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Ciara O'Rourke
By Ciara O'Rourke October 27, 2023

McDonald’s didn’t introduce blue-and-white food wrappers to support Israel, company says

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  • McDonald’s didn’t introduce blue-and-white food wrappers to support Israel, the company said. 

  • They’re generic wrappers that come in a variety of colors that have been used for years for special orders, limited-edition products and supply shortages. 

  • The wrappers aren’t a political statement, according to McDonald’s.

A recent video circulating social media suggests that McDonald’s has changed the color scheme of its food wrappers to support Israel amid the country’s war against Hamas. 

"What is this?" a woman in the video says, holding what looks like a blue-and-white McDonald’s food wrapper. "What is this new packaging?"

"It’s the McChicken wrapper," someone who appears to be a McDonald’s employee replies. 

"Why is it blue and white?" she says. 

"Honestly, I don’t know," the person says. 

"I think you do know. This is in support of Israel," she says, apparently referring to the country’s blue-and-white flag.

"I mean, it was like that since a few months ago when we ran out of the regular ones," the person says. "We’ve had that for a while now."

The woman then appears to speak with another employee at the restaurant. 

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"I’m just curious what’s with the new wrapping," she says. "The blue and white."

That person can be heard saying that "they just changed it" and adds that they received the wrappers "maybe like last week." 

Posts sharing this video were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

We don’t know which McDonald’s appears in the video, but we asked the company about the claim and received an emailed statement explaining that the wrapper in the video is an example of a generic wrapper that’s been used for years in some restaurants for special orders, limited-edition products, or to replace the company’s typically red-and-yellow packaging when there are shortages. 

The generic wrappers come in a variety of colors, not just blue and white, according to the statement, and none of the colors are intended to make a political statement. 

We found no evidence to corroborate the claim that McDonald’s has newly introduced the blue-and-white wrappers to support Israel. 

But in April, the New York Daily News reported that the company was serving its Big Mac sauce in a blue-and-white cup, "the colors of the original Big Mac wrapper when the burger was introduced 55 years ago." 

We also found a 2016 Reddit post featuring blue-and-white McDonald’s wrappers. 

We rate claims that the company changed its packaging to support Israel False.

 

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McDonald’s didn’t introduce blue-and-white food wrappers to support Israel, company says

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