Green Party Food Awards get it wrong

6 May 2005,

Green Party Food Awards get it wrong

The organisers of the Green Party Food awards have got it wrong.

They have significantly overstated the fat and saturated fat content of the McDonald's hamburger, and they have given an award for failing to advertise something which has actually been advertised for the past 12 months.

The awards organisers state on their website that a McDonald's hamburger has 12.7 grams of fat (with 6.6 grams being saturated fat). This statement is incorrect. A McDonald's hamburger has 9.4 grams of fat (and only 3.7 grams of saturated fat).

The Greens' website states 'all efforts have been made to ensure the data is correct.' Obviously fact checking is not a strong suit of these award organisers when the information is readily available on McDonald's website, its regularly updated nutrition brochures and on the back of 15 million McDonald's traymats.

Why does it matter? Because a McDonald's hamburger actually has significantly less saturated fat than the organic cheese being promoted elsewhere in the same food awards in the 'cleanest and greenest' food category.

So it is somewhat difficult to follow the logic. New Zealanders are being told some high fat food is good while some other lower fat food is bad. McDonald's is praised for introducing a raft of new food choices for children on the one hand, then wrongly given an award for failing to advertise them - when in fact it does.

ENDS

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