No ‘fake cheese’, McDonald’s responds

Fast-food giant McDonald’s has assured customers that it only uses genuine and high-quality cheese in its products, following a crackdown on some of its outlets in Maharashtra by the state’s Food & Drugs Administration (FDA).

The Maharashtra FDA has found some of the fast-food giant’s outlets in the state to be serving an alternative of cheese, also known as cheese analogues, in some of its products, such as burgers and nuggets.

It may be noted that cheese analogues are basically made to mimic the taste and texture of traditional dairy cheese and often replace diary fat with more economical vegetable oil.

FDA commissioner Abhimanyu Kale said, "We had recieved feedback from the customer regarding the use of cheese analogues instead of real cheese. After which we inspected and found the use of vegetable oil (Dalda oil) instead of real cheese."

This reportedly led to the suspension of the licence of one of McDonald’s outlets in the state. The FDA in Maharashtra suspended the licence of a McDonald's outlet in Ahmednagar for using cheese analogues instead of real cheese. This also led to the chain removing the word "cheese" from various locations where analogues were used.

Westlife Foodworld Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hardcastle Restaurants Private Limited and operator of McDonald's chains in west and south India, has released a statement to the stock exchanges in response to the report.

“Amid recent reports about the removal of 'Cheese' from our menu at McDonald's locations in Maharashtra, we want to assure our valued customers that only genuine, high-quality cheese is used in all our cheese-containing products,” the company said.

The statement went on to highlight that the company adheres to stringent food standards and are “fully compliant” with all applicable food laws.