Last month, the fast food chain McDonald's India landed in a soup over the authenticity of its cheese accompaniments. On March 5, 2024, the company received a clean chit from FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India). The regulator body has confirmed that the company uses 100% real cheese.
According to reports, the company said, "The confirmation from the FSSAI explicitly states that 'Articles in question contain Cheese or cheese product as a part of the composition and does not contain analogue in the dairy context in any form.' This clean chit is a testament to McDonald’s India’s commitment to upholding stringent food quality standards across all its restaurants, at all times."
The company also said, that McDonald's India's west and south zones have obtained test results from an NABL-accredited laboratory, which confirms the usage of 100% authentic cheese in all its products.
Responding to the allegations of using fake cheese in their burgers, McDonald's India released a video claiming that the ingredients in its food items are authentic. The company even invited people to visit McDonald's kitchen.
Announcing the same, Westlife Foodworld Limited, the company that holds the franchise for McDonald's in western and South India expressed relief and their commitment to serving quality products. The copy said, "Now serving The real truth."
Saurabh Kalra, Managing Director at McDonald's India, western and South India, shared a video on his LinkedIn announcing the same.
The McDonalds cheese controversy
In a statement to PTI, Rajendra Bade, an official from FDA-Ahmednagar said, "In October 2023, we visited the outlet in Kedgaon and discovered that the names of food items displayed at the outlet included American Cheese Burger, American Cheese Nuggets, Cheese Burger, Italian Cheesy Lava Burger, and Blueberry Cheese Cake. All these names are their brand names for their products"
According to Bade, the FDA had found that instead of pure cheese the outlet was using a cheese-like product. He said it was called a cheese analogue or substitute. "While pure cheese contains milk fat, the cheese analogue contains both milk fat and vegetable fat," he added.
On finding that the outlet's clarification was unsatisfactory, the FDA suspended its licence in November, according to the PTI report.
"They appealed against the suspension before the FDA commissioner in Mumbai. The commissioner heard arguments from both sides and instructed the fast-food restaurant chain that they cannot use the word ‘cheese’ in their product names if they are not using real cheese,” Bade added.
Abhimanyu Kale, the FDA commissioner, had directed McDonald’s to revise their labelling and prominently tag the products as “cheese analogue nuggets” or “non-dairy cheese nuggets” in a font size and colour that is easily visible and distinguishable from regular cheese products.
The order also required the outlet to list the ingredients on the packaging, ensuring the terms cheese analogue or non-dairy cheese are prominently displayed.
In their compliance report, Bade said, the American company had amended the labels. “Upon receiving their compliance report, a decision was made to revoke the suspension, and they have been granted permission to resume business as before.”
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