There Are More Ingredients In McDonald's French Fries Than You Might Expect

If there's one fast food restaurant synonymous with America, for better or worse, that'd have to be McDonalds. It's an understatement to say the golden arches are iconic. Since the first restaurant opened in 1940, the number of burgers sold is truly staggering, and no small amount of french fries pass through their doors each day either. According to Enterprise Apps, McDonalds sells roughly $9 million pounds of fries a day. The fries are, depending on who you ask, regarded as King among the fast food options. 

Though a seemingly simple side to a burger or sandwich, there's more to the fries' ingredient list than you might think. We have the expected ingredients of course, potatoes and oil, but several types of both are used, including a potato blend and a mix of canola, soy, and corn oil, plus hydrogenated soy oil. Then comes a laundry list of murkier, less recognizable ingredients; dextrose (a sugar), sodium acid pyrophosphate (a chemical commonly found in processed foods), salt, and the much discussed "natural beef flavor," which the website notes, "contains hydrolyzed wheat And hydrolyzed milk."

In total, it's a much longer ingredient list than if you were to make your own crispy fries at home –  with just potatoes, oil, and salt. McDonald's fries also have more ingredients than some other chains. Burger King's fries for example contain only one type of oil, none of the natural beef flavor, and no dextrose. Compare this to other chains like Five Guys, whose "Five Guys Style" fries are made with nothing more than potatoes, refined peanut oil, and salt, and the difference is even more striking.

Current ingredient list aside, die-hard foodies and fans already know, McDonald's fry recipe somewhat famously changed — and not for the better, some say — back in the early 1990s. Far from the only instance of a beloved recipe being changed for the worse, many fans lament that the new recipe just doesn't hit like the old one did when the fries were cooked in pure beef fat. Amidst pressure to be more health conscious, Mickey D's moved from this beef fat to the current blend of oils, which adds to their ingredient list length, and some say, ruined the once iconic, fatty flavor. If you weren't alive or old enough to have enjoyed the OG version, recipes for homemade dupes attempt to capture this original taste and texture. 

Another major change that added lines to the ingredient list and broke the hearts of gluten-free and vegan diners everywhere was the choice to include the "natural beef flavoring" – which contains both dairy and gluten. This blow to plant-based diners is made crueler by the fact that McDonald's fries are in fact totally vegan-friendly in Canada and the U.K. (though sadly still containing gluten), where the ingredient list is much shorter.

All ingredient talk aside, most regular folks and internet commenters agree — Mickey D's cranks out some of the most delicious fries one can get in a drive-thru. It seems their longer-than-typical ingredient list is working.