McDonald’s is achieving its strongest sales growth for six years and expects to serve more than 80 million customers across the UK next month alone – yet the group remains rooted to the bottom of the fast-food chain when it comes to reputations on the high street and perceived success at tackling “green” issues.

A damning Populus poll shows that ongoing concerns over obesity continue to outweigh the effort that McDonald’s has made to transform its image in recent years.

The chain has the worst standing of all the food and drink outlets in Britain, below Starbucks, Costa Coffee, KFC and its fierce rival Burger King. The poll adds that an overwhelming majority of the British public – 84 per cent – believe that burger chains are not doing enough to tackle environmental issues. Again, McDonald’s is seen as a bigger culprit than Burger King or Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Indeed, the whole concept of fast food is questioned. Good quality, healthiness and price are judged as more important than speed when deciding where to eat on the high street. Nearly 80 per cent feel that fast food adverts aimed at children should be banned.

The survey, the latest in a series of ethical reports compiled for The Times, comes three years after Morgan Spurlock, the film-maker, transformed consumer opinion of the business. Super Size Me, in which the American ate nothing but McDonald’s food for 30 days, shocked audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.

Since then the group has made huge strides in addressing customers’ concerns, such as altering its menus and reducing salt content in food by 40 per cent. Coffee served at McDonald’s is approved by the Rainforest Alliance and the chain was one of the first to switch to free-range eggs a decade ago. Its Chicken McNuggets are now made only from chicken breast meat.

Giles Gibbons, managing director of the Good Business consultancy, said: “This [poll] just shows the extent to which they have been made villains of popular culture. The efforts they are making are not getting through to consumers. It suggests they will have to go to quite some lengths to overcome the disadvantages of their heritage, brands and sector.”

This is reflected in the more favourable reaction given to coffee chains, which continue to grow in Britain.

Two thirds of those surveyed say that coffee chains such as Starbucks are not doing enough to address social and environmental issues. However, they are all viewed in a better light than the burger chains. Whitbread’s Costa coffee chain is judged as more popular than Starbucks and Wild Bean Café, the brand launched by BP at its petrol forecourts.

A McDonald’s spokesman said that the group was aware that it would take a long time to change consumer perceptions about the business, which has achieved like-for-like growth of 4.6 per cent this year – its strongest since the start of the decade. He said: “We could have done better briefing people in the past. We have a long way to go but we believe we are making good progress.”

— The nation is behind Gordon Brown’s call to eliminate wasteful plastic bags

— More than three quarters of those questioned by Populus — 76 per cent — believe that supermarkets should abolish free plastic bags at the checkout

— Mr Brown wants a summit with the supermarkets and the British Retail Consortium over the issue

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