Photo: ouTube/マクドナルド公式(McDonald’s)
food

McDonald’s Japan updates children’s Happy Meals to be more inspiring and nutritionally sound

14 Comments
By Katy Kelly, SoraNews24

While McDonald’s has never been especially associated with healthy eating, the restaurant chain is famous for meals specifically targeted to children, and people are understandably concerned about what their children eat. Even if you, a responsible and mature adult, don’t mind guzzling down a 20-pack of McNuggets for lunch, presumably you’d want your infant child to eat something with a bit more nutritional value. McDonald’s Japan seems to agree, seeing how they’ve completely reshuffled the Happy Meal (Happy Set in Japan) menu to showcase some new, much healthier options for your little ones to chow down on.

▼ Their new ad shows a caretaker bringing some delicious new Happy Meals to his delighted young charges.

The announcement for the new menu options came with this message from McDonald’s Japan:

“We made it so that dads and moms who are primarily concerned about their kids’ growth and development can choose the perfect Happy Meal set to put their minds at ease. And above all else, we made it so that children can eat their meals with gusto. We’ve prepared an extensive menu for you to choose from while taking nutritional needs into account and giving children the chance to grow and develop.”

▼ The website boasts over 300 potential combinations of main, side, and drink options from their new menu.

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Photo: McDonald’s Japan Happy Set

The new editions specifically are a side of yogurt and a side of edamame soybeans and sweet corn, each served in an appetizing and colorful paper bowl. The main choices of hamburger, cheeseburger, chicken nuggets, or pancakes remain unchanged, as do the existing side options of a side salad or small potato fries. The drink menu remains the same as well: milk, apple juice, orange juice, Sokenbicha tea, or vegetable juice. The edamame peas and sweetcorn option will replace the currently available sweetcorn option.

Food isn’t the only aspect that’s evolving in Happy Meals. McDonald’s Japan is continuing its popular picture book campaign, where you can receive a free children’s book alongside your meal. The cute licensed toys aren’t going anywhere, but the choice is available for parents who would rather treat their child to a cute picture book about a pumpkin bath or a mini-encyclopedia than a plastic model of Curious George.

▼ The current crop of Happy Meal toys

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Photo: McDonald’s Japan Happy Set

▼ And the selection available from January, alongside the new menu options.

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Photo: McDonald’s Japan Happy Set

Source: McDonald’s Japan Happy Set

Read more stories from SoraNews24.

-- New Happy Meal in Japan lets you play with your food — and comes with a Pokémon toy to boot!

-- McDonald’s Japan is unleashing the Giga Big Mac, with 2.8 times the beef of a regular Big Mac

-- Net users recoil as McDonald’s Japan’s new “Mogumogu” chicken veggie burger hits kids’ menu

© SoraNews24

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

14 Comments
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Still garbage.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

The lettuce bowl might fly, it kind of fits with the burgers and small fry but otherwise meh,.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Why can't we get the fruit bag that they do in a lot of other countries? (Apple slices, grapes, etc..). Or the bag of carrot sticks?

Or the veggie nuggets?

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Add free toys for healthy items to collect a full set.

Why can't we get the fruit bag that they do in a lot of other countries? (Apple slices, grapes, etc..). Or the bag of carrot sticks?

Or the veggie nuggets?

Or veggies with the miso paste like at the conbini!

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Why can't we get the fruit bag that they do in a lot of other countries? (Apple slices, grapes, etc..).

Profit?

Or the bag of carrot sticks?

Crispy is popular, crunchy less so.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

How about kudamono, fresh fruit for children?

0 ( +2 / -2 )

“We made it so that dads and moms who are primarily concerned about their kids’ growth and development can choose the perfect Happy Meal set to put their minds at ease. And above all else, we made it so that children can eat their meals with gusto. We’ve prepared an extensive menu for you to choose from while taking nutritional needs into account and giving children the chance to grow and develop.”

Nice try right there. Parents who are primarily concerned about their kids won't feed them McDonals in the first place. Some kinda sad salad and corn'n'peas won't cut it. It pretty much resembles the terrible US school lunches.

It’s like the BS line from KitKat aka “we made small a wee bit smaller because people are crazy worried about their calorie intake.”

For some time, many consumers have said they are concerned about calories and want to hold back on their sugar intake," the company said. "From September 2020, we adjusted the recipe to switch part of the sugar to soy milk okara powder etc., and changed each serving to be bite-sized so that people concerned about calories can easily enjoy it. In the case of the standard ‘KitKat Mini’, the weight was reduced from 11.6 grams to 9.9 grams.”

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

How about kudamono, fresh fruit for children?

In a country where a whole family ceremoniously snacks on a single apple?

2 ( +3 / -1 )

So the only new thing is the yoghurt, and that might be rather sweet as well...It also targets an even younger age group that shouldn't be in a Fast Food place at all!

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Inspiring? In Japan? That's just not going to happen.

I guess it being the country with the most Michelin-starred cities might contradict that?

Not that maccie D's is in the same bracket, natch.

-10 ( +0 / -10 )

"mac donald" and "nutrition" are two parallel lines, they will never meet each other

2 ( +2 / -0 )

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