Are McDonalds Working In The Interest Of The General Public?
... of the year. A fourth member of the public objected that fries could contain gluten from other products because of cross-over in cooking oil. Recently, though, McDonalds have tried to be a lot healthier. Quoted from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3322935.stm “But although McDonalds is focusing on its internationally successful burger business, menus inside the golden arches are changing to include more salads and non-burger meals.” They have newly announced a salad. This is their “healthy” option. Ironically, with the dressing, this happens to contain more fat than a regular burger. It even says so on their own nutrition counter, shown here. http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ourfood/asp/FF_interactive.asp In yet another attempt at being healthy, McDonald’s newest plan is to scrap the Super Size meals. They plan to serve low-calorie foods, alongside the milk, yoghurt and fruit, which they currently offer. Because this only makes up for 0.1% of their total sales, this won’t be a huge loss to them. This will probably be a good thing, as many people blame this meal for their obesity. Although McDonalds say that it is mindful about the obesity debate but that super-sizing alone - where drinks and fries are upgraded from a large portion to an even bigger one - does not cause obesity. Despite this, the number of calories in each of these products dramatically increases when going super size. For example, going from large to super size fries, you would have an 84.77% increase in the number of calories and getting a super size Coke instead of a large one would cause a 69.97% increase. Primary Research For my primary research I carried out a questionnaire to find out what people thought about McDonalds. Question number 1 4 5 6 7 8 11 12 13 Yes 17 9 15 4 20 2 6 2 3 No 3 11 5 16 0 18 14 4 11 Other results deduced from this questionnaire are that the most popular meal is a medium Big Mac. On average and most commonly, people eat there once a month. People prefer McDonalds to the other fast food restaurants shown in the questionnaire and it is generally because they like the variety and taste of the food better. From this questionnaire, I have deduced that McDonalds still remains very popular, despite all the bad publicity it gets, as a large number of the people I questioned (85%) eat there regularly. The meals fill, just under half of the people up. As this depends on what you order, it is hard to draw a firm conclusion from this question. Judging from the questionnaire, a lot of people are conscious of their health when at McDonalds. They would eat there more often if there were more healthy choices. This shows that McDonalds have a sector of the market they trade in left to cover. People are against others blaming McDonalds for their obesity. Those who say that McDonalds are to blame, obviously are very conscious of their health when there. Those agreeing with them, all put that they thought McDonalds should offer a healthier option. Everyone thinks McDonalds should put health warnings on their products. This is a similar idea to what cigarette companies are doing now, just on a smaller scale. Although, it’s not really necessary as most people can figure out that if you eat too much junk food, you will get fat, it would benefit everyone if they did this. McDonalds wouldn’t get in trouble for making people obese and the consumers would know not to eat so much. The majority of people do think fast food restaurants should be allowed to advertise their products. This seems fair, as they are just a business trying to get along. People against them advertising may think this because they find that adverts are very powerful and may make people want to eat there more or it may be because there isn’t a health warning anywhere in the adverts. Stakeholder Diagram Conclusion From the research I have done, it is apparent that McDonalds do do bad for the general public. They provide people with fatty foods, which aids them in becoming fat or obese. To avoid this, McDonalds could have put health warnings on their products. This would have meant people couldn’t sue them for becoming obese and that people would actually realise that eating fatty foods will make them fat and it’s not just a clever name. Another thing McDonalds could have done to make people not get fat, is to use less fatty products. Recently they have been trying to do this, by introducing such things as yoghurts, salads and using less fatty oils. McDonalds are also indirectly polluting by giving cheap packaging with their foods, which people use to litter. They could have put recycling bins outside their restaurant or around the community to avoid this. They could also have used plastic cases, which can be taken back or reused. Either of these would have meant that McDonalds had to increase their costs, but would have been effective in bringing in more customers. Despite all this, McDonalds actually do some good for the community. They claim that one of their most important principles is to support the local community in which they operate. They sponsor local organisations and community programmes, which usually focus on family and environmental issues. McDonalds recognise their responsibility to the environment. They analyse their business in every impact it could have on the environment and do everything they can to sort out any problems. They quote: “To ensure a prosperous, healthy and sustainable future for everyone–including our children and our children’s children – we need to use resources wisely today.” Recently McDonalds have been introducing some new products,...