Fast food chains lack transparency on additives, deplores UFC-Que Choisir

France's leading fast-food chains, McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, and Quick, lack transparency about the additives used in their recipes, and only two of them display a Nutri-Score, the consumer protection association UFC-Que Choisir pointed out on Wednesday.

The association highlights the "glaring limitations of voluntary action" in terms of customer information and calls on European authorities "to make the mention of the Nutri-Score and complete lists of ingredients mandatory," according to a press release.

"Regarding the precise composition of their products, the four brands are showing regrettable opacity here, with vague, very generic compositions of no interest to the consumer," says the UFC.

The association thus indicates that in countries outside the EU where legislation requires these brands to list their ingredients precisely, such as in Switzerland, the basic McDonald's hamburger contains 44 ingredients and additives, while in France only 6 main ingredients are listed.

Similarly, at Burger King, "Chicken nuggets are made with 31 ingredients in Switzerland, but "none are indicated for French King nuggets," she said.

Precautionary labeling "likely to create confusion"

The problem, according to the UFC, is that among the additives listed abroad, some "are suspected of increasing, depending on the case, the risks of digestive problems, intestinal inflammation, diabetes or colon cancer."

The UFC investigation also looks at the display of the nutritional score of the various burgers and salads sold in these stores and highlights that Quick and Burger King ignore the Nutri-Score.

"Good nutritional information is all the more essential in fast food restaurants as the overall offering is very unbalanced," points out the UFC.

Finally, the UFC looked at the allergen display.

While McDonald's and Burger King are considered good performers, the association deplores the fact that at McDonald's this information is confined to the terminals and that Burger King offers precautionary labeling "likely to create confusion between allergens in potential trace amounts and those actually added to the recipe."

At the bottom of the ranking on this criterion, Quick "does not provide any information on allergens at the terminals, which requires asking staff for information and, for its app and website, simply refers to a general table", while KFC "refers to a very complex general table" on its terminals.