McDonald's (MCD) is starting a new effort to convince the world it's selling "real" food, with a social media question-and-answer campaign, supported by videos featuring Grant Imahara, formerly of the show "MythBusters."

Through a campaign called "Our food. Your questions," McDonald's is asking the public to submit questions, and it's offering prepared answers on its website to a series of those that are frequently asked. The McDonald's site today features inquiries it's heard over the years, including: "Is 'pink slime' in a Chicken McNugget?" and "Is the McRib made from real pork?" Another is, "Why doesn't your food rot?" If you're curious about what's in the Big Mac sauce, ingredients include soybean oil and pickle relish. In addition to its site, McDonald's will answer questions on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

It's not entirely clear any of this will alter the opinions of its entrenched detractors. But regardless, it's laudable that McDonald's, clearly aware of the good and bad that's said about it, is taking a direct approach, even if it is one that will lead to potentially uncomfortable questions, as well as some level of mockery that follows its every decision.

Imahara is on board for a set of videos that will take him to restaurants and suppliers around the nation. In a video featured on the site now, he goes to a Cargill plant, where he asks various questions about the Oak Brook, Ill., company's beef. After his tour, he sits down at a McDonald's store to eat the food. "It's been 15 years since I've had a Big Mac," he says. "I know you've got questions," he continues."So ask your questions, and I'll find out the answers."

While McDonald's has millions of patrons every day, 35,000 global restaurants -- about 14,000 of those in the United States -- and almost $90 billion in system sales, it has long had an image problem in terms of the healthfulness of its food. Over the years, it's added salads, yogurts and egg whites to its Quarter Pounders and fries, both to mitigate the criticism it receives and to actually offer better options. Critics remain, of course, and healthier fare hasn't always sold particularly well.

In any event, McDonald's is the world's largest publicly traded restaurant company measured by total revenue and market capitalization, despite its vocal detractors. It earns about $5 billion in annual profits. However, there are signs it has peaked, at least for now. In 2013, the number of customers to its stores declined, a troubling development for a business that had years of consistent growth. Same-store sales, an important number for restaurants and retailers, have been weak for months, most recently a terrible August sales report that was badly affected by a supplier investigation in China. And after a stellar decade, its stock price has stagnated over the last couple of years.

McDonald's would prefer the negatives don't take precedence, and this move is its latest attempt to better control the message it wants discussed. Last year, it announced a plan to improve food quality and marketing globally, and it's also outlined a "Corporate Social Responsibility & Sustainability Framework" that is intended to benefit the company as well as produce "measurable, positive impacts for society."

"We're proud of the food we serve our 27 million U.S. customers every day, yet we know people have unanswered questions,” said Kevin Newell, executive vice president, chief brand and strategy officer for McDonald's USA, in a statement on the corporate site. "So, we're inviting everyone in the U.S. on a journey to learn more about our food."

Even if it doesn't change much in reality, McDonald's should get credit for pressing for "two-way conversations with as many people as possible," as Ben Stringfellow, vice president of communications for McDonald's USA, described it in a statement. It also makes business sense in times in which transparency about ingredients is getting more important to restaurants and their diners, especially millennials. Fast-casual chains, the pricier, often socially conscious restaurants, are perceived as leaders here. Chipotle (CMG), the burrito chain formerly controlled by McDonald's, is among the well-known companies trying to urge consumers to be better educated about their food.

The key question remains whether it will turn any McDonald's skeptics into believers. As noted, even with its growth problems, McDonald's has an extraordinary number of customers every day. Regular patrons likely don't need convincing -- it's those inherently opposed to everything McDonald's does that likely do.

But, that said, McDonald's notes that it has employed similar marketing in Canada and Australia, and the BurgerBusiness site quoted Newell as saying that, in Canada, there have been "some very good results from the standpoint of how people perceive McDonald's food."