There Aren't As Many Ingredients In McDonald's Fries As You Might Think

Fast food restaurants are often criticized for the lengthy list of unpronounceable ingredients in the food. Some are obvious, while others may surprise you, but McDonald's french fries don't have as many ingredients as you may think. Obviously, Mickey D's lists potatoes as the first ingredient in its fries, which are the chain's best selling menu item. A vegetable oil blend is used to fry the potatoes and dextrose, a kind of sugar, is also part of the mix. Sodium acid pyrophosphate is also added to keep the potatoes from turning gray. Salt is listed as an ingredient — no surprise there, though it is optional — but there is one more addition to the relatively short list that may actually surprise you.

You might be interested to know that McDonald's french fries aren't vegan. In fact, they're not even vegetarian. One of the final ingredients used in making McDonald's iconic french fries is a beef flavoring that adds animal products as well as dairy and gluten to the potatoes. Vegans and vegetarians will have to travel to Australia, Canada or the United Kingdom if they want to eat animal product-free fries from McDonald's. The McDonald's plants based in those countries use plain vegetable oil. Thankfully, they aren't one of the countries where McDonald's is basically illegal.

When Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald's, the fries were cooked in 7% vegetable oil and 93% beef tallow (the fat rendered from a cow's kidney area). After many protests centering on the unwanted health effects of saturated animal fats, the recipe was changed. Unfortunately, the taste changed as well, so McDonald's added "natural beef flavor" in an attempt to mimic what customers loved about the original fries. There were rumors that McDonald's fries were coated with sugar to make them crave-ably sweet, but ingredient list debunks that rumor. Dextrose — the form of sugar used in the fries — is added to make them a more uniform color, not to add sweetness.

The french fries at other fast food chains have quite a few more ingredients than the ones at McDonald's. Burger King's fries have 11 ingredients, and Wendy's tops the competition with 12 ingredients in its fries. With all these mysterious ingredients, you may just want to perfect your french fry skills at home.