Fast-food giant McDonald’s Corp. “will replace high-fructose corn syrup in its sandwich buns with sugar as part of an effort to simplify its ingredients and satisfy increasingly conscientious customers,” said the Wall Street Journal. The company “is racing to keep up with rivals who have been quicker to embrace the so-called clean-label movement.”
Besides the step on buns, McDonald’s will begin making chicken nuggets and some breakfast items without the use of artificial preservatives. And it said it has curbed, a year earlier than planned, the use of chickens raised with antibiotics important to human health. Overall, the changes will affect half of the chain’s menu, said its president of U.S. operations.
Still widely used as a sweetener in foods and beverages, high-fructose corn syrup has fallen out of favor with some consumers because of concerns about links to obesity. “Medical research has reached conflicting conclusions on whether corn syrup causes weight gain and other health problems,” said the Journal.