Crackdown On McDonald's Cheese: Indian State Will Examine International Fast-Food Companies

A senior official stated that Maharashtra, the western state of India would examine the locations of international fast-food chains to see if they utilize substitute cheese in items that are falsely advertised as having real cheese, going beyond a crackdown on McDonald’s.

The inspections could be problematic for international companies because recent inflationary pressure has reduced the amount of expensive pizzas and burgers that many Indian consumers eat, forcing businesses to introduce reduced prices.

Westlife Foodworld, the largest McDonald’s franchisee in India, has been defending its usage of “real cheese” in the wake of media reports that state officials discovered several goods last year that used “cheese analogs of vegetable oil” instead of actual cheese.

Although the McDonald’s franchisee disapproved of the results, letters seen by Reuters reveal that in December, it removed the term “cheese” from the labels of numerous burgers and nuggets it distributes throughout the state. For instance, it changed the name of a “corn and cheese burger” to a “American vegetarian burger.”

According to its chairman, Abhimanyu Kale, Reuters, inspectors from the state’s Food and Drug Administration would now examine all McDonald’s locations and those of other big brands to look for similar infractions of display and labeling standards.