On October 18, 2019, McDonald's China announced a major upgrade of the Happy Paradise Meal, further implementing McDonald's commitment to children's well-being in terms of nutrition, responsibility and joy, increasing the choice and proportion of vegetables and fruits, from three sets to four sets, to help children's diets be balanced.
For 40 years, Happy Meals have brought joy to countless families around the world. As of 2018, Happy Meals had sold more than 27 million servings in China, including more than 16 million servings of milk and over 5.7 million servings of fruits and vegetables.
In addition to the menu changes, another highlight of the Happy Paradise meal is the toys that come with the meal. McDonald's China CEO Zhang Jiayin announced at the 2019 "McMay All Seats" that in the next 7 years, McDonald's China will join hands with Walt Disney to launch a Disney movie-themed Happy Paradise Meal to open a cooperation from 2019 to 2025.
Less salt, better oil, more fruits and vegetables
In 2016, McDonald's China held the "Full Table of Wheat" for the first time, presenting fresh and safe ingredients in a creative way, and under the premise of ensuring the deliciousness and quality of products, it has been committed to realizing the menu reform concept of "less salt, better oil, more vegetables and fruits and grains".
In 2019, "Mai Mai Full Seat" will focus on the Happy Meal for the nutritional needs of Chinese children's diets, the new Happy Paradise Meal refers to the "McDonald's Global Children's Nutrition Standards", and the package is upgraded from a three-piece set to a four-piece set, including a staple food (optional meat protein source: fish, beef, chicken), a snack (optional mini fries, corn cup), a vegetable and fruit (optional apple slices, fresh vegetable cup, corn cup) and a drink (optional pure milk, water, 100% apple juice).
"In terms of nutrition upgrades, we mainly refer to the latest updated 'nutrition pyramid' of the Dietary Guidelines for Chinese residents." Zhang Jiayin said that in terms of localization innovation, the first content of the upgrade is the matching of meat, in addition to the original beef and chicken in the design, fish has been specially added; the second is the combination of vegetables and fruits, replacing cold carrots with hot corn cups is more in line with the dietary needs of Chinese children; the third is the combination of beverages, milk and juice are basically natural, without adding sugar and coloring.
It is revealed that the pricing strategy of each Happy Paradise meal is that McDonald's and consumers share 50% of the price, so the package will rise by about 2 yuan due to the increase in cost after the upgrade.
Ding Gangqiang, director of the Institute of Nutrition and Health of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said: "McDonald's has launched a series of measures to implement the Healthy China Action and implement the goal of 'three subtractions and three health', accumulating experience for exploring and developing nutrition and health knowledge, and it is expected that more catering enterprises will actively take action to jointly promote the construction of a healthy China." ”
From 2010 to 2018, McDonald's China reduced salt by more than 800 tons by adjusting the salt content of related products, such as about 10% reduction in hamburger bread, about 10% reduction in ketchup, and 20% reduction in potato treaty. In 2017, McDonald's restaurants began to use sunflower canola oil, which significantly reduced saturated fatty acids by more than two-thirds and made the nutritional structure of the products more balanced.
On the issue of how to balance between the pursuit of a healthy low card and the guarantee of classic tastes, Zhang Jiayin said that not all catering companies have a standard menu like McDonald's, and customers can find nutritional information about each product on the official website, such as calories, carbohydrates, etc.
"Children probably need 1,800 to 2,000 calories per day, and each happy meal will not consume more than one-third of the calories needed for a day, not more than 600 calories." And in terms of meal options for adults, a series of 500 calorie package combinations are now very popular. Zhang Jiayin further said.
A Happy Meal = $0.50 donation
Since 2015, mcDonald's China has donated 0.5 yuan to the "China Soong Ching Ling Foundation McDonald's Uncle House Charity Fund" for every happy meal sold, so that children can contact and participate in public welfare from a young age.
"Uncle McDonald's House" is a Global McDonald's charity program that supports families of poor sick children to seek medical treatment in different locations. By the end of 2018, happy meals had donated more than 32 million yuan.
"In China, if a child is seriously ill, there is not enough local equipment and medical facilities, and it is necessary to go to other places to seek medical treatment remotely, and mom and dad have no place to sleep and sit in chairs all night." The concept of uncle McDonald's House is to provide them with an off-home home to help families of sick children in need. Zhang Jiayin said that in the future, McDonald's China will promote the opening of more "McDonald's Uncle Homes" across the country.
It is understood that the location of the "Uncle McDonald's House" is 5 minutes to 10 minutes away from the hospital, and the difficulty of its preparation lies in the need to work closely with the children's hospital to operate in a "land" manner to provide 4-star hotel-like services. McDonald's China hopes that every province will have at least one "McDonald's Uncle House" in the future, and currently Changsha, Hunan Province, has its first 17-room project.
How do families who visit a doctor in a different place apply to stay at Uncle McDonald's House? Zhang Jiayin said that McDonald's China will understand the situation of the sick child's family through cooperation with the hospital, and determine the priority by factors such as the condition and family income.
However, as far as the current project process is concerned, the proportion of families with sick children assisted to the families applying is still limited, and some suitable property conditions do not have a sufficient number of rooms. Therefore, McDonald's China is also considering plans to provide parents with rest areas such as family care centers, providing space usage rates to benefit more families.
McDonald's and Disney have been working together for 7 years
Happy Paradise Meal is not only the inheritance of delicious food, the spread of nutrition, the transmission of love, and the toys that come with it are full of expectations.
In order to bring more surprises to customers, McDonald's and Disney reached a seven-year cooperation. From 2019 onwards, the two sides will carefully select the favorite movie characters of Chinese children for the design of happy meal toys.
Zhang Jiayin said: "We are very happy to have this meaningful collaboration with Disney. I believe that soon, fans of all sizes will have more fun through happy meals at McDonald's restaurants. It is reported that the first round of cooperative toys will be the first to enter mcdonald's stores nationwide from November 13.
McDonald's and Disney are two brands loved by family patrons and share a common philosophy for children's nutrition. In 2018, McDonald's China launched scale for Good's "One Small Step for Us, One Big Step for the World" sustainability action plan, focusing first on green restaurants and green packaging, and partnering with Disney. In 2019, with the heavy upgrade of Happy Meals, Scale for Good opened a new chapter in children's nutrition and child well-being in China.
From the perspective of the entire children's catering consumer market, the national child population accounts for about 7%, while the proportion of children's families among McDonald's customers has reached more than 20%. According to the adjustment of consumption characteristics, McDonald's has also upgraded the service system, in addition to the digital upgrade of the children's park, 60% of the restaurants have been upgraded to provide food delivery services and mobile phone ordering for the future restaurant experience, adapting to the changes in the busy life of first- and second-line families.
In fact, McDonald's China has been committed to disseminating dietary nutrition knowledge to children through edutainment and education, and cultivating scientific concepts of diet and health. In Zhang Jiayin's view, the goal of Happy Paradise Meal has always been not to produce profits but to pay more attention to the responsibility of the brand, innovate the balanced meal that families can afford, and create a parent-child happy time is the value and positioning of Happy Paradise Meal.