Southern California McDonald's® Restaurants Offer Families A New, Whole Fruit Side In Kids' Meals

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Starting in December, Southern California McDonald's restaurants are making nutrition choices fun and easy for kids and families with the introduction of a fresh, whole fruit side option in kids' meals – Cuties California Clementines®. The kid-sized Sun Pacific Cuties will join the McDonald's lineup of Happy Meal and Mighty Kids Meal side choices that currently includes apple slices and Go-GURT® low fat Strawberry Yogurt. Cuties, grown in California, will be available for a limited time through March 2015.

"Adding Cuties to our kid's meal supports our ongoing dedication to children's nutrition and well-being," said Clay Paschen, III, McDonald's owner/operator and president of the McDonald's Operators' Association of Southern California (MOASC.) "As part of our continued commitment to help families make nutrition-minded choices, we'll continue to explore fruit or low-fat dairy choices for our youngest customers."

Before introducing them to restaurants nationwide, McDonald's tested Cuties in approximately 70 restaurants around Austin, Texas. The company is also testing smaller-sized "junior" bananas at restaurants in the Austin and Denver, Colorado areas.

"Our partnership with McDonald's allows us to share our sweet, easy-to-peel Cuties with even more people across the nation," said Victoria Nuevo-Celeste, vice president of marketing at Sun Pacific. "We're eager to increase access to wholesome foods kids love and make history with McDonald's by providing unpackaged, whole fresh fruit on the company's national menu."

The introduction of Cuties supports McDonald's partnership with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, an organization founded by the American Heart Association and Clinton Foundation, to increase access to fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy and to help families make informed choices.

McDonald's has also made significant progress on its nutrition journey since introducing its "Commitments to Offer Improved Nutrition Choices" in 2011.

In March 2012, McDonald's started automatically including apple slices in every kid's meal. Since then, more than 1.2 billion bags of apple slices have been served. In July 2014 McDonald's introduced Go-GURT® low fat Strawberry Yogurt nationwide as a side with 50 calories and 25 percent less sugar than the leading kids' yogurt.* Since its introduction, McDonald's has served more than 50 million Go-GURT low-fat yogurt tubes in kids' meals.

* Go-GURT® at McDonald's has 6g of sugar per 2.25oz. The leading kids' yogurt has 9g of sugar per 2.25oz.

About McDonald's Operators Association of Southern California
The McDonald's Operators' Association of Southern California (MOASC) is comprised of more than 600 franchised and company-owned McDonald's restaurants in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties. Follow us on Twitter: @McDonalds_SoCal.

About McDonald's
McDonald's USA, LLC, serves a variety of menu options made with quality ingredients to more than 27 million customers every day. Nearly 90 percent of McDonald's 14,000 U.S. restaurants are independently owned and operated by businessmen and women. Customers can now log online for free at approximately 11,500 participating Wi-Fi enabled McDonald's U.S. restaurants. For more information, visit www.mcdonalds.com, or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

About Sun Pacific Cuties®
Back in the early 2000s, Sun Pacific pioneered California grown mandarins. Today, Sun Pacific farms more than 30 thousand acres of fresh fruit and is the exclusive grower and distributor of Cuties® Clementines and Mandarins. For more information, visit www.cutiescitrus.com, or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

All trademarks and/or registered trademarks contained in this release are owned by their respective companies.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/southern-california-mcdonalds-restaurants-offer-families-a-new-whole-fruit-side-in-kids-meals-300004658.html

SOURCE Southern California McDonald’s

Related Links

http://www.cutiescitrus.com

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