QR Codes Mcdonalds Nutrition FactsThe latest design for the product packaging will feature the smartphone friendly barcodes.

In its latest step to appeal to nutrition conscious consumers, McDonald’s Corp. has announced that it will be adding QR codes to the latest design of its product packaging, to make it easier for customers to learn about the foods they are purchasing.

The fast food restaurant has been making several similar efforts to simplify the transmission of information.

This largest fast food chain in the world has been making a number of different efforts over the last few months and in recent years, in order to make nutrition a higher priority. The QR codes are an element of this overall effort, in that they make it easier for consumers to check the nutrition content of the foods that they order.

By using QR codes, this nutrition information becomes much more conveniently accessible.

Kevin Newell, the chief brand officer at McDonald’s, explained that “Customers tell us they want to know more about the food they are eating and we want to make that as easy as possible by putting this information right at their fingertips.” As a growing number of those guests to the restaurants have smartphones, QR codes became a natural choice to assist in this effort.

The packaging featuring the barcodes will be launched throughout the United States, this week. Though they will not be present on every item, these black and white square will be found on the carry out bags, as well as on the fountain beverage cups from American locations. Throughout the rest of 2013, this same effort with QR codes will be rolled out worldwide as the information is translated into 18 additional languages.

The packaging, itself, was designed with the assistance of a number of different groups of people. It began with the feedback of the customers, themselves, but it also took into account the opinions of advisors in the fields of nutrition, fitness, and public health as a whole. The QR codes are an extension of the effort made last September, where all McDonald’s locations in the United States added the calorie information to each of the foods listed on their restaurant and drive through menus.