

McDonald's this month announced that by the end of the year product nutrition information will be printed on all food packaging, rather than just on the back of restaurant tray mats as is now the case.

The packaging will only give information for calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates and salt.

But while globally McDonald's sales continue to rise every year, Europe remains less enthusiastic than much of the world. Although sales figure for Europe rose in 2005, at 2.6% they lagged behind 9.7% in the US.

Hennequin commented that "European sales are up - maybe not enough, but the trend is up".

To boost that trend, McDonald's is spending millions on revamping its restaurants to make them "more of a destination than a passing through place".

Growth overall in European McDonald's sales hides wide differences between countries, with French sales on the up while UK sales plummet.

Hennequin says the French trend is partly due to a decision to spend money making McDonald's more comfortable and attractive for customers used to bistros and brasseries.

Earlier this month he announced a decision to do the same for the UK, which now has 200 of its 1,200-plus McDonald's restaurants in line for a makeover.

The Franco-British split, however, also illustrates different attitudes to food in different parts of the world. Hennequin says he is proud of McDonalds' ability to allow for "cultural issues" while still using broadly the same global model.

"Food, and healthy food, is perceived differently in different countries...we can play to local differences."

As an example, he said the oatmeal porridge now on offer in UK McDonald's "might not do so well in France".

"At the end of the day, though McDonald's has to increase its choice of food...one strategy can fit all of Europe on that."

Health lobbyist Lara Garrido-Herrero of the European Public Health Alliance said her group disagreed that it was a mistake to divide foods into good and bad categories. "There are some foods we should eat less of, and some we should not eat at all," she said.

Foods that should be off the menu were "mainly processed foods - foods that are energy-rich or low in micro-nutrients". In contrast, fresh foods were "something we should eat more of", she said.

Comments by Denis Hennequin, European director of fast-food giant McDonald's, saying that Europeans were at risk of losing the benefits of a balanced diet by dividing foods into 'good' and 'bad' groups.