McDonald's Nutrition Labeling Begins at Winter Olympics

McDonald's announced its nutrition labeling begins in Torino. 26 restaurants in the 2006 Olympic Winter Games host city in Italy are the first McDonald's restaurants in the world to benefit from nutritional information on fast-food packaging. Nutrition information on packaging, which was announced as a company initiative by Chief Executive Officer Jim Skinner in October 2005, is among the first for large quick-service providers.

The new nutrition labels will be introduced later this month in the U.S..

According to Ohio's Beacon Journal, the labeling is in heiroglyphics to be used across languages.

Beginning Tuesday in Torino and later this month in the United States, food boxes and wrappers will carry icons and numbers (but no written words) showing calories, protein, fat, carbs and salt content.

It helps if you are able to read hieroglyphics.

The symbol for salt is three diagonal dots (to look like the top of a salt shaker), the symbol for protein is three blocks (the ``building blocks'' of energy), and the symbol for fat is two horizontal lines with vertical bars. (Stumped? Think of a tape measure.)

Next to each icon is the percentage it constitutes of an average daily diet. McDonald's has decided an average daily diet is 2,000 calories.

I wonder what the heiroglyphic picture for "fat" is?