(Photo By: Thomas Hawk)

On September 28, McDonald’s announced that it would be removing artificial preservatives, flavours, and colours from their seven classic burgers: the hamburger, the cheeseburger, the double cheeseburger, the McDouble, the Quarter Pounder with cheese, the double Quarter Pounder with cheese, and the Big Mac.

 This move was taken in order to keep and attract health-conscious customers. McDonald’s will change every artificial aspect of the burgers and sauce including the coveted Big Mac Special sauce. These changes include eliminating sorbic acid and calcium propionate, which both extend shelf life, that are main ingredients in many of their products. It also includes removing the artificial colours that makes American cheese orange.

 However, they have already taken many measures to achieve their goal. For example, earlier this year, they replaced all frozen beef patties from the Quarter Pounder to fresh beef. In 2016, McDonald’s switched from high fructose corn syrup to sugar in all their buns and biscuits. In the same year, they also removed artificial preservatives from their McNuggets. This helped nudge McDonalds into doing the same for all their classic products after the company reported increased sale in their burgers and McNuggets.

 The only thing McDonald’s is not willing to change are their pickles, which are distinct in taste and loved by billions of people worldwide. According to a statement from the Marion Gross, the senior vice president of supply chain management for McDonald’s USA, “For us, pickles are extremely important…We’re not willing to change to a preservative-free pickle that has a different dill profile.” All in all, changing these aspects will only boost sales and attract more customers all across America.