McDonald's

MCDonalds is working with Mumsnet on its children’s Happy Meal range

McDonald’s has announced that it is developing a new Happy Meal product in partnership with Mumsnet.

The QSR chain is responding to a Mumsnet site thread published last year which requested greater choice for the children’s menu, including non-fried options.

Parents were invited to the QSR giant’s development kitchen to watch the chefs develop potential menu items for the Happy Meal, which included grilled chicken and vegetarian options.

A new menu item looks set to launch nationwide in the summer.

“We are constantly looking for ways to enhance our menu, from introducing new items to evolving the recipes of our iconic favourites,” said McDonald’s UK & Ireland food and marketing VP Emily Somers.

“We’ve taken big steps to improve our Happy Meal in recent years, and reducing saturated fat, salt and sugar content across our menu remains a priority. This is why we’re excited to work with Mumsnet to offer even greater choice for parents and their families.”

McDonald’s UK & Ireland food development director Duncan Cruttenden added: “We were delighted to host the Mumsnet team and work to the clear brief from parents. We want our menu options to represent what parents are looking for - and what better way to do that than with parents beside us in the development kitchen? We are working hard to turn the many options created in the development kitchen into a successful new product for the Happy Meal, which we hope to launch later this year.”

“Mumsnet users tend to be pretty focused on providing healthy food and snacks for their children, so the opportunity to help McDonald’s develop a new Happy Meal option was too good to pass up,” said Mumsnet co-founder Carrie Longton.

This comes as McDonald’s launched five new goals to tackle the health credentials of its Happy Meals across the globe by 2022.

Targets include offering more nutritionally balanced options, removing artificial additives, encouraging purchases that contain recommended food groups, and renewing its focus on responsible marketing.