Where's The Beef? It's In Your French Fries!!!

In 1990, in order to eliminate cholesterol in their french fries and hash browns, McDonald's stopped frying their potato products in beef tallow. In the United States, McDonald's fries are now cooked in pure vegetable oil BUT these fries are still not suitable for vegetarians because they contain beef flavoring. 

The McDonald’s website lists the following ingredients for their french fries: "Potatoes, vegetable oil (canola oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavor [wheat and milk derivatives]*), citric acid (preservative), dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate (maintain color), salt. Prepared in vegetable oil ((may contain one of the following: Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness), dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent). *CONTAINS: WHEAT AND MILK (Natural beef flavor contains hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk as starting ingredients)."

While McDonald's french fries are not cooked in beef fat anymore, they do contain a small amount of beef flavoring. Before being delivered to individual restaurants, the french fry suppliers wash, steam-peel, cut, blanch, dry, par-fry and then freeze the potatoes. Apparently, it is during the par-frying process that beef flavor is added. Before being served, the frozen fries are later cooked in pure vegetable oil. (In countries such as India and Fiji, with large populations of people who are vegetarian for religious reasons, McDonald's suppliers do not add beef extract to the fries). 

Why would McDonald's add beef flavoring to french fried potatoes and hash browns? Well, the taste of any fried food is largely determined by the cooking oil and for years McDonald's had cooked its french fries in a mixture of about 93% beef tallow and 7% cottonseed oil. This mixture gave their fries a distinct flavor that the world had come to crave. When McDonald's changed to 100% vegetable oil the taste of their fries was altered and, in order to maintain the original flavor, a small amount of beef flavoring was added.

French fries are probably on the top ten list of the unhealthiest "foods" that you can put into a human body, but if you have to have your fry fix, stick to Burger King and Wendy's who do not use beef products in their fries.