Chicken McNuggets without the chicken: McDonald’s Japan creates tofu nuggets after meat scandal
McDonald’s is launching a new version of the beloved chicken McNugget – without the chicken – after the fast food giant was hit by a meat scandal across Asia.
Fans of the chicken McNugget may have been put off forever by revelations that one of its meat suppliers in China has allegedly been selling out-of-date meat and which potentially includes the Chicken used in its nuggets.
McDonald’s has already pulled the plug on the McNugget at 3,200 of its Japanese restaurants as well as fast food joints in Hong Kong and China, along with other meat-based food on its menus which were supplied by Shanghai Husi Food – said to process 300m chickens a year.
Many McDonald’s across the region have been left serving just fries, the fish filet and drinks as a result.
In Japan however, a replacement has already arrived.
The Tofu Shinjo McNugget, made with onion, soybean, carrot and minced fish is now available in Japanese McDonald’s restaurants from today, with a side helping of ginger sauce.
A spokeswoman for McDonald’s insisted the launch had already been planned before the meat scandal hit, the Wall Street Journal reports, but the timing is impeccable.
McDonald’s Japan, half owned by the US McDonald’s Group, said it could no longer commit to its full-year profit targets as a result of the scandal, so perhaps it might consider rolling out the limited tofu version across its Asia restaurants and extend their availability beyond September, when its due to be taken off the menu.