How Urban “McMyths” Get Started

Have you ever wondered how all those Urban Myths about McDonald’s get started?

Look no further as I am a culprit.  I admit it. 

While cleaning out my car, yes I need to clean it out frequently or face the smell of rotting food later, I found some French fries, McDonald’s French fries. What so strange about that? Well they were as hard as a ROCK. 

 
I have cleaned many French fries off the floor of my car but only McDonald’s French fries get to be almost petrified. All other fries end up going soggy not hard!? Hmm? Was it just because they were in my car? I decided to do a little investigative research. I let some fries stand out the next time we had McDonald’s and guess what? You betcha, those fries were hard once they got cold. Out of curiosity, I decided to ask a friend if they noticed this about McDs fries and yes, she agreed. Then I asked another friend and she also realized that it was true.

I unfortunately started a frenzied panic attack among my McDs fry loving friends, oops.

Why were these fries hard? What do they do to them? Obviously, there is something not natural here and so the domino effect of the French Fry Urban Myth transpired amongst my friends.  Unfortunately, this became fuel for all the anti-McDonald’s individuals to continue their hate on for anything McDonald’s. Thus, supposedly proving to all of us moms, letting our children eat McDonald’s was basically a form of child abuse. Seriously, some individuals became this dramatic about it.

Then I visited the McCain fry facility. Real Potatoes. Nothing Added. Nothing Strange Happened to my Fries.

So I asked and they answered.

 
McDonald’s fries are crisp on the outside with a ‘baked’ potato interior. Part of that crispiness is due to the removal of the water and the high solids content of our fries after cooking.  McDonald’s fries are a ‘shoestring’ cut. Because they are thin, the ratio of exterior surface to interior is high. Thus there is minimal moisture left inside the fry to migrate to the exterior of the potato and make it go soggy.

 
So the other fries are much thicker, and have more water left inside after cooking. This water ends up moving to/migrating to the outside and making the fry soggy.
 
So basically this is like a piece of toast – if you toasted two slices of bread – one thicker than the other, the surface of the thicker slice would go soft faster than the thinner slice.

Wow, makes sense.

Really it is the lack of information and knowledge of how things are made that perpetrates the rumours and myths surrounding McDonald’s. My lack of knowledge led to the frenzy of concern within my circle of friends.  Silly isn’t it, we all have a tendency to overreact when we do not understand how things are made or work. Really it was just a simple, logical explanation that makes perfect sense.

Fry Myth Busted.

Case Closed.