When my son was much younger, we paid a very occasional visit to McDonald's for a 'Happy Meal'. He loved the toy and crispy french fries. So, today when I read a report by Amy Willis for Metro.co.uk confirming that real potatoes are used, it was a reality check. I mean, why wouldn't they use real potatoes? But it’s not all good news, especially for US consumers:
'Food mythbuster Grant Imahara was allowed access to McDonald’s’ french fry processing plant in Idaho to see the production process himself. It has been reported that 14 chemicals are also thrown into the mix, one of which is petrol-based (tertiary butylhydroquinone) and another is a silicone used in silly putty (dimethylpolysiloxane).
The fries are created from a mix of Russet Burbank, Ranger Russet, Umatilla Russet and Shepody potatoes then are peeled cut and blanched before being fired through a cutting ‘cannon’ at 70mph. The batons then pass through a bath of sauces, which is a blend of canola oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavor, hydrolysed wheat, hydrolysed milk, citric acid and dimethylpolysiloxane. Dimethylpolysiloxane, which the television personality assured viewers is perfectly harmless, is used for safety reasons to stop cooking fat foaming when the fires are cooked.
The natural sugar dextrose is then sprayed on the potato sticks to ensure they maintain a gold color and sodium acid pyrophosphate is added to stop them turning grey. After the sticks are fried in the factory, salt is added. The fries are then flash frozen and shipped off to McDonald’s restaurants where they are fried again before serving. Tertiary butylhydroquinone is included in the cooking oil as a food preservative.
- 510 calories
- 6 grams of protein
- 24 grams of fat
- 67 grams of carbohydrate
- 290 milligrams of sodium
McDonald’s in the UK have been in touch with the Metro to assure readers these chemicals are only used in US stores. A McDonald’s Spokesperson said: ‘The only ingredients in our UK Fries are Potatoes, Vegetable Oil (Sunflower, Rapeseed), Dextrose (only added at beginning of the potato season) with nothing added except a sprinkling of salt after cooking. Customers can also request that their Fries be served without salt.’
So the million dollar question is why are 19 different ingredients in US McDonald's french fries as apposed to 4 ingredients in the UK McDonald's french fries?
Watch the video here: http://youtu.be/x6RBtx4JU3c
Image: MythBusters co-host Grant Imahara