Whatever a McNugget technically is, it’s at least about to become a preservative-free hunk of that stuff. Mickey D’s says today that the “cleaner” version it would only cop to “testing” back in April is indeed rolling out nationally after all. It’s one of several “sweeping” menu changes that were announced, all under the auspices of simplifying the chain’s food and making it less artificial. The company’s been on a quixotic quest to convince Americans it sells more than overprocessed junk food, and these revamps will affect 50 percent of the menu. A nebulous number of breakfast items are also losing their preservatives, and the chain has decided to remove high-fructose corn syrup from sandwich buns. They’ll use plain sugar instead. (Cynics, of course, will point out swapping high-fructose corn syrup for real sugar isn’t healthier, per se.)
Unfortunately, the one thing the chain is apparently intent on preserving is the mystery of how it’s doing all this. It wouldn’t tell the AP what ingredients are getting yanked out of which things, a question on everybody’s mind ever since this “cleaner” McNugget became a thing in the spring. The website lists 32 ingredients, but the chain still hasn’t said what’s being phased out, or what’s being added.
