The McAfrika was a hamburger sold by the fast food restaurant chain McDonald's in Norway and Denmark and "traded" [1] as a Limited Edition Olympic Games Burger. It attracted significant public criticism as a result of its name and the timing of its launch. [1] [2]
The McAfrika sandwich contained beef, cheese, and tomatoes wrapped in pita bread. McDonald's claimed it was based upon an authentic African recipe. [3]
The McAfrika was released in 2002, just as a major famine was occurring in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Lesotho and Swaziland. [4] [5] The name of the burger was immediately criticized for being grossly insensitive, especially since it was released in Norway, one of the richest nations in the world. [6]
Norwegian Church Aid and the Norwegian Red Cross, which were both conducting humanitarian operations in southern Africa at the time, said that McDonald's decision was insensitive, crass and ill-considered. [3] Linn Aas-Hansen said that "it's inappropriate and distasteful to launch a hamburger called McAfrika when large portions of southern Africa are on the verge of starvation." [7] CARE Norway demanded that McDonald's withdraw the burger. [8] In particular, Norwegian Church Aid protested the McAfrika burgers by giving out "catastrophe crackers" to customers entering Norwegian McDonald's outlets. [3]
Support for McDonald's came from the organization African Youth in Norway who appreciated Africa's name being used in a positive manner instead of as a continent of war and poverty. [8]
McDonald's did not withdraw the burger, instead offering it until September 2002, just as planned in its campaign. [8] However, as a conciliatory gesture, it allowed aid agencies to put up posters and donation boxes in McDonald's restaurants where the McAfrika was being sold. Furthermore, McDonald's spokesperson Margaret Brusletto apologized for the timing of the launch, saying "We acknowledge that we have chosen an unfortunate time to launch this new product." [3]
The McAfrika was re-launched in 2008 to promote the 2008 Beijing Olympics for a short time, and attracted a similarly negative response. [2]
A hamburger or simply burger is a food consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, or chilis; condiments such as ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, relish, or a "special sauce", often a variation of Thousand Island dressing; and are frequently placed on sesame seed buns. A hamburger patty topped with cheese is called a cheeseburger.
A fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast-food cuisine and has minimal table service. The food served in fast-food restaurants is typically part of a "meat-sweet diet", offered from a limited menu, cooked in bulk in advance and kept hot, finished and packaged to order, and usually available for take away, though seating may be provided. Fast-food restaurants are typically part of a restaurant chain or franchise operation that provides standardized ingredients and/or partially prepared foods and supplies to each restaurant through controlled supply channels. The term "fast food" was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam–Webster in 1951.
The Big Mac is a hamburger sold by the international fast food restaurant chain McDonald's. It was introduced in the Greater Pittsburgh area in 1967 and across the United States in 1968. It is one of the company's flagship products and signature dishes. The Big Mac contains two beef patties, cheese, shredded lettuce, pickles, minced onions, and a Thousand Island-type dressing advertised as "special sauce", on a three-slice sesame-seed bun.
The Whopper is the signature hamburger and an associated product line sold by the international fast food restaurant chain Burger King and its Australian franchise Hungry Jack's. Introduced in 1957, the hamburger has undergone several reformulations, including changes to portion size and bread used. The hamburger is well known in the fast food industry, with Burger King advertising itself as "the Home of the Whopper" and naming its kiosk stores the BK Whopper Bar. In response to the Whopper, Burger King's competitors have developed similar products designed to compete against it.
Burger Chef was an American fast-food restaurant chain. It began operating in 1954 in Indianapolis, Indiana, expanded throughout the United States, and at its peak in 1973 had 1,050 locations, including some in Canada. The chain featured several signature items, such as the Big Shef and Super Shef hamburgers.
The Quarter Pounder is a hamburger sold by international fast food chain McDonald's, so named for containing a patty with a precooked weight of four ounces (113.4 g), or one quarter of a pound. It was introduced in 1971. In 2013, the Quarter Pounder was expanded to represent a whole line of hamburgers that replaced the company's discontinued Angus hamburger. In 2015, McDonald's increased the precooked weight to 4.25 oz (120 g).
Beurger King Muslim was a French halal fast-food restaurant launched in July 2005. After widespread media attention when it opened, it permanently closed after less than two years of operation in 2007. The restaurant mimicked American fast food restaurants. It was in the suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois, Paris, France, offering hamburgers, French fries, sundaes, cola and doughnuts. The beef and chicken used in their burgers were halal, meaning they are made with meat slaughtered according to Islamic dietary laws. It was located in the eastern Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois, where many locals are first- or second-generation Muslim immigrants from former French colonies.
McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hamburger stand, and later turned the company into a franchise, with the Golden Arches logo being introduced in 1953 at a location in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1955, Ray Kroc, a businessman, joined the company as a franchise agent and in 1961 bought out the McDonald brothers. Previously headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois, it moved to nearby Chicago in June 2018. McDonald's is also a real estate company through its ownership of around 70% of restaurant buildings and 45% of the underlying land.
Max Burgers Aktiebolag, earlier Max Hamburgerrestauranger AB, is a Swedish fast food corporation.
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of fast food restaurants, serving around 68 million customers daily in 119 countries. McDonald's traces its origins to a 1940 restaurant in San Bernardino, California. After expanding within the United States, McDonald's became an international corporation in 1967, when it opened a location in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. By the end of the 1970s, McDonald's restaurants existed in five of the Earth's seven continents; an African location came in 1992 in Casablanca, Morocco.
Wimpy is a fast-food chain that was founded in the United States. It found its success internationally, mainly in the United Kingdom and South Africa. It has changed between being a table-service establishment and counter-service establishment throughout its history.
McDonald's Israel is the Israeli master franchise of the fast food restaurant chain McDonald's. Operated and licensed by Alonyal Limited, McDonald's Israel is the largest of Israel's burger chains with a 60% market share. It was the first Israeli outlet to be opened in 1993 and a major competitor of the local restaurant chain Burger Ranch. The world's first kosher McDonald's was opened in Mevaseret Zion in October 1995.
The Bacon Deluxe is a bacon-topped hamburger offered at international fast food chain Wendy's. It is Wendy's entry into the premium sandwich category, "something other hamburger chains have used to compete with fast-casual restaurants." Burger King offers the Steakhouse XT Burger and McDonald's has had an Angus Third Pounder. The Bacon Deluxe was launched with an extensive media campaign and priced at $3.99 for a single, $4.99 for a double and $5.99 for a triple, and is being launched alongside another Wendy's bacon sandwich: the Baconator.
Evidence suggests that either the United States or Germany was the first country where two slices of bread and a ground beef patty were combined into a "hamburger sandwich" and sold. There is some controversy over the origin of the hamburger because its two basic ingredients, bread and beef, had been prepared and consumed separately for many years in both countries before their combination. Shortly after its creation, the hamburger quickly included all of its currently typically characteristic trimmings, including onions, lettuce, and sliced pickles.
Henry's Hamburgers is a former American fast-food restaurant chain of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Only one franchise store, in Michigan, remains.
The Big N’ Tasty is a hamburger sold by the international fast food chain McDonald's. It is designed to compete with the Whopper sandwich. A similar variation called the Big Tasty, without the center "N'", which was first released in Saudi Arabia, is sold outside the United States in parts of Europe, South America, South Africa, The Middle East, and Taiwan.
A rice burger or riceburger is a variation on the traditional hamburger with compressed rice patties substituted for the hamburger buns. The MOS Burger fast-food restaurant chain introduced the rice burger in Japan 1987, and since then it has become a popular food item in East Asia. Beginning around 2005 McDonald's also offered a rice burger in some of its Asian stores, with mixed results. In South Korea they are known as "bapburgers". Popular Korean-style rice burgers include fillings such as Stir-fried kimchi and tuna with mayonnaise.