McDonald's India goes healthy, cuts sodium, oil and fats in menu

In an attempt to woo healthy and low-calorie diet lovers, McDonald's has launched 'The Good Food Story' to promote nutritive and wholesome food, replacing its high-fat meals.

In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Mcdonald's India declared that it has rejigged its menu with grilled and steamed items, which will have low sodium, oil and fat content. It has also expanded its product offerings, which include low-carb McAloo Tikki, healthier mayonnaise for burgers and fat free ice cream.

"We have reduced the oil content in the mayonnaise by almost 40 per cent. The overall calories for all burgers have been slashed by 11 per cent," said Amit Jatia, vice-chairman, Westlife Development, while addressing the media in Mumbai.

Westlife Development works on expanding the footprint of the quick service restaurant chain in India through its subsidiary Hardcastle Restaurants, the master franchisee of McDonald's restaurants.

The world's leading fast food chain has also replaced refined flour with whole grain. It claimed that the dietary fibre content in McDonald's patties has gone up by as much as 20-25 per cent. A new range of whole grain wraps are available across all outlets, along with two more offerings: Chatpata-Naan, and Italian and Mexican rice bowls. It has, however, not announced any price change with the introduction of the new menu.

The US burger chain with presence across 119 countries, has also committed to serve its global customers with healthy food options made from ethically-sourced ingredients, besides reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Scaling up
Hardcastle Restaurants  is planning to set up more than 200 to 250 outlets across India by 2022.  "At present, we have 270 restaurants. We are planning to have 400-500 restaurants by 2022, which will serve 400-500 million customers," Jatia added.

He said that his company is planning to invest of Rs 800-1,000 crore in the next few years.

McDonald's India serves around 20 crore customers annually and has presence in 37 cities in Telangana, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and parts of Madhya Pradesh, which employs around 8,000 people directly.

The US burger chain had closed down 84 of its restaurants in 2017 after a legal tussle with its former joint venture partner Connaught Plaza Restaurants, which operated its 169 outlets in north and east India.