McDonald’s has taken on the critics of their McNuggets by taking viewers on a video tour around a processing plant and stating that there is only breast and skin in the chicken bites.
As part of McDonald’s Canada’s ‘Our Food. Your Questions’ project, the fast food giant answered a question about ‘pink goop’ by taking viewers on a virtual trip to the Cargill production facility in Ontario.
Jennifer Rabideau, product development scientist, showed parts of the process on the video. The guide showed whole chickens being deboned, breast meat being ground with skin and seasoning, before the nuggets are shaped, battered, par-fried, then frozen.
Supply chain manager Nicoletta Stefou, who was also on the tour, compared a container of ground meat in the factory with an infamous image of pink slime, shown on a portable tablet.
She said: "Here’s the pink goop image and here’s what we actually have, so it’s very different. All we’ve got here is just chicken breast that has been ground up, as well as seasoning and a natural proportion of skin for flavour and as a binder."
A statement on McDonald’s UK website said: "At McDonald’s UK, the only meat we use across our entire chicken menu, including in our Chicken McNuggets, is chicken breast meat. The chicken breast meat has been carefully deboned, and is not mechanically separated poultry (MSP or ‘pink slime’). We do not add any artificial colours or flavours."
