McDonald's drops grilled cheese from Happy Meals for 'nutrition' reasons, keeps less healthy cheeseburger

Ronald McDonald has some explaining to do. Eleven years after introducing grilled cheese sandwiches as a vegetarian option in its Happy Meals, McDonald's Canada has pulled the item from its menu.

The restaurant chain has told a number ofparents, who were protesting on social media, that it retired the cheesy sandwich to make way for healthier options part of its recent, globalpledgeto clean up Happy Meals.

However, the cheeseburger Happy Meal entree which is less healthy according to McDonald's own data remains on the menu. So does the crispy chicken wrap, even though its nutritional profile is comparable to the grilled cheese sandwich.

"It's ridiculous,"said TorontoparentLayla Moola,who always ordered the grilled cheese for her son because her family only eats Halal meat.

She points out that thecheeseburger is higher in both sodium and calories."It doesn't make sense."

Turns out, there's also a financial aspect to McDonald'sdecision. The companytold CBCNews the grilled cheese was the least popular Happy Meal entree, chosen just five per cent of the time.

Moola wishes that detail had also been passed on to inquiring parents like herself who only received the nutrition explanation.

"Parents are smart and savvy, so give them the real reason. I think people would appreciate it more," she said.

Healthier Happy Meals

Earlier this year, McDonald's announced new global nutrition targets "so parents can feel good" about theHappy Meal menu.The goal: By 2022, at least 50 per cent of Happy Meals offeredwill meet strict limitsfor calorie, saturated fat and sugar content.

McDonald's got the ball rolling in the U.S. in February by pulling the cheeseburger and chocolate milk from its Happy Meal menu.The grilled cheese was never offered in the U.S.

"We had to make choices. The Grilled Cheese Happy Meal did not meet the new nutrition criteria," said McDonald's Canada spokesperson Kristen Hunter in an email. She didn'thave anything to say about remaining entree options such as the cheeseburger whichalso fail to meet the criteria.

Food industry expertSylvain Charlebois,a professor at Dalhousie Universityspecializing in food distribution and policy,says efficiency and profits remain the main mission for any fast food chain.

"It's nice for a company to say, 'Well, let's start making healthy foods now,' but at the end of the day, it has to make business sense," said Charlebois.

"They're basically killing a loser," he said about the grilled cheese sandwich, because it had slow sales. "If the grilled cheese was a winner and sales were significant, I suspect they would have done more work actually to keep it on the menu."

Meatless cheeseburger?

Richard Taylor in Corner Brook, Nfld., says McDonald's will lose business from families like his who chose the restaurant because the grilled cheese sandwich worked for their kids.

Taylor's seven-year-old son, Alex, is autistic and he says the menu item was one of the few restaurant foods his son would eat.

"For me, it's a huge deal," said Taylor. "It kind of made me upset emotional because that was his thing."

Hunter, the spokesperson,said McDonald's is exploring other Happy Meal options "to meet the needs of our guests."

The company told Taylor he could order the cheeseburger without the meat as a Happy Meal entree, but he's sceptical it will pass the test.

"It's not the same."

Caroline Morraof Toronto, who is a vegetarian, has already decidedthe meatless cheeseburger doesn't cut it. Sheordered the item for herself and her three-year-old daughter this week, after learning grilled cheese was off the menu.

Her beefs? She says itwasn't grilled, so the cheese didn't melt, and the hamburger bun was too big;previously, the item was made with the thinner bun used in the middle of a Big Mac.

Morra says orderingthe item reminded her of going to McDonald's as a child.

"My mum and I, as vegetarians, would have to order the cheeseburger with no meat or toppings if we wanted a sandwich. So I feel they have gone backwards with their menu instead of forwards."