McDonald's will lose the right to display the National Heart Foundation of Australia's Tick on foods marketed as healthy options. The fast food giant pays about $300,000 a year so it can put the trademarked Tick next to fish burgers, salads and chicken wraps. But the Heart Foundation has told McDonald's it is removing the company's right to use the Tick, which has been used to promote its foods over the past five years.
A number of smaller takeaway chains, including gourmet pizza group Crust, will also lose the Tick, but the symbol will remain on supermarket foods. Companies including Qantas would also lose the tick. Businesses who serve takeaway meals have been able to pay for use of the tick since 2006, but the foundation now says the program is often too expensive for smaller fast-food retailers to take part in.
The foundation's chief executive Lyn Roberts said the move was not a criticism of McDonald's but a change in direction to concentrate on ingredients delivered to restaurants and food outlets.
The foundation also plans to announce a new plan to conduct random tests on restaurant and takeaway food for levels of saturated fat and salt.
Dr Lyn Roberts added the charity will look at other ways to encourage fast food outlets to offer healthier options. “We'll see menu labeling coming in because that will be mandatory in New South Wales under government legislation and we have got a couple of other states in South Australia and also the ACT, which is also bringing in legislation which will highlight kilojoules,” she said. “There is a lot of things happening in this area.”
McDonald's Australia said yesterday it provided more choices for adults and children, reducing sugar and sodium content across its menu and changing to a vegetable oil that was “virtually free of trans fatty acids and ensuring transparency in labeling”. “We have valued the collaboration with the Heart Foundation,” a spokesman said. “We were the first quick service restaurant to introduce nutrition labeling on our packaging in 2004 and we will roll out kilojoule labeling on our menu boards nationally from November.” Crust co-founder and director Costa Anastasiadis said yesterday the Tick had become increasingly redundant as consumers became more educated about low fat foods.
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