McDonald's Begins Worldwide Rollout of Product Packaging With Nutrition Information

Torino, Italy First Market to Introduce New Packaging

McDonald's Corporation launched the official global rollout of nutrition information on its product packaging in restaurants in the 2006 Olympic Winter Games host city, Torino. The 26 restaurants in the Torino area are the first McDonald's restaurants in the world to have the updated packaging for customers. This is the latest step in McDonald's ongoing commitment to providing consumers with information to help them make informed choices.

"We listen closely to our customers and understand how important transparency is to them. That's why we're putting nutrition information right into their hands," said Mike Roberts, McDonald's President and Chief Operating Officer, who today unveiled the new packaging at a press conference in Torino. "Our ongoing efforts to provide menu choice and variety and be an advocate for physical activity are further demonstrated here today."

McDonald's two official Olympic venue restaurants at the Main Press Center and Torino Olympic Village, plus the 24 McDonald's restaurants located in and around Torino, feature nutrition information on food packaging. The new icon and bar chart format provides information on a menu item's nutrition value and how it relates to daily nutrient guidelines. The icons represent the five elements that experts agree are most relevant to consumer understanding of nutrition -- calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates and salt (sodium). McDonald's Europe will use the bar charts and icons exclusively, allowing for consistent packaging across Europe. In addition, the new packaging will include the nutrition reference values, called Guideline Daily Amounts, which for the first time have been calculated on a pan-European basis.

Comprehensive and user-friendly background information to help familiarize customers with this new format and explain how they can apply it to their daily lives will be added to in-restaurant materials including brochures and trayliners and McDonald's websites. During the Games, unique kiosks will also be placed in select restaurants in Torino to help customers access personalized nutrition information using this new format.

Nutrition information on packaging, which was announced by Chief Executive Officer Jim Skinner in October 2005, is a first for the quick-service industry and builds on McDonald's 30-year history of providing nutrition information to customers.

McDonald's is the world's leading food service retailer with more than 30,000 local McDonald's restaurants serving 47 million customers each day in more than 100 countries. More than 80 percent of McDonald's restaurants around the world are owned and operated by independent, local businessmen and women.  Visit their website at www.McDonalds.com