McDonald's Fries

Mar 07, 2024

Sources

 

 

You’ll Never Eat McDonald’s French Fries Again After Watching This

  • McDonalds uses a special type of potato
    • 00:25: All McDonald's fries are made form the Russet Burbank potato, this potato is difficult to grow.
    • 00:55: Russet burbank potatoes can get 'netnecrosis" which are brown lines and spots. If your potatoes have these spots McDonalds won't buy them.
  • Farmers using pesticides to make perfect potatoes
    • 01:00: The only way to eliminate this necrosis is to eliminate an aphid and the only way to eliminate the aphid is to use a pesticide called monitor. 
    • 01:10: Monitor pesticide is so toxic, the farmers won't go into the fields for 5 days after they spray.
    • 01:20: After they harvest the potatoes they put them in atmosphere controlled sheds the size of football stadiums. They have to stay there for 6 weeks to release the toxins.
  • Do not eat food cooked by corporations
    • 02:10: You are healthy when you eat food cooked by a human being, not a corporation.
    • 02:25: When you layer salt, sugar and fat properly 
    • 02:50: THe fast food industry uses words like cravability and snackability to describe addiction levels. 

 

Toxic Taters

  • RDO, company that makes the potatoes
    • RDO has farming operations in 12 states, including Minnesota, North Dakota and Oregon. McDonald’s is the largest potato buyer in the United States, purchasing more than 3.4 billion pounds of potatoes every year.
  • McDonalds tried to reduce pesticide but it isn’t working
    • McDonald’s responded to PAN’s Drift Catcher data in 2009 with a public promise to reduce pesticide use. The company did ask its potato producers to participate in a survey of integrated pest management (IPM), but has not shown any progress toward use reduction.
    • Instead, they launched an ad campaign promoting its potato growers’ practices.
  • People in Minnesota are being poisoned
    • Potato fields cover roughly 50,000 acres of Minnesota, and fungicides are applied to the vast majority of those potato acres — 98% in 2005. Using PAN’s Drift Catcher, communities in rural Minnesota have measured fungicides drifting into their homes, farms, schools and businesses.
    • EPA says the fungicide chlorothalonil, for example, is “highly toxic” when inhaled, and a probable carcinogen. Pesticide drift has also harmed local livestock, threatening the livelihood of small farmers in the area.

 

Toxic Taters: Minnesotans not lovin' pesticide drift

  • Pesticide drift from potato fields
    • 00:12: Minnesotans getting affected by pesticide drift
    • 01:00: People had to move away because of pesticide drift
    • 01:20: They would spray pesticides on us
  • Sheep killed by pesticide
    • 01:29: Their sheep died from the pesticides, 29 died.
    • 01:40: The sheep livers were tan instead of dark red which meant they were poisoned.
  • Communities are getting poisoned
    • 02:00: A lot of people are poor in that area so they can't fight back
    • 02:05: Sometimes you can even smell the chemicals
    • 02:15: I had to leave my home because the pesticides were so bad
  • RDO company is responsible
    • 02:57: RDO sign

 

The Original McDonald's French Fry

  • Original McDonalds fries were fried in beef tallow
    • Producing frying oil on the cheap accidentally resulted in some legendary french fries. When one shortening company—Interstate Foods—added beef fat to cut costs, they created the oil that would make McDonald’s french fries famous. Sadly, those fries are now gone, replaced by what many consider to be an inferior product.
    • In the beginning, the McDonald brothers had one hamburger stand, and they bought their fry oil from Interstate. At the time, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil was the preferred frying oil, but hydrogenation equipment was too expensive for Interstate’s tiny operation. By providing clients with a blend of about 7% vegetable oil and 93% beef tallow, they could extend the oil’s shelf life without the use of costly machinery. McDonald’s irresistibly crispy, flavorful french fries? Simply a byproduct of frugal savvy. 
  • Mcdonalds french fries were famous
    • Ray Kroc, the salesman who would become the founder of the McDonald’s franchise, fell in love with this beef tallow–fried version in 1954. Imagining the treat replicated across the country, Kroc bought the restaurant’s franchise rights. He became a master of the french fry, developing potato curing methods and a “potato computer” to perfect cooking time.
  • Someone famous had a heart attack and blamed the fries
    • This perfection got results. The signature fry, with its crispy edges and buttery, soft interior, delighted customers (including James Beard and Julia Child) and helped McDonald’s spread worldwide. But not everyone was a fan. In 1966, a business mogul named Phil Sokolof had a heart attack at the age of 43. In response, he founded the National Heart Savers Association to campaign against cholesterol and fat. His main target? McDonald’s, especially their  fries.
  • They were forced to replace beef tallow with vegetable oil, the stock fell
    • ​​Sokolof spent several decades and $15 million on his crusade. Facing full-page ads and consistent attacks from Sokolof, McDonald’s caved. In 1990, the company announced that they would replace the beef tallow with 100 percent vegetable oil. After the announcement, McDonald’s stock fell 8.3 percent.
  • They added beef flavor to make up for the tallow
    • The new fry didn’t stack up. As it turns out, the beef tallow had added more than just cholesterol to the signature french fry. To compensate for the loss of meaty flavor, McDonald’s added “natural beef flavor.” Even worse, the fries lost much of the contrasting soft and crunchy texture that Kroc loved, and the new fries weren’t exactly healthier. 
  • They had to re-formulate after trans fat became illegal
    • As the public later learned, the trans fats in hydrogenated vegetable oil posed serious health threats, forcing McDonald’s to change the recipe again.
  • They now fry in trans-fat free oil
    • McDonald’s introduced french fry version 3.0, which is cooked in vegetable oil with less trans fat, around 2007. Fans of the first fry are still wondering why McDonald’s didn’t just switch back to the beloved original recipe. Journalist Malcolm Gladwell is one such die-hard fan: “Everything about it was a mistake,” he said in an interview on House of Carbs. “If they had any balls at all, they would turn around and say, ‘We were wrong, and we’re going back to fries the old way.’”

 

The McDonald's Fries Scandal You've Forgotten About

  • They originally used beef tallow to save money
    • Founded in 1940, McDonald's initially used 93% beef fat tallow for their French fries in an effort to save money, according to a piece on the origins of the favored fast food item published by Atlas Obscura. The money-saving decision resulted in a meaty flavor that unexpectedly gave the fries their signature taste so singularly unique that McDonald's eventually trademarked their menu item as their "World Famous Fries," according to their website. 
    • This remained the case until 1985, but things changed years later after the launch of a campaign designed to wage war against the fast food empire.
  • Businessman had a heart attack and blamed McDonalds fries
    • Per Atlas Obscura, it all began when a multi-millionaire businessman named Phil Sokolof had a heart attack at 43 in 1966. Following his recovery, Sokolof attributed the cardiac event to his diet, so he began researching the correlation between high-fat foods and heart health. This prompted him to found an organization he named the National Heart Savers Association, with the aim of spotlighting Mcdonald's — and, to be fair, other fast food restaurants — with claims that their beloved, beef tallow-laden fries, along with other high cholesterol foods found on their menu, contributed to heart disease (via The New York Times).
    • After spending at least $15 million campaigning against McDonald's for more than two decades, Sokolof got the attention of consumers, per Atlas Obscura. In 1990, McDonald's eventually responded to the pressure by replacing their beef tallow will vegetable oil. But the story didn't end there.
  • They replaced with vegetable oil, but the beef flavor was gone
    • Yes, beef fat tallow was eliminated from the cooking oil, but since the change affected the flavor that many other consumers loved, the franchise found itself on shaky ground. Stocks in the company fell, prompting McDonald's to take action once again (via Atlas Obscura). They attempted to mimic the original taste by adding "natural flavors" to the fries — natural beef flavors, which were added during the pre-shipment potato processing, per the Wall Street Journal. 
  • People sued them for adding beef flavor
    • Now for the scandal. As Atlas Obscura explains it, some consumers welcomed the ingredient change. Particularly, vegans and vegetarians, who had previously been unable to consume a fry or two due to McDonald's use of beef tallow, assumed they could now enjoy the popular fast food side. That is, or so they thought.
    • Yes, beef fat tallow was eliminated from the cooking oil, but since the change affected the flavor that many other consumers loved, the franchise found itself on shaky ground. Stocks in the company fell, prompting McDonald's to take action once again (via Atlas Obscura). They attempted to mimic the original taste by adding "natural flavors" to the fries — natural beef flavors, which were added during the pre-shipment potato processing, per the Wall Street Journal. 
    • In another misstep, the company demurred from publicly announcing the ingredient change. The discovery left vegans and vegetarians outraged, along with those who came from religious backgrounds like Hinduism which forbade the consumption of beef tallow. Three later sued McDonald's in 2001 for misleading them. As the Wall Street Journal reported at the time, McDonald's countered that they never said their fries were vegetarian. Either way, they eventually settled with a $10 million donation to religious and vegetarian groups and an apology from the fast food giant. Nowadays, if you check their "World Famous Fries" webpage, you'll see "Natural Beef Flavor" clearly listed in their "allergen information" section

 

Truth Is, No Millennials Have Tried McDonald's Original French Fries

  • They called their beef tallow blend Formula 47
    • For years, the fry fat was known as "Formula 47," and it's what gave McDonald's fries its signature crispy exterior, fluffy interior, and rich, unbeatable flavor.
  • One millionaire got a heart attack and wanted to take McDonald’s down
    • However, one American by the name of Phil Sokolof spent roughly $14 million campaigning against saturated foods, like McDonald's french fries. Having survived a heart attack, he made it his life's mission to influence major food companies to remove saturated fats from popular foods. He paid for big billboards in Times Square to Super Bowl ad spots, threatening companies with more highly positioned ads unless they swiftly removed saturated fats from the foods. Sokolof's efforts reached millions, and he eventually targeted McDonald's.
  • They started frying in only veg oil, but the texture suffered
    • Due to the public pressure, McDonald's eventually complied in 1990 and began frying its potatoes for the first time ever in vegetable oil (a mix of canola, corn, and soybean). Little did McDonald's (or the rest of the world) know the unpleasant side effects that would incur. First of all, the taste and texture suffered. Malcolm Gladwell isn't the only American who recalls trying the new fries and immediately feeling disappointment and (dare I add) grief that he would never be able to enjoy the "World's Famous Fries" ever again. The heat of the fryers mixed with the oil spews a mist that coats the entire restaurant (so that's why McDonald's chairs and tables are always sticky), plus the overalls worn by fry workers, if stacked on top of one another, have been known to spontaneously combust! And we haven't even gone into the health concerns — I recommend listening to the full episode for more information on aldehydes.
  • Beef tallow fries were better
    • Curious to see how today's millennials would respond to the old fries compared to the new ones, Malcolm went to a Mattson Food Lab, where he had some of America's top food scientists re-create both batches of fries for blind tasting. The results were unanimous. Everyone, including the Mattson scientists, Malcolm, and the millennials loved the OG beef tallow fries. McDonald's, please bring these sublime fries back!
  • How to make beef tallow fries
    • Even if it's not going to happen in this lifetime, you can try making a similar version at home. Mattson scientists fried peeled russet potato matchsticks in beef tallow heated to 350° to 360°F for roughly three minutes. French fry heaven ensues.

 

The Trouble with Fries

  • Ray Croc discovered McDonald’s hamburger stand and wanted to make it big
    • They were made from top-quality oblong Idaho russets, eight ounces apiece, deep-fried to a golden brown, and salted with a shaker that, as he put it, kept going like a Salvation Army girl’s tambourine. They were crispy on the outside and buttery soft on the inside, and that day Kroc had a vision of a chain of restaurants, just like the one in San Bernardino, selling golden fries from one end of the country to the other. He asked the two brothers who owned the hamburger stand if he could buy their franchise rights. They said yes. Their names were Mac and Dick McDonald.
  • Ray Croc was a master of industrializing fast food
    • Ray Kroc was the great visionary of American fast food, the one who brought the lessons of the manufacturing world to the restaurant business. Before the fifties, it was impossible, in most American towns, to buy fries of consistent quality. Ray Kroc was the man who changed that. "The french fry," he once wrote, "would become almost sacrosanct for me, its preparation a ritual to be followed religiously." A potato that has too great a percentage of water—and potatoes, even the standard Idaho russet burbank, vary widely in their water content—will come out soggy at the end of the frying process.
  • Ray Croc was an expert in potato science, and how to make the perfect fry
    • It was Kroc, back in the fifties, who sent out field men, armed with hydrometers, to make sure that all his suppliers were producing potatoes in the optimal solids range of twenty to twenty-three per cent. Freshly harvested potatoes, furthermore, are rich in sugars, and if you slice them up and deep-fry them the sugars will caramelize and brown the outside of the fry long before the inside is cooked. To make a crisp French fry, a potato has to be stored at a warm temperature for several weeks in order to convert those sugars to starch. Here Kroc led the way as well, mastering the art of "curing" potatoes by storing them under a giant fan in the basement of his first restaurant, outside Chicago.
  • Ray Croc made a french fry computer to time the cooking
    • Perhaps his most enduring achievement, though, was the so-called potato computer—developed for McDonald’s by a former electrical engineer for Motorola named Louis Martino—which precisely calibrated the optimal cooking time for a batch of fries. (The key: when a batch of cold raw potatoes is dumped into a vat of cooking oil, the temperature of the fat will drop and then slowly rise. Once the oil has risen three degrees, the fries are ready.) Previously, making high-quality French fries had been an art. The potato computer, the hydrometer, and the curing bins made it a science. By the time Kroc was finished, he had figured out how to turn potatoes into an inexpensive snack that would always be hot, salty, flavorful, and crisp, no matter where or when you bought it.
  • McDonalds fries are briefly dipped in sugar to make them crispier
    • ast-food French fries are made from a baking potato like an Idaho russet, or any other variety that is mealy, or starchy, rather than waxy. The potatoes are harvested, cured, washed, peeled, sliced, and then blanched—cooked enough so that the insides have a fluffy texture but not so much that the fry gets soft and breaks. Blanching is followed by drying, and drying by a thirty-second deep fry, to give the potatoes a crisp shell. Then the fries are frozen until the moment of service, when they are deep-fried again, this time for somewhere around three minutes. Depending on the fast-food chain involved, there are other steps interspersed in this process. McDonald’s fries, for example, are briefly dipped in a sugar solution, which gives them their golden-brown color; Burger King fries are dipped in a starch batter, which is what gives those fries their distinctive hard shell and audible crunch. But the result is similar. The potato that is first harvested in the field is roughly eighty per cent water. The process of creating a French fry consists, essentially, of removing as much of that water as possible—through blanching, drying, and deep-frying—and replacing it with fat.
  • Why deep frying makes crispiest fry
    • But when a potato is deep-fried the heat of the oil turns the water inside the potato into steam, which causes the hard granules of starch inside the potato to swell and soften: that’s why the inside of the fry is fluffy and light. At the same time, the outward migration of the steam limits the amount of oil that seeps into the interior, preventing the fry from getting greasy and concentrating the oil on the surface, where it turns the outer layer of the potato brown and crisp. "What we have with the french fry," Rozin writes, "is a near perfect enactment of the enriching of a starch food with oil or fat."
  • Ray Croc had the idea to fry in tallow
    • The average American now eats a staggering thirty pounds of French fries a year, up from four pounds when Ray Kroc was first figuring out how to mass-produce a crisp fry. Meanwhile, fries themselves have become less healthful. Ray Kroc, in the early days of McDonald’s, was a fan of a hot-dog stand on the North Side of Chicago called Sam’s, which used what was then called the Chicago method of cooking fries. Sam’s cooked its fries in animal fat, and Kroc followed suit, prescribing for his franchises a specially formulated beef tallow called Formula 47 (in reference to the forty-seven-cent McDonald’s "All-American meal" of the era: fifteen-cent hamburger, twelve-cent fries, twenty-cent shake)
  • They switched to vegetable oil, but there were trans fats which are dangerous
    • That wasn’t an improvement, however. In the course of making vegetable oil suitable for deep frying, it is subjected to a chemical process called hydrogenation, which creates a new substance called a trans unsaturated fat. In the hierarchy of fats, polyunsaturated fats—the kind found in regular vegetable oils—are the good kind; they lower your cholesterol. Saturated fats are the bad kind. But trans fats are worse: they wreak havoc with the body’s ability to regulate cholesterol. 
    • According to a recent study involving some eighty thousand women, for every five-per-cent increase in the amount of saturated fats that a woman consumes, her risk of heart disease increases by seventeen per cent. But only a two-per-cent increase in trans fats will increase her heart-disease risk by ninety-three per cent. Walter Willett, an epidemiologist at Harvard—who helped design the study—estimates that the consumption of trans fats in the United States probably causes about thirty thousand premature deaths a year.

 

The Scientific Reason Why McDonald’s Fries Are So Good

  • McDonalds fries take you to the “bliss point”
    • Including one or two of those in a recipe makes it good, but having all three sends it over the top. The perfect equilibrium of these ingredients is known as the “bliss point.”
    • American market researcher and psychophysicist, Howard Moskowitz, stated that a “bliss point” is the point where the levels of saltiness, sweetness and richness are perceived as being just right. Within the food industry, this combination created a wave of craveable and addicting foods.
  • They use Russet burbank potatoes
    • The most common potatoes used for McDonald’s fries include the Russet Burbank, Russet Ranger, Umatilla Russet and the Shepody. These potatoes are known for being fluffy on the inside while still maintaining a crunch on the outside.
    • Their website states that “The suppliers we work with first peel, cut and blanche the potatoes. They then dry, partially fry and quickly freeze the fries for our restaurants. Once in our kitchens, we cook them in our canola-blend oil so you can have them crispy and hot—just the way you like them.”



This Is Why McDonald's Fries Are So Addictive

  • Ingredients in McDonald’s fries that make them addictive
    • Mickey D's fries are made of more than just Russet Burbank and Shepody potatoes—they also pack in vegetable oil (canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavor), dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate, and salt. And the culprit that's responsible for cultivating your addiction is the far-from-innocent natural beef flavor. McDonald's discloses that this savory addition is mostly made up of hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk.
    • While wheat and milk aren't bad ingredients (unless you have an intolerance), hydrolyzing them—in a process where heat and chemicals break down the foods and produce MSG, which achieves extra appetizing flavors—poses a threat to your tummy. Besides for weight gain and weird allergy-type reactions, MSG also increases appetite by inhibiting your brain from registering that you're satiated. In fact, one study found that giving laboratory rats MSG increased their food intake by an extra 40 percent!

 

Why McDonald's won fries

  • McDonalds used food science to win
    • 04:00: Curing the potato allows the outside to become more starchy, resulting in a crisp outside.
    • 04:20: The potato board recommended that Ray Croc blanch the fries quickly before frying.
  • The perfect potato
    • 05:50: McDonalds got more popular in the 60s. They needed the perfect potato, and chose the Russett burbank which was long and had the perfect starchiness.
    • 06:10: Russett burbanks were expensive to ship, hard to peel and hard to keep cool in the summer.
    • 06:20: They had to use the California white potato sometimes.
  • Introducing frozen fries
    • 06:50: Simplot pitched frozen fries. So they wouldn't have to ship huge amounts of potatoes to McDonalds restaurants. 
    • 07:35: They fried the fries before shipping.
    • 08:35: Simplot supplies the frozen fries now.

 

The Real Reason Why McDonald's Fries Taste So Delicious

  • Beef flavor
    • 01:10: The Beef flavor they use is technically still a meat product, vegans can't have it.
  • Sugar and salt make it addictive
    • 01:28: Sugar and salt are addictive, sugar is like a drug. Sugar can be as addicting as cocaine
    • 01:45: McDonalds coats fries in dextrose which is a form of sugar
    • 02:00: This balance of sugar and salt' causes an addiction response
  • Visually appealing
    • 02:15: The dextrose also makes the fries a perfect golden brown which makes them appetizing to us.
    • 02:25: They coat the fries in sodium acehyrophosphate which keeps the fries from turning grey after freezing and keeps them a pale yellow
    • 02:45: The fries are in a perfect shape, no more than a 1/4 inch. Perfect balance between golden crispy outside and fluffy inside. If it was thicker, it would be too soft.
    • 04:30: McDonalds fries become inedible after 5 minutes when they get cold.
  • MSG
    • 03:50: When the beef flavor is cooked, it creates MSG. Which interferes with the fullness mechanism in our brains.



What Is Dextrose? Why Is It in Food & Medicine? (What You Need to Know)

  • Dextrose found in corn syrup
    • Dextrose is a type of simple sugar that’s stored as starch in corn and found in high fructose corn syrup.
    • it is yet another simple sugar that’s often added to unhealthy, processed foods.
    • Because it contains dextrose, corn syrup is about three-quarters sweetener than sucrose sugar or beet sugar.
  • Dextrose spikes blood sugar instantly
    • Dextrose is water-soluble and dissolves quickly. This is one reason why it’s often used to raise blood sugar levels. While digestive enzymes are needed to break down sucrose, or table sugar, into single molecules, dextrose is ready to be absorbed immediately.
    • Dextrose is found in corn syrup, which is used to make processed and sweetened foods, including candies, baked goods, pastas, refined cereals and starchy foods. Just like glucose, fructose and galactose, it’s a simple sugar and used in many food products — many of which aren’t so good for your health.
  • Made from gmo corn
    • You may experience adverse reactions to foods containing this simple sugar if you are allergic to corn. Dextrose is produced from corn and is present in corn syrup, which is used to make many processed and sweetened foods. If you fear that you have a corn allergy and may be experiencing food allergy symptoms, avoid all foods containing the simple sugar until you consult your health care professional.

 

This Is the Secret Ingredient Behind the Addictive Flavor of McDonald’s Fries

  • McDonalds fries ingredients
    • Who hasn’t been curious about McDonald’s fries ingredients? According to McDonald’s, their signature fries are made with 10 ingredients:
  • Potatoes
  • Vegetable oil
  • Canola oil
  • Corn oil
  • Soybean oil
  • Hydrogenated soybean oil
  • Natural beef flavor (which contains wheat and milk derivatives)
  • Dextrose
  • Sodium acid pyrophosphate
  • Salt
  • natural beef flavor
    • McDonald’s wanted to keep its signature beefy flavor but without the beef fat itself, so it came up with a solution. Now the fast-food chain adds “natural beef flavor” to its vegetable oil to give its fries their irresistibly meaty taste.
    • In the United States, McDonald’s french fries are not vegan, because the natural beef flavor is made with milk derivatives. However, if you’re across the pond in the United Kingdom, the fries (or “chips” as they’re called in the UK) are vegan since they’re not made with that beef flavor or coated in any animal substances

 

Beef Tallow: Why It Should Be a Kitchen Staple

  • Beef tallow is the original fat
    • Long before olive oil, canola oil, or even coconut oil were in vogue, beef tallow was one of the first choices of cooks everywhere. 
    • What is beef tallow? It is simply rendered or heat-processed beef fat. 
    • The rendering process entails gently cooking and liquifying raw beef fat. Once liquified, it’s allowed to cool and harden.  This makes it shelf-stable, just like butter or coconut oil!
    • The highest-quality tallow comes from the fat around the kidneys. Also called suet or leaf fat, this fat is one of the most nutritious fats in the whole animal. However, any type of beef fat can be rendered and turned into tallow
    • Our ancestors viewed tallow as a critical piece of the nutritional puzzle. They ate it liberally and were sure to preferentially give tallow to the young, the old, and the child-bearing. If only on an observational level, these cultures recognized that tallow was great for fertility, longevity, and skin/teeth health. 
    • Beef tallow’s popularity persisted until Ancel Keys and his diet-heart hypothesis frightened people away from saturated fat in the 1950s. [2] Flip open any cookbook from the 1800s or 1900s and you’ll see many recipes that feature liberal amounts of tallow. Tallow was also loved by chefs; its high 400°+ F smoke point means it can be used for both baking and frying. 
  • Rich in fatty acids
    • Beef tallow is rich in a wide variety of healthy fatty acids. These include monounsaturated fatty acids like palmitoleic acid, saturated fatty acids like palmitic acid and stearic acid, and natural trans fats like conjugated linoleic acid. 
    • It’s also great for your skin and hair. Omega 7’s like palmitoleic acid may counter the oxidative damage that occurs when your skin gets too much sun. Studies show that palmitoleic acid may also boost collagen and elastin production, in the process keeping you looking — and feeling — young.
  • Rich in vitamins
    • The fat found in tallow is home to all sorts of beneficial nutrients, including vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin K, and vitamin E and, more.
    • The fat you eat does not become the fat you wear — at least not on a ketogenic or carnivore diet. As long as your blood sugar and insulin stay relatively low, your body should be able to stay in fat-burning mode with ease. [16]  
  • Good for skin
    • Many people find that their complexion automatically improves when they up their consumption of tallow or other fatty animal products. And if you want to boost your skincare game, even more, you can also apply tallow directly onto your skin.
    • Tallow’s fatty acid profile — including the palmitoleic, palmitic, and stearic acids mentioned earlier — closely matches the makeup of our skin’s sebum oil. It’s no surprise that the word “sebum” means tallow in Latin

 

The Psychology Behind Fast Food Colors: Do Yellow and Red Really Stimulate Hunger?

  • Red and yellow make you hungry
    • Red and yellow are often associated with warmth, comfort, and food, making them ideal for the fast food industry. Red is a stimulating color that raises the heart rate and blood pressure, creating a sense of urgency. This is why it’s often used in clearance sales and emergency signs. In the context of food, red is associated with meat and ripe fruits, which can stimulate the appetite.
    • Yellow, on the other hand, is a cheerful color that’s associated with happiness and optimism. It’s also the most visible color in the spectrum, making it great for grabbing attention. When it comes to food, yellow is associated with carbohydrates like bread and pasta, which can also stimulate hunger.
    • Fast food chains strategically use red and yellow in their logos, interiors, and packaging to stimulate hunger and attract customers. The combination of red’s urgency and yellow’s cheerfulness creates a welcoming and enticing environment that encourages customers to eat quickly and leave, making room for more customers.
    • While the colors red and yellow can stimulate hunger and attract customers, it’s important to note that other factors like branding, food quality, and customer service also play a crucial role in the success of fast food chains. However, the strategic use of color psychology in their logos and decor is undoubtedly a key ingredient in their recipe for success.



Psychologist Explains Reason Behind McDonald’s Famous Red And Yellow Logo

  • Yellow makes you happy
    • “Looking at the positive psychology qualities of red and yellow in relation to the fast food industry, red triggers stimulation, appetite, hunger, it attracts attention. Yellow triggers the feelings of happiness and friendliness,” Haller said. “When you combine red and yellow it’s about speed, quickness. In, eat and out again.”

 

Former MythBuster goes on McDonald's french fry fact-finding hunt

  • Soybean oil with preservatives
    • The list not only includes the potatoes themselves, plus various oils, dextrose and sodium acid pyrophosphate, but also natural beef flavor, hydrolyzed wheat, hydrolyzed milk, citric acid, salt and hydrogenated soybean oil with the antioxidant TBHQ, which "preserves the freshness of the oil."
    • The longest word on the ingredient list is dimethylpolysiloxane, an anti-foaming agent. "It helps keep the oil from splattering," Imahara says in the video. "It's approved for use in a number of many other very familiar foods."



This Is How McDonald's French Fries Are Really Made

  • McDonalds goes through 9 million fries a day
    • McDonald's goes through close to 9 million pounds of french fries around the globe each day, so there must be something worth coming back to.
  • Burbank potato
    • According to McDonald's, their world famous fries start with Russet Burbank or Shepody potatoes, grown from U.S. farms. Russet Burbanks, grown mostly in the Pacific Northwest, are ideal for frying and baking, making them the perfect fit for those golden fries. 
    • The potatoes McDonald's uses are so ideal for their infamous fries that they weren't willing to stray from them a few years ago and move to another option. According to the Capital Press, J.R. Simplot engineered the "Innate" potato, offering a potato that would bruise less and produce less of a potentially cancer-causing compound when fried than conventional potatoes. But as of 2014, McDonald's had no intention of switching to the GMO product. "McDonald's USA does not source GMO potatoes nor do we have current plans to change our sourcing practice," a company spokesperson told the Capital Press. Long live the real potato!
  • How they cut the fries
    • McDonald's serves up a very specific shape of fry, and that comes from the way the potatoes are cut. According to CNET, the potato-cutting machine looks like a giant wood chipper, shooting potatoes into high pressure water knives at 60-70 miles per hour. 
    • One McDonald's factory employee on Reddit went even further to describe the machine's incredible strength, making it sound like some sort of water park attraction gone bad. "Somebody stepped in a water waste flume once and got sucked under and almost drowned. Somebody passing by had to pull him out," he said. "This wasn't a flume where fries go, but it still has water moving about the same speed... For the flumes that carry product, just imagine a few hundred pounds of fries every minute going by at lightning speed."
  • Chemical bath
    • If you look closely at McDonald's ingredient list for their fries, you'll notice quite a few hard-to-pronounce ingredients. Two of those ingredients, dextrose and sodium acid pyrophosphate, are added at the factory, essentially giving the cut potatoes a nice chemical bath
    • According to Heathline, dextrose is a simple sugar made from corn, which is often used as a sweetener and can typically be found in processed foods and corn syrup. Medically, it can be used to increase a person's blood sugar. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, sodium acid pyrophosphate actually reduces the levels of acrylamide, a carcinogen present when potatoes are fried, so there might be some chemical additions we should be applauding. 
  • Partial fry
    • Once the fries are cut and bathed, they're partially fried at the factory to speed up the cooking process later on once they arrive in stores. According to one McDonald's Factory employee's AMA on Reddit, the processing is all part of setting the store up for success. "Uncooked food is harder to manage bacteria growth... It's also easier if the restaurants can just reheat than actually cook," he said. It's faster for them."
    • According to CNBC, the fries are fried in the factory and then travel about 50 yards through a flash-freezer tunnel to complete the process, which is crucial for their uniform appearance and storage. 
  • Beef flavor
    • One of the most unique ingredients you'll see listed in McDonald's french fries ingredients is their "natural beef flavor." Yes, you read that correctly. Natural beef flavor. And we owe it to that added beef flavor for not being able to put those beautiful french fries down. 
    • Today, McDonald's continues to mimic that flavor by incorporating their natural beef flavor containing hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk. According to Reader's Digest, the flavoring is added to the frying oil to maintain the same beefy taste we've all come to know and love, making it safe for vegetarians, but not vegans. 
  • Frozen fries
    • When McDonald's released their story on how their fries were made, a production planner for a Simplot Factory, Koko Neher, walked us through the process, but the McDonald's and Simplot manufacturing relationship goes way further back than that. In the 1940s, Simplot created and marketed the first commercially frozen french fries and soon became the exclusive supplier of fries to McDonald's — a relationship that, according to Simplot, continues to this day.  
    • According to Simplot's operations information, they operate potato processing plants in four U.S. cities, with three stating "The products are sold throughout the U.S. and to international customers, including regional and national quick-service restaurant chains and retail and full-line distribution companies." One can only presume the quick-service chain they're referring to is their partner Mickey D's. 
  • How the fries are delivered to restaurants
    • According to Simplot's operations information, they operate potato processing plants in four U.S. cities, with three stating "The products are sold throughout the U.S. and to international customers, including regional and national quick-service restaurant chains and retail and full-line distribution companies." One can only presume the quick-service chain they're referring to is their partner Mickey D's. 
    • Like most corporate restaurants, McDonald's employs logistics and trucking companies to deliver the food to their restaurants. One distribution center in Lebanon, Illinois, owned by Golden State Foods, services 350 stores through five states. Over all, Golden State Foods services 25,000 stores in 50 countries, and it's only one of the companies paired up with McDonald's playing a role in getting their fries to your local store. 
  • Fried again at the restaurant
    • Once the boxes of McDonald's fries finally make their way to their destination, they're stored frozen until use. During service, especially during busy times, fries are made pretty much consistently. When it's time to put a fry basket down, the fries are actually designed to cook within three minutes, all thanks to the preparation beforehand in the factory. According to a McDonald's Factory employee's AMA on Reddit, the fries are actually "cooked at the factory. McDonald's basically reheats them." 
  • Now they fry in trans-fat free oil
    • At one time, McDonald's used a partially hydrogenated oil for their fries, until they completely switched over in 2008, eliminating trans fats. But the company had thought about making the switch long before 2008. According to Cargil, they spent seven years on the hunt for a replacement, testing 18 different types of oils. After years of testing, the companies ultimately decided on Clear Valley high oleic canola oil, which allowed McDonald's to fry in an oil with no trans fats and the lowest saturated fat content of any of the vegetable oils.
  • They add silicone to the fries
    • In 2015, when McDonald's divulged the long list of ingredients that go into making their fries, dimethylpolysiloxane was on the list. The chemical compound is not listed on the U.S. Mcdonald's ingredients list for their fries, but it is certainly present on the Canadian site. 
    • If you want to get technical, and look at why it may not be included on the ingredient list, it's because it doesn't actually go into the fries. It's used in the cooking process. Dimethylpolysiloxane is a polymer of silcone, and according to McDonald's,it plays a huge role in their fry cooking, as it's present in their oil to prevent it from foaming and boiling over. And while it's great for preventing crew member burns, research has also found that it's the same chemical that has the potential to regrow hair. Talk about a double-whammy! 
  • Add salt
    • In answering one of their FAQs on the McDonald's UK website asking about why McDonald's fries have so much salt on them, Mcdonald's responded by explaining, "Extensive research has shown that the majority of McDonald's consumers prefer a light sprinkling of salt on their french fries. A typical serving of a small portion of french fries contains 0.5 grams of salt."
    • With that standard, that puts a small order of fries serving up to 160 milligrams of sodium and large with 350 milligrams of sodium.
  • They pinch the carton so it doesn’t get full
    • "I worked at McDonald's and they taught me how to pinch the fry carton just right while putting the fries into them so that it looks full, but actually wasn't," he said. "I only had one customer called me out on it. He shook the fries out into his bag and poured them back into the fry carton himself and it only filled up halfway,"

Jake Tran

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I make documentaries on money, power, and crime.

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