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McDonald's Happy Meal

McDonald's Corp. unveiled a healthier Happy Meal on Tuesday, but the changes won't be enough to allow toys to be included with the meals in San Francisco.

The new nutritional guidelines, which McDonald's plans to adopt in all of its 14,000 restaurants nationwide starting in September, will slash the serving of French fries by more than half and add a quarter-cup of apple slices — without caramel dipping sauce.

According to the company, the new Chicken McNuggets Happy Meal will have 435 calories and 17 grams of fat, compared to the original 530 calories and 23 grams of fat.

But the roughly 20-percent reduction in calories isn't enough to comply with a law that San Francisco passed last year banning free toys in meals that fall short of certain nutritional standards — including a serving each of fruits and vegetables.

A quarter-cup of apple slices, or half a serving of fruit, is only half the amount called for by the law. And the new 1.1-ounce serving of French fries falls below the three-fourths cup of veggies required (yes, fries are considered a vegetable by the U.S. Department of Agriculture).

Santa Clara County passed a similar ordinance last year; it was not immediately clear whether the new Happy Meals would meet that county's requirements.

McDonald's believes San Francisco's guidelines, which are scheduled to go into effect in December, are extreme, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company's USA President Jan Fields called the toy the "most fun part" and postulated that adding vegetables to Happy Meals would “probably exceed what a child would be willing to eat.”

Supervisor Eric Mar, who sponsored San Francisco’s toy restriction, criticized the company's effort as “definitely not enough."

“I’ve always thought that McDonald's should not be serving sodas and French fries as defaults,” Mar said. “The default food should be healthy options, like apples without caramel dipping sauce, and water or unsweetened beverages.”