While you might feel guilty at over-indulging in fast-food, and choose to cut down on eating McDonald’s every now and then, how would you feel if it turns out that McDonald’s starts making the same decision on your behalf?
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A US based TikToker @kaybabes24 found out that the McDonald’s she went to reserves the rights to not serve her child certain foods in their Happy Meals. This perceived 'calorie restriction' on Happy Meals imposed by McDonald’s outraged this mother who took it up on the Internet.
Is McDonald’s restricting calories on Happy Meals ?
The mom captioned her video saying,
Mcdoanld’s store manager trying to limit childrens calorie intake
She writes in her video,
Supposed ‘corporate policy’ to limit kids calorie intake, 2 different McDonald’s in the upstate SC, one not saying anything about calorie intake, then announcing their ‘new item’ online.
In the video, she orders a Happy Meal for her child via a drive-thru window in McDonald’s and the staff lets her know that she would not be able to get fries in her kid’s meal and instead there would be apple slices served.
She proceeds to ask,
I don’t have the choice in what my child consumes?
To this, the employee answers that this is the new policy. In a different McDonald’s, she is able to get the same order through including getting fries in the Happy Meal, just as she wanted in the first place.
@kaybabes24 Mcdoanld’s store manager trying to limit childrens calorie intake… #mcdonalds#trending#viral#fypシ#fyp#foryoupage#foryou#corporate#mcdonaldshacks
♬ original sound - Kaybae24
Reactions to the video
Some comments to the video explain since McDonald’s restaurants are all franchisees, different McDonald’s could have different store policy regarding what foods to serve.
One person explained,
about 95% of McDonald’s nationwide are owned by local managers, not actual corporate stores. So, even though the two McDonald’s are in the same area,
Another parent responded to the video saying,
this explains why the last 2 times my kids got apple slices
A person who seems to be a McDonald’s staff commented,
We were just told if people didn't pick one, to automatically put apple slices
Another employee commented along similar lines saying,
The McDonald’s I work at told us the same thing. When we ring up the happy meal apple slices automatically ring in. But the cashier can change it.
There were also a lot of commenters who found the video creator's tone in dealing with the McDonald’s employees to be abrasive.
One post said,
Why grill the drive through employee? I'm sure she didn't change the corporate policy.
As of now, there is nothing regarding calorie restrictions on kids’ meals in the McDonald’s official website.
Sources used:
Daily Dot: '‘I don’t have the choice in what my child consumes?’: Customer blasts McDonald’s for limiting calorie intake on Happy Meals'
