Would You Like Some Petroleum With Your McFries? Ingredients in McDonald’s Fries Revealed!

If you’re a healthy plant-based eater, you probably don’t eat McDonald’s fries, (or at least you tell people you don’t!). One can imagine that McDonald’s has to go through quite the process just go to produce all the fries that they do. You’ve probably heard that everything goes into the fries from puddy to petroleum, and many people aren’t even sure if they come from real potatoes or not. With such a massive production of America’s favorite fries, McDonald’s does have to include ingredients that produce those same “exact” fries that you get every single time you go. Think about it – have you ever considered just how they do this? How do you get the perfect fries over and over again, that never change?

Recently, a former engineer that quit eating McDonald’s fries decided to deconstruct the fry and see just how the evolutionary culinary fast food item was made. Surprisingly, not only are real potatoes used, but also dextrose (a.k.a.) sugar, as well as petroluem-based solvents during the production process. They “pre-fry” the fries that that they maintain that crisp texture when restaurants final fry them. Other preservatives are also used to make sure they’re not soggy and taste bland (a.k.a. lots of sodium).

The thing that might shock you more than anything? They actually are really cut with a huge knife, in one massive cannon that slices all the potatoes. Oh and the potatoes? They’re not GMO-filled if you’ve ever wondered.

So this sounds all great, right?  Wrong. 

During that process that sounds pretty simple, well, not so much. A total of 14 different ingredients are used in McDonald’s fries, including a petroleum-based solvent that’s a form of silicone! What else?

The 14 different ingredients used in McDonald’s Fries are: potatoes, canola oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavor(???!!), hydrolyzed wheat, hydrolyzed milk, citric acid, dimethylpolysilozane (a form of silcone that produces Silly Putty!) dextrose, sodium acid phyrophosphate, salt, canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, TBHQ (a preservative), citric acid and….lastly… dimethylpolysilozane AGAIN.

During the two-step frying process, the same form of silicone used to make Silly Putty is in fact used in McDonald’s fries. Though the rest of the process may seem harmless, we believe the ingredient of a food list tells it all. As you can see with the beef flavoring, they’re not even vegan if you’re wondering.

Sweet potato fries anyone?