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In Japan, McDonald’s Cellphone Customers Can Learn The Fat In a Big Mac.

Written by Evan Schuman
September 13th, 2006

McDonald’s in Japan is letting cellphone-touting consumers instantly see the nutrition information–such as it is–for all of their fastfood, courtesy of a barcode printed in the food’s wrapper. According to a Cellsuite news story, the wrappers have QR codes printed on the labels, taking users to a site that will detail the calories and fat of the product.

The piece says this should save McDonald’s costly printing runs to keep the data current, but I’m not so sure that information would change that often, unless the product itself is tweaked. But it also says this could reinforce McDonald’s image for selling healthier food. Although the openness is to be applauded, I’m wondering if it might have the opposite result. When I’m eating a quarter-pounder, the nutrition specs are the last thing I want to see.

Posted in IT Strategy/Industry, Mobile/Wireless/Contactless, Payment Systems, Software
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