Chicken McNuggets: Difference between revisions

Chicken McNuggets (introduced in 1983) are a fast food product offered by the restaurant chain McDonald's. They popularized the chicken nugget, which had been invented in the 1950s, and are one of the most popular trademarked items on the McDonald's menu.

McNuggets, as they are commonly known, are small pieces of formless chicken that have been battered and deep fried. They are sold in packages of (4, 6, 10 ) (4, 6, 9 and 20 in the United Kingdom and Russia). In New Zealand and Australia, they are also available in 4 packs in Happy Meals and Heart Foundation approved Tick healthy meals. They come with a choice of various flavors of dipping sauce.

Product description

The Chicken McNugget is a small piece of minced chicken breast and mechanically separated meat held together with phosphate salts and some chicken skin. The pieces are coated with batter, lightly fried to set the batter, individually quick frozen, packaged, and sent to stores. At the McDonald's stores, the McNuggets are deep-fried and sold. According to McDonald's, Chicken McNuggets are made entirely of "white meat" meat. McNuggets come in a variety of different shapes. The first of these shapes is "The Boot", named for its boot-like appearance. Another shape you are likely to encounter is "The Tombstone", again named for its tombstone-like appearance. The third and final shape is "The Circle", which may have a slightly ovular appearance.

Dipping sauce options

Sauces vary by market. In Australia, the sauces available are Sweet and Sour, BBQ, Sweet Chilli and Sweet Mustard, whilst The United States market offers Barbecue sauce, Sweet n Sour, Honey, and Hot Mustard specifically for the McNuggets. Spicy Buffalo Sauce, Creamy Ranch, Tangy Honey Mustard and Southwestern Chipotle barbecue sauce are offered for the Chicken Selects but available upon request. Other markets offer some additional sauces as per market demographics. These sauces are not always in addition, but are sometimes substitutions for other sauces on the menu. Sauces such as the American Chipotle BBQ sauce do not translate to other countries, and as such the sauce is the same but renamed Smokey BBQ.

At one point in the late 80's-very early 90's teriyaki was offered as well as apple and cherry around the Christmas season. Other sauces available in different countries include crazy curry, tomato basil, sweet chili, , garlic, wild mustard, and jalapeño.

History

In November 2003, McDonald's switched to using all white meat for the Chicken McNuggets instead of the traditional combination of white and dark meat. This was heavily promoted as an effort to improve the item's flavor. McDonald's state that they use mechanically separated breast meat in the production of their McNuggets. A small amount of chicken skin is recovered with the breast meat.

At the same time that they stopped using dark meat, McDonald's announced that they were using less salt in the preparation of McNuggets. This was recognized as an attempt to make their products healthier. However, the sodium levels listed in McDonald's nutrition facts have actually increased: from 530 mg for 6 pieces between 2000–2002, to 670 mg for 2003–2005.

Chicken McNuggets vary from different countries. For example, in European countries a crumby breading is used, whereas in the North America the previously mentioned batter is used.

Advertising

McNuggets Shanghai were a sales gimmick used by the McDonald's Corporation in 1986. They were accompanied by a pair of chopsticks, a fortune cookie and a choice of sweet and sour, teriyaki, or hot mustard sauce. McNuggets Shanghai were discontinued after only a few months, due to campaign failure. They are no longer available, although in the Summer of 1998 the McNuggets were packaged in Chinese food take-out boxes again to go along with their promotion of the Disney animated movie Mulan.

In 1988 "Fiesta" McNuggets were marketed, these were like McNuggets Shanghai in that nothing was different except for the packaging and a foreign/exotic gimmick, in this case Fiesta McNuggets came with a collectible "fiesta" coin. These also did not last long and were discontinued soon after.

In the McDonaldland series of advertisements, Chicken McNuggets were anthropomorphised as the McNugget Buddies, rounded nuggets with faces and voices who usually came in groups corresponding to the amounts available on a McDonald's menu, appearing in a McNugget box, lined up like eggs in a carton.

As of July, 2007, a McNuggets rap has been used by McDonalds. The video contains two young men, one of them beatboxing while the other does a freestyle rap about McNuggets. The young men in the video are Fernando Sosa (beatboxing) and Thomas Middleditch. The video was directed by Matt Malinsky. All three are improv actors in Chicago (Wrigley Field can be seen in the background). As of 3/1 2008 the commercial had not aired in Chicago, but run in a number of cities in the northeastern United States.

Controversy

In 1984, James Oliver Huberty killed 21 people and wounded 19 others at a McDonald's in San Ysidro, California, in what became known as the San Ysidro McDonald's massacre. Three years later, in 1987, his widow, Etna filed a USD$5 million lawsuit against McDonald's, claiming that the massacre was triggered by her husband's consumption of excessive amounts of Chicken McNuggets. She alleged that monosodium glutamate from the food interacted with the lead and cadmium that had built up in Huberty's body after 14 years as a welder. However, when it was discovered that Mrs. Huberty's claim was scientifically baseless, her attorney advised her to drop the charges.

The 2004 documentary Super Size Me states that the McDonald's Chicken McNuggets, originally made from old chickens no longer able to lay eggs, are now made from chickens with unusually large breasts. These chickens are stripped down to the bone, and then "ground up in to a chicken mash then combined with a variety of stabilizers and preservatives, pressed into familar shapes, breaded and deep fried, freeze dried, and then shipped to a McDonald's near you ." Super Size Me also alleged that they included chemicals such as tertiary butylhydroquinone (a phenolic antioxidant), polydimethylsiloxane (an anti-foaming agent), and other ingredients not used by a typical home cook. As of 2007, these two ingredients were still listed as possible ingredients of the vegetable oil that is used to fry McNuggets. In a 2002 lawsuit against McDonald's, the judge claimed Chicken McNuggets are a "McFrankenstein" creation of various elements not used by the home cook. Eventually, Ivan Martinez, a senior engineer, decided to make the nuggets with all white meat.

According to raw ingredients listing on the wholesale packaging of Chicken McNuggets in any varient, chicken breast accounts for less than 50% of the product.

See also

• Chicken nugget
• Meat slurry
• Chicken McNuggets problem

Similar products sold by other QSR vendors:

• Burger King Chicken Tenders

References

• McDonald's South Africa, "Nuggets" retrieved from http://www.mcdonalds.co.za/background.html on 09-02-2007.
• McDonald's United States corporate website, Get the Nutrition Facts for a McDonald's Menu Item retrieved from http://app.mcdonalds.com/bagamcmeal?process=menuitems on 9-02-2007.
• McDonald's UK Corporate Website, "Fries and Dips" retrieved from http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ on 09-02-2007.

External links

• Ingredients list at McDonald's.com