Make up
your own mind

Some of the questions we've been asked

1. In The Netherlands the cheddar on Macdonalds-burgers has been researched by the University of Wageningen, and has been found to contain 30% imitation cheese (main ingredient is hydrogenated palm oil). Is the same true for the cheddar You use here in the UK? I asked the same question 6 weeks ago, but didn't receive a reply.

Make Up Your Own Mind has been set up specifically to answer questions about McDonald's within the UK so it is hard for us to answer specific questions about products in other markets, although you can find links to the home pages of each country via www.mcdonalds.nl. With regards to the UK McDonald’s uses a variety of cheeses across the menu including processed Cheddar, Philadelphia Light, Maasdam (Swiss style), mature Cheddar, Italian style, and Edam. As an example, the Cheddar cheese slice in the Cheeseburger contains: Vegetarian cheddar cheese, water, butter, milk proteins, natural cheese flavouring. Emulsifying salts: E331 trisodium citrate, E450 diphosphates, E452 polyphosphates. Lactose salt. Preservative: E200 sorbic acid. Colour: E160(a) carotenes, E160(c) paprika. All McDonald’s food, ingredients and nutritional information are available online in 'Eat Smart' section of www.mcdonalds.co.uk under the 'Nutrition Counter' section. (November 2009)

Email this to a friend

Bookmark with:

What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon

2. what time do the mcdonlds close on christmas eve in blackpool?xx

Our opening times vary between restaurants; you can however find a full list of individual restaurant details including full opening and closing times by visiting: http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/restaurants/restaurant-locator.shtml.] (December 2009)

Email this to a friend

Bookmark with:

What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon

3. How many questions submitted do you "edit submissions for sense, syntax, grammar, punctuation and/or spelling." and to what extent? Does this include editing for "sense" in such a manner that the meaning of the question has been altered?

Thank you for your question. It is McDonald’s policy to publish all genuine questions as they were received, unedited. However, as you mention we do reserve the right to edit submissions for sense, syntax, grammar, punctuation and/or spelling, but only do so in exceptional causes, for example, where a profanity is used or where the question is unclear for anyone visiting our site to understand. The manner in which a question has been asked is not altered. (June 2010)

Email this to a friend

Bookmark with:

What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon

4. Hi, do you still do the pancake breakfast thing in the morning, if so what is the approx. price please because i loved them and dont think i have seen them around for a bit?

Thank you for your question. Good news, we do still sell Pancakes on our Breakfast menu. Price lists vary slightly between company owned and franchised restaurants, however all prices of menu items should be displayed clearly in each restaurant. (Jan 09)

Email this to a friend

Bookmark with:

What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon

5. How can I be sure that your chickens are slaughtered humanely? Are there any pictures you could show me? I want to believe you are kind to your cows and chickens but research done by PETA says otherwise...

McDonald’s UK supports that animals should be free from cruelty, abuse and neglect while embracing the proper treatment of animals and addressing animal welfare issues. McDonald’s works continuously with our suppliers to audit animal welfare practices, ensuring compliance and continuous improvement. Outside experts have helped McDonald’s develop systems to measure the effectiveness of animal welfare practices that are objective and measurable. To that end, McDonald’s is committed to implementing an auditing system with our suppliers that ensures animal welfare compliance and sharing “Best Practices” for continuous improvement. McDonald’s will not work with any supplier that does not adhere to both the internal requirements created in conjunctions with independent animal welfare experts alongside those required by UK and EU legislation. (September 2009)

Email this to a friend

Bookmark with:

What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon

6. Have McDonalds tried using compostable food packaging and drinks containers so all food and food wrapping on the food service trays could be composted thus increasing the recycling rates.

Thank you for your question. McDonald’s takes its environmental responsibility very seriously and recycles approximately a quarter of all waste produced at most restaurants through the separation of cardboard and used cooking oil. Specifically, McDonald's is committed to running its entire UK fleet on 100 per cent bio-diesel, made from recycled cooking oil from restaurants, combined with a limited amount of rapeseed oil. The carbon saving of the move will be 1,675 tonnes annually when the national rollout is completed - the equivalent of removing 2,424 family cars from the road each year. The problem, which McDonald’s face is that much of the waste produce in the restaurants, is ‘food-contaminated’, providing a challenge in discovering an appropriate method in terms of recycling. McDonald’s is running permanent pilots where 11 restaurants send their waste to an energy from waste facility that generates energy to be used for heating and powering local buildings. This project was so successful for food-contaminated waste that McDonald’s are now looking to expand this project to other parts of the country where the facilities exist. Additionally, McDonald’s is currently investigating and trailing various different technologies such as composting in 12 of its restaurants in Dorset during October 2008. Locally McDonald's has an extensive litter management programme that aims to control litter around the restaurants, and also to educate and inform customers and the wider community about the importance of environmental protection. McDonald's was the first restaurant to introduce 'Litter Patrols' in the UK, in which each restaurant conducts at least three daily litter patrols whereby members of staff go out and pick up not only McDonald's packaging, but also any other litter that has been carelessly discarded. Litterbins are provided outside all McDonald’s restaurants and the company is one of the biggest sponsors of council provided litterbins in the country. (April 2009)

Email this to a friend

Bookmark with:

What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon

7. Are the chickens you use free range?

Thank you for your thoughtful question. The chickens used for meat in McDonald’s products are called broilers, and are not free-range, but they are reared under conditions that meet high standards, monitored by the Assured Chicken Production regulations. The British Poultry Council also sets high standards for chicken welfare, which is monitored through a set of regulations called Assured Chicken Production (ACP). All suppliers that work with McDonald's must adhere to these standards and procedures as well as McDonald's own strict protocols. You may be interested to know that McDonald's is constantly monitoring the situation with regard to the use and availability of free range meat. There are huge differences in the costs of producing free range chickens, compared with more common farming systems. McDonald's UK has seriously looked at all the current available options, and currently there aren’t enough farms to supply the birds, and there just isn't enough land in the UK for all the chicken houses and fields required. In the meantime, McDonald's, like other responsible food businesses, is concentrating on working with producers and welfare experts to provide good welfare conditions for the birds that allow them to display their natural behaviour in comfortable surroundings. To this end the company is a co-sponsor of The Food Animal Initiative which is running a research project looking into the commercial viability of free-range chicken meat production. (March 2009)

Email this to a friend

Bookmark with:

What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon

8. Is a Big Mac copyrighted or trademarked?

Yes. Big Mac is a trademarked name belonging to McDonald's. (Jan 2009)

Email this to a friend

Bookmark with:

What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon

9. How many happy meals are sold per year in the UK?

Thank you for your question. McDonald’s hopes you can appreciate that this information is confidential and is not released. That said, we can tell you that the average McDonald’s UK restaurant sells 1,890 Happy Meals per week. (Feb 2010)

Email this to a friend

Bookmark with:

What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon

10. I would like to know if the buns and cheese used in the filet o fish are suitable for vegetarians. I am aware that in the usa, the buns and cheese contain 'enzymes', are these plant-based or animal derived?

Good news, the cheese and burger buns used by McDonald’s UK are suitable for vegetarians. Additionally both the McDonald’s Milkshakes and Fries are suitable and have been approved by the Vegetarian Society. (September 2009)

Email this to a friend

Bookmark with:

What are these? Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon