It's the end of an era and a marked change in the lexicon of Canadian fast food connoisseurs.
McDonald's Canada said Wednesday that Supersizing — the trademark introduced by the fast food giant to describe its offer to top up pop and French fry orders for a few extra cents — will no longer be used in its more than 1,300 restaurants in Canada.
The company, which feeds an estimated 3 million Canadians a day, will continue to offer fries in the same three sizes: small, medium and what was called a Super Size has been changed to a large.
The story is different in the United States, where the company, based in Oak Brook, Ill., offers four sizes with a Super Size of 7 ounces. McDonald's announced that its Super Size would be phased out in its 13,000 American restaurants by the end of 2004.
McDonald's Canada offers fries in 2.6, 3.7 and 6-ounce sizes.
The death of the super size name continues McDonald's trend of trying to put a healthier face on food that has long been considered bad for consumers' waistlines and long-term health.
“We've not eliminated any portion sizes that used to be there,” McDonald's Canada spokesman Ron Christianson told globeandmail.com on Wednesday. “We've simply done an adjustment of the terminology Super Size to a large and ceased promoting it in our restaurants.”
“We are not actively promoting when people order their meals: ‘Would you like to Super Size?'”
The move is part of the company's Healthy Lifestyles initiative, a campaign introduced in January that offers customers healthier menu items complete with nutritional information.
After building an empire on burgers and fries, the McDonald's menu has recently been expanded to include more juices, chicken, yogurt and leafy greens.
The company and its competitor, the sandwich chain Subway, have both introduced Atkins-approved meals to their menus to appeal to those following the increasingly popular diet's mantra that low carbs lead to significant weight loss.
But the company has also struggled for good press on the issue, facing lawsuits by American customers for allegedly causing obesity and being the subject of an award-winning documentary called "Super Size Me" which showed the deterioration of the filmmaker's health during a month-long experiment of eating nothing but McDonald's food.
Mr. Christianson denied that any outside pressure led to the terminology change in Canada.
“We've always been a responsible company,” he said. “We feel we have an opportunity as a Canadian company reaching millions of Canadian customers every week to help them lead more healthy, active lifestyles.”
“We're doing that by offering them more choice within our restaurants, providing them with additional nutritional and ingredient information and helping to promote the importance of physical activity.”
