Washington:

US President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has been pictured sharing a McDonald’s meal with his future boss, days after they promised to “make America healthy again.”

Kennedy flew with Trump aboard his plane to an Ultimate Fighting Championship bout in New York on Saturday along with Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Donald Jr., the Republican’s eldest son.

The four men are shown seated in front of trays of McDonald’s food in a photo posted online by Donald Jr. on Sunday which he jokingly captioned: “Make America Healthy Again starts TOMORROW.”

Trump and Kennedy, a scion of the famous Democratic political family, campaigned together ahead of the presidential election on November 5 promising to tackle processed food among other priorities. 

Announcing Kennedy’s nomination on Thursday, Trump said that “for too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies.”

Social media commentators noted that Kennedy appeared the least enthusiastic of the diners as he gingerly held an opened burger box, with fries and a bottle of Coca-Cola in front of him.

The 70-year-old, a conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine campaigner, has long argued that the United States needs to curb its obesity epidemic by reducing the high levels of sugar, fat and high-additive processed food in the national diet.

In a podcast posted last week, he was scathing about Trump’s diet, saying “the stuff that he eats is really bad.”

“Campaign food is always bad, but the food that goes onto (Trump’s) airplane is just poison,” he told the Joe Polish podcast. “You don’t have a choice, you’re either given KFC or Big Macs.”

Trump has never made a secret of his love of fast food and Diet Coke, even briefly stopping to work at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania during his campaign in October.

“I love salt!” he told workers there.

Kennedy will need confirmation by the Senate to take up his job as health secretary, with some senior Republicans voicing concerns about his suitability for the position.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

McDonald’s Corp. sales fell short of Wall Street’s expectations in the third quarter following weakness in international markets such as France, China, the UK and the Middle East. Sales at restaurants open at least 13 months fell 1.5%, worse than analysts had projected. The US was a bright spot with growth of 0.3%, according to a company statement Tuesday. 

McDonald’s has been working to reverse traffic declines in all its geographic segments, driven by consumers’ reticence to spend, high levels of inflation and boycotts against American brands in the Middle East. Efforts have included a value push around the world and a limited-time release of vintage McDonald’s cups.

The stock slipped 0.4% at 2:22 p.m. on Tuesday in New York. The shares are little changed for the year, while the S&P 500 index has gained 22%.

McDonald’s said in a call with analysts that its $5 meal deal in the US improved brand perceptions around affordability, resonated with low-income consumers and drove a positive shift in guest counts. The company said it will introduce a new value platform in early 2025.

“For the first time in over a year, we gained share with lower-income consumers,” Chief Financial Officer Ian Borden said.

The results gave “encouraging insights” into how McDonald’s, despite its size, can quickly shift its sales trajectory by leaning into value and marketing, Citigroup research analyst Jon Tower said in a note to clients.

Earnings, excluding some items, were $3.23 a share in the quarter. Total sales across franchised and company-owned restaurants were flat.

US Setback

Analysts and investors are already looking ahead at the fourth quarter, trying to assess the impact of an E. coli outbreak linked to the company’s Quarter Pounders that became public last week. In response, the chain pulled the burgers from 20% of its more than 13,000 US stores. 

On Tuesday, McDonald’s said it’s not expecting a material impact from the issue. Still, the outbreak throws a wrench into the chain’s near-term recovery, Citigroup’s Tower said.

The company said on Oct. 27 it will start selling Quarter Pounders again after ruling out beef patties as the origin of the pathogen, instead pointing to pre-slivered onions are the likely culprit. The 900 restaurants that got their product from a supplier facility linked to the outbreak will serve the burgers without onions.

McDonald’s sales fell across the US after the outbreak became public, according to Bloomberg Second Measure data, which tracks debit and credit card transactions. They fell as much as 33% in Colorado, the state where the most people have fallen ill, according to cellphone mobility data from Placer.ai.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington (US):

McDonald’s worked Wednesday to reassure customers that its US restaurants are safe as federal investigators tried to pinpoint the cause of a deadly E coli outbreak linked to fast-food giant’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers.

McDonald’s pulled Quarter Pounders from one-fifth of its US stores Tuesday as a result of the outbreak, which the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said had sickened at least 49 people in 10 states. One person died and 10 were hospitalized, according to the CDC.

A preliminary investigation by the US Food and Drug Administration suggested fresh slivered onions that are served raw on Quarter Pounder hamburgers were a likely source of the contamination.

McDonald’s said it was searching for a new regional supplier for fresh onions. In the meantime, Quarter Pounders were removed from menus in the impacted states as well as portions of other states.

McDonald’s said it has worked closely with federal food safety regulators since late last week, when it was alerted to the potential outbreak. The company said the scope of the problem and the popularity of its products have complicated efforts to identify the contamination source.

McDonald’s has more than 14,000 US stores and serves 1 million Quarter Pounders every two weeks in the affected area.

McDonald’s is known for its stringent food safety guidelines and protocols, said Chris Gaulke, a professor of food and beverage management at Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration. The company said Wednesday that the supplier regularly tested its onions for E coli, for example.

“Given the volume of food that they go through, how infrequently this happens to McDonald’s is a testament to the effort that they take,” Gaulke said.

But some experts questioned why McDonald’s simply stopped selling one sandwich and didn’t close restaurants for further investigation.

“Good practice would have been to close all the restaurants,” Bill Marler, a Seattle lawyer who specialises in food safety cases, said. “Until we know definitively what the product was that made people sick, consumers should be aware.” Marler said cross-contamination remains a potential possibility at the affected restaurants until they are thoroughly cleaned.

Asked why it didn’t close any stores, McDonald’s said nothing in the government’s investigation indicated there were issues with its food preparation practices. In an interview on the “Today” show Wednesday, McDonald’s US President Joe Erlinger also said it’s likely that whatever product was contaminated has already passed through the company’s supply chain.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported the outbreak late Tuesday. It said infections were reported between Sept. 27 and October 11 in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

State and local public health officials were interviewing people about the foods they ate in the week before they got sick. Of the 18 people interviewed as of Tuesday, all reported eating at McDonald’s, and 16 people reported eating a beef hamburger. Twelve reported eating a Quarter Pounder.

McDonald’s said it’s unlikely the beef in the Quarter Pounder was the source, since it comes from multiple suppliers and is cooked at a high enough temperature to kill E coli.

McDonald’s said its initial findings suggest that some of the reported illnesses were linked to onions from a single supplier, which the company didn’t name. McDonald’s said the onions are cleaned and sliced by the supplier and then packaged for use on individual Quarter Pounders.

The incubation period for E coli is only a couple of days, so illness would be quickly apparent to anyone affected, said Donald Schaffner, a food safety expert at Rutgers University. “If you ate these burgers in September and now it’s the middle of October and you didn’t get sick, you’re probably OK,” he said.

E coli bacteria are harbored in the guts of animals and found in the environment. Infections can cause severe illness, including fever, stomach cramps and bloody diarrhea. People who develop symptoms of E. coli poisoning should seek health care immediately and tell the provider what they ate.

The type of bacteria implicated in the McDonald’s food causes about 74,000 infections in the U.S. annually, leading to more than 2,000 hospitalisations and 61 deaths each year, according to the CDC. In general, E. coli infections were lower in 2023 than in recent years and cases of severe kidney injury caused by the bacteria remained stable, according to latest federal data.

Outbreaks at restaurant chains are rare, but they do happen. AP MNK MNK

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

ATLANTA/PHILADELPHIA:

Democrat Kamala Harris will kick off her 60th birthday on Sunday with two church visits in Georgia, where she plans to rally early voters, while her Republican rival, Donald Trump, spends time at a McDonald’s fast food place in Pennsylvania.

Harris and Trump, who are essentially tied in the race for president in the most competitive states, have sharpened their attacks in recent days, while drumming up support for early votes by mail or in person with just 16 days left until the November 5 election.

After being joined on Saturday in Detroit by hometown rapper Lizzo and in Atlanta by pop icon Usher, Harris will get a birthday boost from another music legend, Stevie Wonder, on Sunday when he drops by one of the churches she plans to visit.

Vice President Harris and former President Trump, 78, are focusing on Pennsylvania, Michigan and a handful of other states likely to decide the election, where both parties have strong support and electoral results have been close in past cycles.

Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, will double down on Sunday on a “Souls to the Polls” initiative aimed at using gospel performances, national and state faith leaders, elected officials and others to mobilize voters.

Harris, who was raised in the teachings of the Black church and sang in a church choir, will attend a service and speak at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, about 30 miles (50 km) east of Atlanta, the campaign said.

She will also speak at Divine Faith Ministries International in Jonesboro, just south of Atlanta, where she plans to encourage worshippers to exercise their voting rights. Wonder will attend and is slated to perform.

After her events, Harris will record an interview with civil rights leader Al Sharpton that will air Sunday night on MSNBC. 

Walz will attend service in Saginaw, Michigan, while his wife, Gwen Walz, will visit a church in Las Vegas.

Harris will need strong results in the majority non-white cities of Detroit and Atlanta and their surrounding suburbs to repeat President Joe Biden’s 2020 wins in Michigan and Georgia.

Trump, after escalating personal attacks on Harris on Saturday, told Breitbart News he would work at a McDonald’s restaurant in Pennsylvania on Sunday “just for fun” to mock Harris. Trump adviser Jason Miller said Trump would be working in the french fries area of the restaurant.

Harris says she worked at a McDonald’s when she was young but Trump says he does not believe her.

Trump also plans a rally in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in late afternoon.

The former president is seeking to take advantage of what he felt was an improved position for him in opinion polls that show a deadlocked race. Some voters already have mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania, the biggest prize on Election Day among battleground states.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Noida:

The Food Safety and Drug Administration Department (FDA) officials collected samples from an outlet of McDonald’s in Noida Sector 18 and Theobroma bakery in Sector 104 following a complaint by a consumer who fell sick allegedly after consuming food items from these outlets, officials said on Monday.

The complaints were lodged with the Food Safety Connect portal of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), officials said.

According to officials, the complaint against the McDonald’s outlet in Noida Sector 18 is that a consumer fell sick after consuming a burger and french fries from the outlet.

Following the complaint, a team of the Food Safety and Drug Administration (FDA), Gautam Buddh Nagar, immediately took action and visited McDonald’s at Noida Sector 18 to collect the samples.

“We got a complaint on the portal against McDonald’s. The customer fell ill after consuming aloo tikki and french fries. We have taken action in this regard and taken samples of palm oil, cheese, and mayonnaise…,” said Archana Dheeran, Assistant Commissioner (Food) FDA, Gautam Buddh Nagar.

In the second incident, a woman fell sick after consuming a stale cake ordered from Theobroma bakery in Noida Sector 104. Following the complaint, an FDA team collected samples of the cake after receiving the complaint.

“In another case, a complaint came against Theobroma bakery where someone fell ill (in Noida) after consuming stale cake from the bakery…We took a sample of the pineapple cake and sent it to the laboratory…If the product fails in the report, then a case will be registered,” Dheeran said.

She added that the report is expected to come within a month, and if samples fail in the report, then further course of action will be taken, and a case will be registered.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Tokyo:

He may be the world’s fourth-richest person and visiting gourmet paradise Japan, but Mark Zuckerberg is eating McDonald’s, according to photos posted on Tuesday by the Meta chief.

“Japanese McDonald’s: 10/10. Give these guys a Michelin star,” the 39-year-old said on Facebook and Instagram, alongside photos of himself in sunglasses eating a burger and of his wife Priscilla Chan outside the golden arches.

Seen on Zuckerberg’s packed tray were popular Japanese menu items including a shrimp-patty burger, a teriyaki chicken burger, edamame bean salad and bite-sized churros — along with the more usual chicken nuggets and fries.

Zuckerberg was in Japan with his family for a trip mixing pleasure — including skiing and making Japanese swords — and business.

After reportedly meeting with Facebook developers in Tokyo on Monday and Tuesday, Zuckerberg was set to travel to South Korea and then India for the wedding of a billionaire’s son.

In Seoul Zuckerberg is expected to hold meetings with President Yoon Suk Yeol and leaders of tech titans Samsung and LG, according to South Korean media.

He will also meet the CEO of LG Electronics to discuss the development of a mixed-reality headset to compete with Apple’s Vision Pro, the Korea Economic Daily reported.

Meta, Google and others have invested billions of dollars in Reliance’s digital unit Jio Platforms as it seeks to take on Amazon and Walmart in India’s vast e-commerce market.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Mumbai:

The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has revoked the licence of a McDonald’s outlet in the state’s Ahmednagar district after taking action against it over cheese, an official said on Saturday.

The eatery belonging to the fast food giant had faced FDA scrutiny for allegedly using a “cheese-like” product in their dishes without indicating that it was actually a cheese substitute, thereby misleading customers, he said.

Following an inspection and subsequent objections, the licence of the outlet was suspended, but it was revoked recently after the chain filed a compliance report confirming that they had removed the word ‘cheese’ from product names.

“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,” said Rajendra Bade, a food safety official from FDA-Ahmednagar.

After analysing, Bade said, they found that instead of pure cheese, the joint was using a cheese-like product. “Technically, this is called a cheese analogue or cheese substitute. While pure cheese contains milk fat, the cheese analogue contains both milk fat and vegetable fat,” he said.

FDA then sought the fast food giant’s clarification over the presence of milk fat and vegetable fat in products advertised as containing cheese.

“Since their clarification was unsatisfactory, we suspended their licence in November last year. 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,” he said.

In the order, FDA Commissioner Abhimanyu Kale 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 that the terms cheese analogue or non-dairy cheese are prominently displayed.

McDonald’s was further told to keep customers informed about the use of cheese analogues in certain products through signage, handouts, and explanations regarding the reasons for using cheese analogues.

In their compliance report, Bade said, the American company said that they 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,” Bade said.

Hardcastle Restaurant, a subsidiary of Westlife Foodworld Ltd, which has the franchisee rights to own and operate McDonald’s restaurants in west and south markets in India, said in its compliance report to the FDA that it had renamed certain products by removing the word ‘cheese’.

It listed the items as Cheesy Nuggets (now Veg Nuggets), Mc Cheese Veg Burger (now Cheddar Delight Veg Burger), Mc Cheese Veg Non Veg Burger (Cheddar Delight Non-Veg Burger), Corn and Cheese Burger (American Veg Burger), Grilled Chicken and Cheese Burger (American Non Veg-Burger), Blueberry Cheese Cake (Blueberry Cake), Cheesy Italian Veg Burger (Italian Veg Burger) and Cheesy Italian Chicken Burger (now Italian Chicken Burger).

Meanwhile, Hardcastle Restaurant said on Friday that it was engaging with the “competent authorities” in the FDA matter.

“We are actively engaging with the competent authorities on this issue and awaiting their final clarification. We have always been adhering to stringent food standards and are fully compliant with all applicable food laws,” said a statement from McDonald’s India (West & South) shared on BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange) by Westlife Foodworld.

“Amid recent reports about the removal of ‘Cheese’ from our menu at McDonald’s locations in Maharashtra, we want to assure our valued customers that only genuine, high-quality cheese is used in all our cheese-containing products,” the statement said.

It further said, “Collaborating with suppliers adhering to global standards ensures top-quality cheese in our product offerings and not cheese analogues or any substitute.” McDonald’s India (West & South) said, “Our commitment to transparency in our ingredients and dedication to providing delicious, high-quality meals to our customers remains unwavering.” 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Following a crackdown by Maharashtra’s Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), fast food giant McDonald’s has assured customers that it only uses “genuine, high-quality cheese” in its products. The FDA accused McDonald’s of deceptive practices related to the use of cheese substitutes in its items. It suspended the licence of a McDonald’s outlet in Ahmednagar, saying that its investigation found that the fast food chain was using cheese analogues or proprietary foods instead of cheese. 

“We got some complaints and feedback from customers that McDonald’s and other food chains should declare the ingredients in their food items in a proper manner on menu cards and display boards,” the agency’s Commissioner, Abhimanyu Kale, told NDTV Profit on Friday.

“In our inspection, we found out they were using cheese analogues or proprietary foods instead of cheese. After observations, the outlets were closed by inspectors,” Mr Kale added. 

The agency, which conducted a month-long investigation last year, found that McDonald’s was using cheaper cheese substitutes like vegetable oil in burgers and nuggets. It accused the fast food chain of using cheese alternatives in several items without proper labelling, thereby misleading customers into thinking they were eating real cheese. The FDA, therefore, suspended the license of the Ahmednagar outlet and demanded that it disclose the correct ingredients in its menus and display boards as per Food Safety and Standards Authority India norms. 

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This prompted the fast food chain to remove the term “cheese” from various products. Westlife Foodworld Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hardcastle Restaurants Private Limited and operator of McDonald’s chains in West and South India, also released a statement in response to the report.

“Only genuine, high-quality cheese is used in all our cheese-containing products,” Westlife said. “We are actively engaging with the competent authorities on this issue and awaiting their final clarification,” the McDonald’s operator said.

“We have always been adhering to stringent food standards and are fully compliant with all applicable food laws. Our commitment to transparency in our ingredients and dedication to providing delicious, high-quality meals to our customers remains unwavering,” the statement added. 

Notably, this incident has also prompted the FDA to consider investigating other fast-food chains for similar practices. In a statement, Mr Kale said that the FDA will continue inspections of food outlets to ensure they comply with regulatory guidelines in the interest of customers. If necessary, the state authorities will communicate with the FSSAI for any nationwide action, he said.