Fast food chain's ingredient claims

I’ve had a search but from what I can see on the main Choice website, there has been no study done on the ingredients that we get in the major fast food companies. After reading this article http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/marketplace-chicken-fast-food-1.3993967 I’d be very interested to know whether we have the same problem here in burgers, pizzas etc. The direction that business in Australia seems to be heading in recent times (concerned more for profit than consumer value) I can’t say I’d trust our major chains in their claims of 100% Australian Beef, etc. If a study has indeed already been done, I’d be delighted if someone can point me in the right direction :).

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I believe you are safer to stay away from all fast food chains. Former employees have told me that the cooking/storing rules are not stringently applied and that very often food not used today, especially gravies, are regularly reheated to add to the next day’s supply! One can only hope that such practices are not universal!

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I agree but we all know people are still going to frequent them, the western world’s bulging waistlines are proof of that. So to me it would be interesting to know the ratio of meat and whether it was as is advertised. Choice recently tested the claims of nutrition content by the Grill’d chain against McDonalds and Hungry Jacks, as Grill’d advertised themselves as the healthier option…the spokesperson wasn’t too thrilled with the results lol.

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@obbigttam, some of the fast food giants put their ingredient lists on their websites.

While I never eat Maccas, here is one example which is the link to their Australian website which outlines product ingredients.

Most however provide basic nutritional and allergen information on their websites and these can be found by doing a google search.

It would be great if the larger fast food providers, say those captured by mandatory nutritional information laws in some states, to have ingredient lists readily accessible.

May this is something worth campaigning for as part of Choice’s sugar labeling campaign.

Fast food contains added sugars and shouldn’t be missed in the disclosure campaign.

I suspect that in relation to calling say chicken nuggets chicken, chicken must be present in the final product. However, the chicken can be adulterated by adding a range of fillers or ‘taste enhancer’.

Likewise for a beef patty, if they say only ‘contains 100% Australian beef’ (with no other ingredients) then it should only contain beef which is 100% Australian grown.

A beef patty could also be ‘contains 100% Australian beef’ which means that the beef within the patty is 100% Australian product and it one of many ingredients used to form the final product.

The above is the ambiguous wording used by many companies in their advertising to confuse or potentially misrepresent what the customer may believe they are getting.

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Yeah understand all that, and considering the enforcement methods of our governments when it comes to food labelling I wouldn’t trust them as far as I trust Malcolm Turnmind to stick up for his true beliefs lol. Companies are notorious for playing loose with the truth, and not only in the food industry. My post was about wanting to know the percentages of real meat that is related to what is advertised, like the study in the article link I put there. I’m not after nutrition information about what they sell, as there’s nothing nutritious about eating in a fast food joint lol. Yes you could survive on it for a while, but that’s doesn’t make it nutritious. I also have no faith in “mandatory” laws that involve something that has to be regularly checked. It’s mandatory in Australia to pay people legally but as we are seeing more and more often that’s just laughed at. :slight_smile:

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