Controversy: Fat-reduced French fries instead of lettuce
Pommesgenuss, allegedly without remorse: Burger King now sells calorie-reduced fries in the US. One wants to offer the competition and its salad philosophy parole. Ultimately, the strategy is a matter of taste.
With each grasp in the Pommestüte, the bad conscience grows. Virtually all fast food customers today know that the golden brown fried potatoes are greasy and high in calories. Nevertheless, at the big chains at noon, queues form at the counters.
To spice up the unhealthy image - and, according to company PR, to contribute to a balanced diet - market leader McDonald's has relied on lettuce, apple packets, and bottled water for a couple of years, which anyone can order instead of French fries and sugar water. Main competitor Burger King looked old since then and has among other things therefore also in Germany massive difficulties.
"Satisfries" against the decline in sales
Now Burger King is trying to catch up in its home country of the US: Instead of offering the customer salad, it is trying the number two on the US market with fat and calorie-reduced fries, advertising name "Satisfries". The combination of satisfaction and french fries should first and foremost secure market share. Second, of course, it's about the health of customers, so the faithful advertising promise.
The new fries should contain about 20 percent fewer calories than normal, even 30 percent less than the fries of its main competitor McDonald's in the US. A small US portion would, therefore, be 270 kilocalories instead of the usual 350 kilocalories. The effect is achieved by a revised raw material, which absorbs less frying fat, promises the company.
Less fat does not automatically mean fewer calories
The idea is not groundbreaking, to extract both in parts from a product rich in fat and calories. In Germany, too, there are fat-reduced potato chips or sugar-reduced cereal in the supermarket. Consumers need to be careful on a case-by-case basis because less fat or sugar does not automatically mean fewer calories, sometimes one ingredient is reduced, the other increases.
But at McDonald's and Burger King, it's also about a philosophical question: do you give people what they want, or do you try to transform them? In the fast food line, this raises the question of whether to buy a fundamentally high-calorie product, which is produced as little unhealthy as possible, or whether you are in the tempting French fries healthier alternatives for the same price?
The secret lies in the mixture
Nutritionists would point out in case of doubt that both alternatives cannot be the basis of a balanced diet, but should at most be the occasional exception. Quite apart from further questions, such as the lack of satiety after eating a hamburger or even ecological considerations.
Difficult is the attempt of the manufacturers to take the fast food its calories, also, because the withdrawal of the fat can go at the expense of the taste. Burger King claims customers will not be able to tell the difference. The ingredients are the same: potatoes, oil and a batter ("batter"). A change in the dough content in the mixture prevents the fries from absorbing the full amount of fat when frying. The new dough has actually not developed the fryer craftsmen at Burger King, he is a product of the French delivery McCain. This is bound exclusively to the Satisfries at Burger King, which should keep imitators at a distance.
McCain know-how against coffee house cuddles
Exclusivity is crucial to Burger King's ability to catch up with McDonald's now green coffee-house ambiance. At the exclusive pre-tasting for US journalists just before the official presentation, reporters had to confirm their silence in writing before being served Satisfries and ordinary McDonald's fries so the competition would not wind up in advance.
After the takeover by the financial investor 3G Capital 2010, Burger King has difficulties not only in Germany but also in the USA. Previous attempts to improve the numbers by changing the map have been largely lost. Sales in the US and Canada declined slightly in the second quarter of 2013. That should change the supposedly healthier Satisfries now.
Whether the fat-reduced French fries really are good for low-fat or calorie-free diets, however, can still fail at completely different hurdles. In the US, a small portion of normal fries at McDonald's with around 230 kilocalories already carries less energy than a small portion of new Satisfries at Burger King with its 270 kilocalories.
Nevertheless, Burger King is obviously convinced of the new product: The small portion of Satisfries is to cost 1.89 US dollars, for only 1.59 US dollars there are 20 percent more calories.
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