McDonald's U.S. Fries Have Three Times as Many Ingredients as Those in the UK

[n2doc]

McDonald's recently published a video revealing what really goes into their French fries. It's part of their new ad campaign called "Our food. Your questions." in which they try to prove that their menu items are indeed made from recognizable ingredients. Mashable notes that in the video host Grant Imahara "reverse engineers" the process of McDonald's French fry production and finds that while the chain does indeed use real potatoes, there are also more than a few other ingredients. To make a fry — which at its most basic form is simply potato, salt, and oil — McDonald's uses 14 ingredients, including strange items like hydrolyzed milk, natural beef flavor, and sodium acid pyrophosphate.

Over on Boing Boing, blogger Mark Frauenfelder points out that that McDonald's locations in the UK serve up fries made from a much simpler recipe. The official McDonald's UK site reveals that they use just five ingredients in their fries: Potatoes, two kinds of oil, dextrose, and salt. Frauenfelder writes that "notably absent" from the UK version but found stateside is methylpolysiloxane, "a commonly used anti-foaming agent that's also an ingredient used to make Silly Putty."

McDonald's should probably get their American fries in check as soon as possible if they hope to improve their image and possibly increase sales. McDonald's spent most of 2014 struggling fiscally and prospects are not looking up. The Wall Street Journal reports that the chain announced a "21% drop in earnings for the latest quarter" this week.

http://www.eater.com/2015/1/23/7878045/mcdonalds-fries-america-england-ingredients-french-fries

[KT2000]

1. Many American products have fewer ingredients

in Europe because they do not allow all the chemicals that the US does. They are more concerned with health and do not consider illnesses as an addition to their gross national product like we do. Since they have had universal healthcare they have a consideration for not making people sick with food, personal care products, cleaning products, pesticides etc.

American still get the super-charged ingredients though - cuz - who cares??

[proverbialwisdom]

2. Related.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017239824

[Major Nikon]

3. They also use Dihydrogen Oxide which is commonly used as an industrial solvent

[bobclark86]

8. Nooooo!!!!!!!1

Not dihydrogen oxide! That shit is LETHAL! Breathing a few ounces of that shit in your lungs will KILL YOU!

[Trillo]

10. Maybe so,

but its essential to dissolving starch from the freshly cut potatoes.

[a kennedy]

4. I gave up on Mac's when I found out their Shamrock shake had over 500 calories in it.....

that was it for me.


Mcdonald's - Shamrock Shake 355ml (12 Oz)
Servings:
Calories 530 Sodium 160 mg
Total Fat 15 g Potassium 0 mg
Saturated 10 g Total Carbs 86 g
Polyunsaturated 0 g Dietary Fiber 0 g
Monounsaturated 0 g Sugars 73 g
Trans 1 g Protein 11 g
Cholesterol 60 mg
Vitamin A 20% Calcium 40%
Vitamin C 0% Iron 0%

[JI7]

9. most milk shakes have that much or more calories in them,

for a while i use to think i wasn't eating too many calories because i would get a shake and not much food.

so while people know shakes, fries and other foods are bad i think a lot of times people don't realize just how many calories they have.

[betsuni]

5. Interesting article at Serious Eats

J. Kenji Lopez-Alt tries to copy McDonald's French fries technique, decides the fries are blanched in hot water, then fried at a high temperature very quickly, then frozen. Fries blanched in plain hot water fell apart so he added vinegar. I guess this is where McDonald's adds the milk and beef and of course salt. I'm too lazy to link, it's "The Burger Lab: How to Make Perfect Thin and Crisp French Fries."

To me McDonald's fries only taste of salt. I swear processed food is getting saltier every decade. I think people's taste buds don't work well anymore.

[Dreamer Tatum]

6. I'm getting the idea that McDonalds isn't the staff of life.

It was called JUNK FOOD even in the 70's when its quality was much better. Caveat Emptor.

[JI7]

7. but they probably taste better than in the UK

[Initech]

11. There's very little french fries in this silly putty.