McDonald's to expose everything about its chemical food in Russia.

Pravda ^ | Jan 16, 2012

[cunning_fish]

Consumer rights' advocates filed a lawsuit against McDonald's fast food chain in Russia. The lawsuit was filed at Moscow's Tverskoy Court. The plaintiffs intend to oblige the company to indicate the complete list of ingredients on packaging, rather than the content of protein, fat and carbohydrates.

Representatives of the Consumer Rights Protection Society claim that concealing the content of products the company violates the status of the retail outlet of finished products, not to mention the fact that it misleads consumers. According to experts, the range of milkshakes, which the chain sells, can not be referred to as "milk" under the Russian law, Adindex.ru reports.

Experts discovered the fat of vegetable origin in McDonald's "milkshakes." This drink, according to experts at the Institute of Laboratory of Nutrition, can be called "milk-containing" but not "milk". The advocates of consumers rights do not demand any fines from McDonald's. They only say the company should disclose information and redesign the product packaging. However, even this measure will entail multi-million costs for McDonald's once the court upholds it.

The Society for the Protection of Consumers' Rights reminded that in July 2012, the Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District issued a landmark ruling on the suit of McDonald's against the Moscow territorial division of the Federal Tax Service. The court ruled that McDonald's in Russia does not provide restaurant services. Instead, the court said, the company sells food products as a store. Therefore, the activities of the corporation should be taxed with 10 instead of 18 percent of VAT.

However, according to the Russian legislation, a store that sells food products (in this case the store also acts as the manufacturer of the food), unlike the restaurant, is obliged to provide

[guitarplayer1953]

Does this mean they will have to show and tell how much kangaroo is in their big macs?

[eater-of-toast]

Chalk this up in part to Russian nationalism, pique at the inroads a foreign restaurant chain has made. Moscow generally isn't finicky about truth in labeling when it comes to food. Where, for instance, the US requires a distinction between products sold as "juice" (must be 100% juice) and "juice drink" (less than 100% juice), both one and the other find their way onto Russian grocery shelves labeled sok ["juice"].

[cunning_fish]

Not 100% true. If your drink consist only a fraction of natural juice it is called ‘nectar’ in Russia.
No matter how is it labeled a pack has a full list of ingridients in order of their mass in finished product.
So if you can read you can easily sort 100% juice from chemical pee.
On ‘juice drink’ it usually listed as: Natural *-put any fruit Juice, water, sugar, citric acid.

[eater-of-toast]

Sure, if you read the whole label, as you should (kak i nado), but I mean the words in largest print, the only thing many careless people read.

[jimnm]

The Russian McDs are far superior to the American version. Everything tastes better and they have potato wedge fries which are also far better than the garbage fries they serve here.

I miss the local beer, vodka, and cucumbers with breakfast.

Of topic, but one thing that’s discomforting about Russia is when you leave; airport security was a joke (I haven’t been since the terminal attack so it may have improved). It’s not very reassuring that the international carriers re screen everything in the terminal or that for domestic flights the lone xray guy doesn’t even bother watching the video monitor.

[oprahstheantichrist]

"Everything tastes better and they have potato wedge fries which are also far better than the garbage fries they serve here."

Interesting. Wonder if they use beef tallow to fry everything, as was the case here till the eighties or so.

[toothfairy86]

Did you see the Anthony Bourdain episode in the Ukraine with his friend, Zamir? They ate at a place called McFoxy’s, which was right next door to a McDonald’s. Looks like the Ukrainians don’t have a problem with copyright infringement. Bourdain said that the food there was better than at Mickey D’s.