As you may have guessed had you read the report, this subject arose in a private conversation with the man's mother-in-law and I have seen no report. However, having known his mother-in-law for 25 years, and that she is not given to hyperbole or fanciful statements I'm inclined to take her word for it. In that sense, it's hearsay true but then sitting calling people prats and idiots isn't exactly mounting a watertight defence of the allegations, something you seem incapable of doing.

"McDonalds use only British and Irish Beef, proper cuts from forequater and flank, nothing else apart from salt and pepper. No preservatives, no flavouring. Fact."

You sure - want to provide an independent citiation for that? But you know, I suspect you might be right on that one, but do you know anyone who actually eats just the thin rubbery patties? I suspect not, and what is wrapped around and served up with them (including McNuggets etc) is full of nasties.

A quote taken from the site documenting the 1997 libel case sums ups the argument briefly:

"McDonald's pride themselves on the uniformity of their products throughout the world. The achieve this they have set formulae and specifications for menu items. In order to ensure the food looks and tastes the same the world over the plaintiffs use a number of chemical additives in the preparation of their food. In a booklet published by the Second plaintiff in or around 1989, 43 additives are listed as being used on their foods. A number of these are believed to have undesirable side effects. Some of the listed additives are specifically listed by the Hyperactive Children's Support Group as unsuitable for such children. In France, in or around 1986 legal action was taken against McDonald's for using banned colorants in their milk shakes. In or around 1979, in Australia, McDonald's was selling products containing lettuce with traces of the following chemicals: sodium disulphite, citric acid, ascorbic acid, calcium silicate, sodium citrate and sodium hexanetrophosphate."

Or fromthe article in The Independent:

Richard Watts, head of the Children's Food Campaign at the food group Sustain said: "We are very concerned that about the heavy use of additives in McDonald's especially the ones identified as harmful to health in the Southampton study." But, he said, E-numbers were "part of the business model" for processed food and would be hard to remove.

Nice. No point in making better food for kids if it interferes with the business model. In China, that bastion of freedom, liberty and hope Ronald busily is pedalling his own brand of healthy junk to hapless Chinese children (taken from Bloomberg):

"The use of tertiary butylhydroquinone in the fast-food chain's fried chicken pieces meets Chinese food safety standards, McDonald's unit in the nation said in an e-mailed statement. "The chemical is toxic to some extent," the China Daily newspaper quoted Liu Qingchun, a nutritionist at the General Hospital of Armed Police Forces, as saying today. Liu said China's standards allow its use."

Unfortunately McDonald's seem a tad reticent regarding actually telling Chinese consumers that these additives are in their food according to this article in the Shanghai Daily.

As for the fries, everything you need to know is here.. I wonder if ""an animal source."" they use to flavour their fries is British or Irish? Of course it's not just McDonald's who use these products in their food, but then as I don't go to them either (and the drinks - yeuch!) I'm not too worried.

As for the chicken McNuggets, just don't go there. They're http://www.robedwards.com/2010/06/mcdonalds-playing-chicken-with-british-food.ht despite this statement: ""Our customers care about where their food comes from," insisted Nick Hindle, the company's vice president for communications from London. "People want to eat British food. They think it is supporting the British economy and they trust the quality."

Well, actually we don't all think eating McDonalds is supporting the British economy stupid. Doh! Buying burgers from my local butcher is, however and I can drive past the field where the beef was raised too. Result!