"I will miss treating my ear infections with the Buffalo Ranch McChicken," quipped Jon Stewart recently on "The Daily Show". After sending up McDonald's announcement that it would phase out its use of chicken that had been fed with antibiotics, the television satirist lampooned a decision by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics to let Kraft put the academy's "Kids Eat Right" logo on its Singles slices, a "prepared cheese product". That decision was reversed days later. After decades of rising sales and high popularity, makers and sellers of processed food are under pressure not just from comedians but from policymakers, campaigners for "real" food and an increasingly sceptical public. In February Michelle Obama said she had long banned processed food from the presidential family's table, in particular Kraft's macaroni and cheese, one of its biggest sellers. Last month the company said it would remove the artificial colouring that gives the product its neon-orange glow. On April 28th it announced flat sales and a 16% fall in net profits, year on year, in the first quarter. McDonald's, having replaced its boss in March because of poor sales, said on April 22nd that they were still falling.
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