McDonald’s Is Testing Out Preservative-Free Nuggets

First, McDonald’s promised cage-free eggs. Now, it looks like the chain is starting to move towards preservative-free poultry. Currently, around 140 restaurants in the Northwest are testing out what Crain’s refers to as a “cleaner label” version of McNuggets. The hope is to have the new, potentially simpler nugget ready to go by the summer Olympics, where McDonald’s is a major sponsor, a source told the business journal. Recently, McDonald’s also pledged to only use "chicken raised without antibiotics that are important to human medicine." While both changes seem to be in line with what consumers want, it also brings to mind the last major McNugget shake-up, when they switched over to all-white meat. As anyone who crunched down on a nugget in the '80s and '90s can testify, the nuggets of today are a huge improvement. But when ads promised improved McNuggets, it was hard not to wonder, “If they’re so great now, what was I eating before?” Ghosts of McNuggets past aside, we're wondering if the new nuggets will be noticeably different — and what stance hardcore nugget fans will take on the recipe change. Will they embrace the adjustment or will there be a massive Twitter protest? We'll just have to wait and see.