Admit it; there’s nothing more delicious than a portion of hot and salty McDonald’s fries - especially when you’re feeling a little worse for wear.
But does McDonald’s use real potatoes? And why do the fries always taste so good?
There are a LOT of questions, essentially, so Mythbusters host Grant Imahara decided to head behind-the-scenes at McDonald’s and find out the truth about their fries.
And it turns out that there is a LOT of different ingredients in them.
Although (good news for dairy-free folk!), they are suitable for vegans - winner.
Check it out:
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Potatoes (phew!)
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Sodium acid pyrophosphate: This ingredient is apparently used to maintain the colour of the fries. However, on the chemical industry’s own safety data sheets it is listed as hazardous for ingestion, which is exactly what you’ll be doing if you eat those French fries.
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Dextrose: A type of sugar
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Canola oil
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Soybean oil
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Hydrogenated soybean oil
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Safflower oil
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"Natural flavour”: Obtained from a mysterious vegetable source
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Citric acid
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Dimethylpolysiloxane: Used as an anti-foaming agent to “keep the oil from splattering," this industrial chemical is used twice
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Vegetable oil
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TBHQ: A petroleum-based ingredient used as a preservative. According to a number of sites, it has been linked to asthma, skin conditions, hormone disruption, and in long-term animal studies to cancer and damage to DNA.
Yummy!
What do you think? Does knowing the ingredients make you more or less likely to eat fries from McDonald's?
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