by Jeanne Yacoubou, MS
\nVRG Research Director<\/p>\n
New for 2011 on McDonald\u2019s national menu is Fruit & Maple Oatmeal. Made with whole grain rolled oats, it may be ordered with or without cream. This product may also be ordered without brown sugar, diced apples, or the cranberry raisin blend according to Ashley, a customer service representative at McDonald\u2019s who spoke with us about the Fruit & Maple Oatmeal. Patrons must request their preferences upon ordering. <\/p>\n
Readers who looked at the Ingredients Statement posted on McDonald\u2019s website in early February 2011 may have been confused by the presence of two entries for this product, one of which omitted the word \u201ccream\u201d but was followed by \u201ccontains milk.\u201d The second entry also omitted \u201ccream\u201d but did not have an allergen alert for milk. <\/p>\n
We contacted McDonald\u2019s to clear up the confusion. Ashley called me back and said it was an error. The word \u201ccream\u201d now appears in the entry. Later, Amanda, a supervisor on the consumer hotline at McDonald\u2019s, confirmed that cream is a standard part of the menu item. Upon ordering, patrons must request that it not be added. <\/p>\n
The word \u201ccream\u201d does appear in the entry at this time but there is no “contains: milk” in bold after it. Other entries containing milk products do have this allergen alert in the Ingredients Statement, but the Fruit & Maple Oatmeal does not. We have mentioned this to a supervisor on the McDonald\u2019s hotline. She stated that \u201cit\u2019s common knowledge\u201d that \u201ccream\u201d is a milk product.<\/p>\n
(At the end of February 2011, The VRG noticed a similar confusion with the low-fat granola, served in a separate packet along with the Fruit ‘n Yogurt Parfait (which contains gelatin, an animal-derived ingredient). Two entries are listed. One entry for granola (which contains honey) includes the milk allergen alert while the second does not. Neither ingredient list appears to contain milk products.)<\/p>\n
Readers may also note that McDonald\u2019s acknowledges that there is no maple syrup or maple sugar derived from maple trees in McDonald\u2019s Fruit and Maple Oatmeal. This became an issue in Vermont due to laws regarding how the word “maple” is used in products and how it appears on labels. Through settlement, McDonald\u2019s has agreed to offer maple syrup and sugar as options in its Fruit and Maple Oatmeal sold in that state. <\/p>\n
Fruit & Maple Oatmeal is offered throughout the day at McDonald\u2019s restaurants. Patrons must make their preferences clear when ordering if they do not wish the cream or other components to be added.<\/p>\n
For more information on quick service chains, see: To support VRG\u2019s ingredient and restaurant research, please donate at by Jeanne Yacoubou, MS VRG Research Director New for 2011 on McDonald\u2019s national menu is Fruit & Maple Oatmeal. Made with whole grain rolled oats, it may be ordered with or without cream. This product may also be ordered without brown sugar, diced apples, or the cranberry raisin blend according to Ashley, a customer service […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1559,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions\/1559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nhttp:\/\/www.vrg.org\/journal\/vj2008issue2\/veggieRestaurantChains.htm<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.vrg.org\/fastfoodinfo.htm#2009_mcdonalds_l-cysteine<\/a> <\/p>\n
\nhttps:\/\/www.givedirect.org\/give\/givefrm.asp?CID=1565<\/a>
\nor
\nhttp:\/\/www.vrg.org\/catalog\/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"