McDonald's french fries
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McDonald's french fries, marketed as World Famous Fries,[1] are a French fries product at the fast food restaurant McDonald's.
History
[edit]
Introduced in 1949, the French fries were cooked in a mixture of 93% beef tallow and 7% cottonseed oil.[2][3]
In the 1950s, CEO and founder Ray Kroc established quality control measures for McDonald's suppliers, ensuring potatoes maintained a solids content within the optimal range of twenty to twenty-three percent.[4] Kroc also pioneered the practice of "curing" the potatoes to convert sugars to starch, thus achieving consistently crisp French fries. This process involved storing potatoes at medium-high temperatures for several weeks.[4] Additionally, he introduced the "potato computer," developed by Louis Martino, to calculate the precise cooking time for fries, based on the fluctuation of oil temperature during frying.[4] Subsequently, in 1967, Kroc contracted the Simplot company to supply them with frozen fries, replacing fresh-cut potatoes.
In the late 1980s, Phil Sokolof, a millionaire businessman who had suffered a heart attack at the age of 43, took out full-page newspaper ads in New York, Chicago, and other large cities accusing McDonald's menu of being a threat to American health, and asking them to stop using beef tallow to cook their french fries.[5]
After this sustained campaign, including by the National Heart Savers Association against saturated fats and the beef tallow they were using,[6][7][8] in 1990, they switched to vegetable oil with beef flavouring.[9][2] McDonald's has not disclosed whether its beef flavouring contains meat, but it is known to contain milk byproducts.[10] In 2002, McDonald's paid US$10 million to settle lawsuits that accused the chain of mislabeling its French fries as vegetarian.[11]
The "thin style" French fries have been popularized worldwide in large part by McDonald's and, to a lesser extent, Burger King.[12]
In 2008, McDonald's ceased using trans fats in both US and Canadian markets.[9] In 2013, McDonald's Canada introduced poutine nationwide, after having it in Quebec for 10 years.[13]
Product
[edit]In the United States, McDonald's french fries are made using 19 ingredients, which include dextrose, TBHQ, polydimethylsiloxane, citric acid, and sodium acid pyrophosphate.[14][15] The restaurant uses non-GMO[16] russet and Shepody potatoes.
As of 2019, the french fries sold in Germany use a different recipe, with the ingredients being listed as potatoes, sunflower oil, rapeseed oil, salt, dextrose, disodium phosphate and polydimethylsiloxane.[17]
As for the manufacturing process, the potatoes are first brought to the plant, where they are mechanically cut, blanched, partially fried, flash-frozen, and then shipped to individual restaurants of the franchise.[16]
References
[edit]- ^ "World Famous Fries". McDonald's. Archived from the original on April 27, 2020. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
- ^ a b Schlosser, Eric (2001). Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of All-American Meal. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-97789-4
- ^ Grace, Francie (June 5, 2002). "McDonald's Settles Beef Over Fries". CBS News. Archived from the original on July 29, 2012. Retrieved May 4, 2011.
- ^ a b c "The Trouble With Fries". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on July 29, 2021. Retrieved April 28, 2024.
- ^ Dennis McLellan (April 16, 2004). "Phil Sokolof, 82; Used His Personal Fortune in Fight Against High-Fat Foods". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 21, 2017. Retrieved August 11, 2017.
- ^ "The Original McDonald's French Fry". Atlas Obscura. Archived from the original on August 15, 2020. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
- ^ Roberts, Anna Monette (October 30, 2017). "Truth Is, No Millennials Have Tried McDonald's Original French Fries". POPSUGAR Food. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
- ^ Saxon, Wolfgang (April 17, 2004). "Phil Sokolof, 82, a Crusader Against Cholesterol, Is Dead". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 9, 2022. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
- ^ a b "McDonald's world famous fries: Here's how they evolved in the past 50 years". Archived from the original on December 24, 2023. Retrieved April 28, 2024.
- ^ Foreman, Polly (April 19, 2023). "Are McDonald's Fries Vegan?". Plant Based News.
- ^ "McDonald's to beef up in India with meatless menu". CBS News. September 5, 2012.
- ^ "Popularization". today.com. April 21, 2011. Archived from the original on October 30, 2020. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
- ^ "McDonald's poutine hitting menus across Canada". Archived from the original on November 30, 2023. Retrieved April 28, 2024.
- ^ "There are 19 Ingredients in Your McDonald's French Fries!". NDTV Food. Archived from the original on May 5, 2020. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
- ^ Heasman, Chris (May 31, 2017). "What's really in McDonald's french fries". Mashed.com. Archived from the original on April 1, 2020. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
- ^ a b "McDonald's Reveals Exactly How Your Beloved Fries Are Made". ABC News. Archived from the original on May 24, 2020. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
- ^ "McDonald's Standardprodukte: Zutaten, Inhaltsstoffe und Allergene" [McDonald's standard products: Ingredients, ingredients and allergens] (PDF) (in German). McDonalds Germany. Retrieved August 2, 2024.