Does Mcdonalds Put Sugar On Their Fries

McDonald's Reveals Exactly How Your Honey Fries Are Made

Here's what a nutritionist thinks of the procedure.

— -- Ah, McDonald'southward French fries. It's hard to find someone who doesn't similar the American classic, regardless of their thoughts on the fast food chain.

It's e'er been a bit hazy, though, how exactly McDonald'southward makes their addictive tater sticks -- until now. McDonald'due south released the above video detailing the procedure, which we've broken down for you beneath, along with registered dietician Georgie Fright's take on the ingredients.

Step 1: Pare, Cutting and Blanch

The fast nutrient chain uses non-GMO potatoes, including shepody, ranger russet, Umatilla russet and russet Burbank varieties. Once arrived at the plant, the potatoes are peeled and forced through a cutter at 65 MPH to make uniform fries. They're then briefly immersed in hot water to remove excess natural sugars for color reasons. According to McDonald's, blanching also eliminates enzymatic activeness which prevents spoilage and develops a fluffy interior, similar to a baked potato, for ameliorate texture.

Stride 2: Dip in "Ingredient Bathroom"

This is the nigh unnatural step of the process. The now-cut and fair-skinned fries are dipped in an "ingredient bath" which consists of dextrose and sodium acid pyrophosphate. The dextrose, a natural form of sugar, is to help attain a uniform golden color and the sodium acid pyrophosphate prevents the potatoes from turning grayish subsequently they are cooked, according to McDonald's.

Fear said these ingredients are of no health business organization. "Dextrose is simply a saccharide that occurs naturally in our blood," the writer of "Lean Diet" told ABC News. "Every bit for the sodium acid pyrophosphate, when potatoes are cut and and so exposed to air, they turn a light-green, greyish-brownish color which isn't very highly-seasoned to the end consumer. This chemical keeps them nice and white-looking. To my knowledge there is no data of whatsoever health concerns from sodium acid pyrophosphate."

Pace iii: Dry & Quick Fry

Side by side, the fries are dried and partially fried to ensure a crisp exterior. McDonald'southward not only chips the potatoes in a mix of oils – canola, soybean and hydrogenated soybean – merely also adds natural beef season derived from beefiness fat that contains wheat and milk derivatives for flavor, citric acid for preservation and dimethylpolysiloxane to reduce oil foaming and extend the quality of the oil life, according to McDonald's.

The only matter to note about the beef fat for Fear is that it makes the French fries no long vegetarian, and for those with wheat or milk allergies, the fries could trigger reactions.

"Wheat is often used for non-clumping. I practise not know McDonald'due south' process at all but my expectation would be that the wheat and milk derivatives are added to the flavoring to brand it a usable powder," Fearfulness said. "Citric acrid is completely benign institute in fruit. I oasis't heard of dimethylpolysiloxane, but since I work in the wellness field I would probably have heard of information technology if it were a wellness business organization."

Pace 4: Wink Freeze

The fries are then flash frozen, which is how they go far at the restaurants.

Pace 5: Ship & Cook in Restaurants

When y'all're ready to society, the restaurants cook the fries for a 3rd fourth dimension, frying them in more oil. This time, it'due south a vegetable oil blend of canola, corn, soybean and hydrogenated soybean oils. At that place's also TBHQ, an antioxidant that extends the shelf-life of the oil and acts every bit a preservative for the oil, citric acid for freshness and more than dimethylpolysiloxane to assist reduce oil spattering, according to McDonald's.

"TBHQ is an antioxidant that prevents oil from going rancid," Fearfulness explained. "The Food & Drug Administration as well every bit the European Nutrient Rubber Administration take both determined it to exist safe in quantities under .02%, then as long as McDonald's is not adding it higher up the legal limit, there should exist no concerns."

Finally, the chain adds salt after the fries are cooked, though you can request unsalted.

Out of the 19 ingredients in the French fries, surprisingly only ane is of business organization to Fearfulness.

"For the consumers, they encounter this long list of more than ten ingredients and many of them look like big, long, alien chemicals. However to a nutritionist with expertise in biochemistry, the 1 that makes me not eat McDonald's French chips is hydrogenated oil," Fear said. "Hydrogenated oils are a source of trans fatty, which is shown to be negative for human wellness in many ways."

Hydrogenated fat is often present in solid shortening, vegetable shortening and some margarine. Liquid canola and vegetables oils do not contain information technology.