NEW YORK: At a time when Americans are paying closer attention to what they eat, McDonald’s is trying to shake its reputation for serving cheap, unhealthy food.
In the past 18 months, the chain has introduced the option to substitute egg whites in breakfast sandwiches and rolled out chicken wraps as its first menu item with cucumbers. Last fall, it announced plans to give people the choice of a salad instead of fries in combo meals. And in coming months, mandarins will be offered in Happy Meals, with other fruits being explored as well.
McDonald’s declined to make an executive available for this story, but CEO Don Thompson said early this year: “We’ve got to make sure that the food is relevant and that the awareness around McDonald’s as a kitchen and a restaurant that cooks and prepares fresh, high quality food is strong and pronounced.”
The company faces an uphill battle, especially if the past is any indication. The salads it introduced more than a decade ago account for just 2 to 3 percent of sales. And the chain last year discontinued its Fruit & Walnut salad and premium Angus burgers, which analysts said were priced too high for McDonald’s customers at around $5.
The problem is that some people simply don’t consider McDonald’s a place to get high-quality food, in part because the prices are so low. And while McDonald’s has added salads and a yogurt parfait to its menu over the years, Americans are gravitating toward other attributes, like organic produce and meat raised without antibiotics.
“People just don’t think of McDonald’s as having that premium quality,” said Sara Senatore, a restaurant analyst with Bernstein Research.
In some ways, the image McDonald’s is battling is ironic, given its reputation for exacting standards with suppliers. Thompson has also noted the ingredients tend to be fresh because restaurants go through them so quickly.
“The produce and the products that we have at breakfast and across the menu are fresher than — no disrespect intended — what most of you have in your refrigerators,” he said at an analyst conference in May.
But even that reputation for supply chain rigor was recently tarnished when the chain’s longtime supplier was reported to have sold expired meat to its restaurants in China.
The company acknowledges there are problems with how people perceive its food. “A lot of our guests don’t believe our food is real,” Dan Coudreaut, director of culinary innovation at McDonald’s, said last year.
The image is a growing concern for the company as U.S. sales have been weak for two years. The last time McDonald’s managed to boost a monthly sales figure at home was in October, and the company warns its performance isn’t expected to improve anytime soon.
McDonald’s has said it has other problems, including slow and inaccurate service. But improving perceptions about its food is also a priority — and the company is keen on reaching “influencers” to help improve its image.
The company hosted a “chef event” in New York for media last fall and plans another for reporters covering the Essence Festival in New Orleans.