A few years ago, following a wave of bad publicity from the film “Super Size Me,” McDonald’s did something bold: it went out and hired mommy bloggers to serve as roving correspondents tasked with checking up on the quality of the food served at franchises in cities around the country, and then blogging about it.

There is a team “Moms Quality Correspondents” covering the Washington D.C. and Baltimore areas, for example. And in Canada a team of “McMoms” at Urbanmom scrutinize food quality north of the border, usually dispensing gold stars. One mommy blogger, for example, tackles the question of gluten in the french fries, and tells us definitively:

So, the first night in Toronto, at a dinner with many important McDonald’s people, I sat myself down at the dinner table right beside John Betts, the president of McDonald’s Canada and the very first thing I asked him was

Do McDonald’s French fries have gluten in them?

His answer?

NO. Potatoes. Salt. Vegetable oil. That’s it.

The readers appreciated her reportage. Case closed.

Elsewhere though on Urbanmom and other parenting sites the skepticism abounds about the nutritional value of Happy Meals and just about everything else on the menu, accusing, at times, the fast food chain of contributing to child obesity and heart problems down the road.

Amid this sometimes testy debate, McDonald’s has created a brand new position within the organization to keep the lively daily conversation about nutrition at the Golden Arches more balanced. According to Advertising Age, McDonald’s has hired Rick Wion, a PR veteran from Golin Harris in Chicago, to serve as its first ever director of social media. Says Ad Age: Wion’s “marching orders are three-fold: using social media to build the business, manage customer problems, and beef up outreach to target groups such as mommy bloggers.”

From this description, it would appear to mean Wion has the responsibilitys of marketing and sales, customer service and public relations under his purview. Talk about a “Super Size” position. He’ll report to Heather Oldani, McDonald’s director of external communications and public relations.