If a customer complains that they've found something in their burger, McDonald's first question is where and when the burger was bought. Due to numerous quality checks at OSI, it's almost impossible for anything to turn up in the meat.
In the event of a serious complaint regarding food safety, we immediately examine the entire chain — but that rarely happens. The boxes show exactly when a burger was produced, where the meat came from, and where the burgers are headed.
So if there's something wrong with the meat, it's easy for McDonald's to know within a few hours which slaughterhouse and farm the meat came from. Because cows are registered at birth, everything that happens to them is recorded, and every change of owner is registered. Using a special code on the box, you can even find the exact cow the meat came from.
But if we use the word 'Dutch' in a name for a limited-edition burger like the Dutch Deluxe, for example, we guarantee that all the meat comes from the Netherlands. Before the boxes disappear, another sticker is placed on them saying where the burgers came from and where they're going.
On the same industrial estate, you'll also find the factory where the buns for Germany's hamburgers are made. A hamburger is typically on your plate within three weeks of the cow's slaughter, McDonald's said. Koekkoek added: "That said, the taste experience of hamburgers all over the world may be slightly different because of the amount of salt and pepper used — some countries like more salt than others.
But that's the only difference, apart from the origin of the beef. For you. World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options.
Get the Insider App. Click here to learn more. A leading-edge research firm focused on digital transformation. Good Subscriber Account active since Shortcuts.
Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile. Log out. US Markets Loading H M S In the news.
McDonald's attracts plenty of customers but many express concern over its burgers' ingredients. I took a tour of a McDonald's factory in Germany to find out how their burgers are really made. The idea that McDonald's burgers, buns, and toppings never decay has become great social media fodder over the years, but there's little science to prove it.
People who have tested it have generally come to the same conclusion: Most burgers won't rot in dry air because it eliminates the moisture necessary for bacteria and decay to form. But we don't recommend eating anything that's been sitting out for more than two hours. This myth likely caught fire because people want to believe that giant chains would do anything to keep profits low and use undesirable cow parts like the eyeballs.
McDonald's is transparent about the parts of the cow the chain uses in its dishes, and eyeballs aren't on the list. And given how much beef McDonald's buys and how little of a cow is in its eyeballs, it's safe to say this claim is fiction rather than fact. The word on the street is that the Golden Arches include ground-up worms to supplement the beef as a cheaper alternative. But just like the eyeball theory, this one doesn't hold up the economic test, because worms are actually more expensive to buy per pound than beef.
Several satirical media outlets will drum up this story from time to time to get clicks, but it's nothing more than an urban legend. When Huzlers , a site that allows people to create prank news stories, ran a piece claiming that an Oklahoma City McDonald's had used both human and horse meat in its burgers, the news spread like fire on social media.
Not everyone was sharp enough to realize it was all a hoax. This myth started from a YouTube video that shows someone pouring molten copper over a Big Mac sandwich.
Many people assumed that the molten copper would melt the sandwich. Yet it stays intact, leading people to draw conclusions about the preservatives in McDonald's foods. But the actual cause is called the Leidenfrost Effect , where the moisture in food evaporates rapidly, creating a vapor layer that insulates the food from the molten copper. The theory is that McDonald's buys its supply of beef from a company called Percent Beef, so they can use the tricky wordplay on their customers.
This claim is not only false, but McDonald's supply chains are also fairly transparent about where they source their ingredients. Like the myth about the burgers, America's favorite fries have gained a social media reputation for having an unnatural shelf life.
Sure, your fries won't grow mold or bacteria if it's stored in a dry environment, but would you really go for two weeks' old crispy spuds to satisfy a salty craving? We didn't think so. McDonald's did use beef tallow —a rendered cow fat—to fry up their famous crispy sides. But the practice was discontinued decades ago, thanks to the health industry's battle against saturated fat. To replace beef tallow, the chain resorted to using vegetable oils with trans fats, but we all know about the trans-fat ban.
Today, you'll find "natural beef flavor" in the World Famous fries and other McDonald's dishes. Just because the fries don't use beef tallow it doesn't mean they're safe for vegan consumption. McDonald's uses "natural beef flavoring" in its fries in both the U. Because the flavoring is actually made from milk, the fries are vegetarian but not vegan. If you want vegan fries, head across the pond, where they don't add beef flavoring to their spuds. Natural beef flavoring isn't the only thing you'll find in McDonald's fries.
While the first ingredient is potatoes, they also contain a vegetable oil mix, salt, and sodium acid pyrophosphate, which is used to maintain color. That said, McDonald's isn't trying to hide these ingredients, because all of them are listed on the company's website. In a video by famed food writer Michael Pollan, he argued that McDonald's picked only perfect potatoes for their fires and threw the rest away.
This is half true because McDonald's is picky about the potatoes they use in their fries. Pollan's video also illustrated that McDonald's farming practices involved spraying potatoes with pesticides so strong that farmers had to stay away for five to six days.
Once again, he's half right, except that it's a standard farming practice to stay away from any pesticide for that amount of time. If that scares you, it might be time to consider buying organic produce. Pollan's video also highlighted that McDonald's stored the potatoes in greenhouses for weeks or months.
According to Pollan, storing them in a greenhouse allows pesticides to evaporate. But the real explanation? Farmers want to be able to sell potatoes year-round and keeping them in the greenhouses helps keep them fresher longer. In the early s, a woman sued McDonald's for serving her extra-hot coffee that gave her third-degree burns. After the coffee lawsuit, reports came out that McDonald's coffee was 40 to 50 degrees warmer than other restaurants, which served theirs at degrees Fahrenheit. Since then, McDonald's has changed the way the company heats its coffee.
Despite theories that the perfect egg circles in Egg McMuffins are from frozen discs of something other than eggs, the answer is much simpler. You crack an egg into a mold and it cooks into the perfect degree sandwich. The Golden Arches even came out with a marketing campaign a few years ago showing exactly the process to get to each egg dish. One of the key ingredients in the famous Big Mac is the special sauce.
Some customers have taken "special" to mean that the sauce is a secret recipe, but like many "secrets," McDonald's has been fairly open about this, even posting a video with the company's executive chef making the sauce. Many fast-food chains have tried to shed their unhealthy label with marketing campaigns around what they deem as healthier items, like leafy green salads and grilled chicken sandwiches.
However, a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine tracked McDonald's health data over a year period, showing that levels of sodium, sugar, and fat have gotten only marginally better.
The Internet is to blame for the rumor mill that McDonald's gets its meat from hairless, limbless animals. In order to know the dangers of what we are putting in our body at fast-food restaurants, we need to pay attention and we need to do our research. There are many restaurants with menu items that are much better than McDonalds, and with proper research you can find these yourself. Of course, there are ways you can eat out and still eat healthy, and it all starts with proper research.
When deciding where to eat, try to check out the ingredients list where available. You probably already know that fast food restaurants tend to use less natural ingredients than traditional restaurants.
So when you can, opt for a place that you know cooks their food with natural ingredients from scratch. It may cost more, but your body will thank you in the long run. And of course, when in doubt, you can always pick up some fresh ingredients yourself and cook something! Being informed and knowing nutrition is really your best weapon in an age where companies try their best to hide the true nature of their ingredients list.
My guide Processed Free will help you easily navigate real food no matter where you are on your path to healthier living. Click here to check it out. They want to hide their ingredients from you because it allows them to keep using cheap ingredients that are better for their bottom line.
Confusing ingredients lists will always be an issue if you intend on eating restaurant food, but you can arm yourself with a knowledge of nutrition and an ability to read between the lines. So do your research, check ingredients, and prepare your own food when possible. Thank you for supporting this site with purchases made through links in this article.
All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy. Favorites Real Food September 21, Share on facebook. Share on pinterest. Share on twitter. Share on email. Lets look at just a few of the above ingredients: Ammonium chloride … sounds tasty right?
Did you know it is also an ingredient in fireworks, safety matches and contact explosives? Eat up. Ammonium sulfate is used most commonly as an artificial fertilizer for alkaline soils. Ammonium sulfate activates yeast, so it helps to get industrially produced bread to rise. They are also foods I generally avoid for a number of reasons.
0コメント