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Top 10 Craziest McDonald’s Myths
McDonald’s has been around in some form since the 1940s and this famous fast-food chain has served billions. Along the way, some crazy McDonald’s myths have surfaced and these myths definitely need to be debunked. We’re here to expose the truth about these wild and wacky myths, many of which have become urban legends. Here are the Top 10 Craziest McDonald’s Myths.
10. McRib Sandwiches Contain Pink Slime
No one heads to a fast food joint because they’re craving pink slime! This is why McDonald’s execs want you to know that the popular McRib sandwich does not include notorious and disgusting pink slime. This myth has been around for a long time, but it’s just a tall tale. McDonald’s upper management has said that questions about the ingredients in the McRib are always coming in. People are incredibly curious about this sandwich and how it’s made. A scientist studied the McRib and found that its patty is made with water, pork and salt, plus a kind of sugar known as dextrose and some preservatives which keep the flavor intact. McRib patties are molded into their signature shape through a flash-freezing process. So, the patty is never crafted from off-putting pink slime. It’s made from ground pork. McNuggets aren’t made from pink slime, either. That’s another myth that we can debunk right now. As you can see, there’s no real reason to hate on the iconic McRib sandwich. It’s not made of some crazy mystery meat after all. To prepare the McRib, Mickey D’s team members cook the pork patties in panini presses. Then, they give them a liberal coating of BBQ sauce and present them on soft, fluffy buns. While it’s true that the buns contain a chemical that’s also used to produce yoga mats, this chemical is deemed food-safe. McDonald’s higher-ups report that the chemical compound used in McRib buns, which is called azodicarbonamide, is a different variant of the chemical utilized to make yoga mats.
9. You Can Walk Through The Drive-Thrus
If you’re out and about on foot and you want to mosey through a McDonald’s Drive-Thru, you are out of luck. There is a myth that it’s ok to do this, but it’s just a myth. In real life, customers aren’t allowed to do it because it’s a safety hazard. If a customer walking through a Drive-Thru gets hit by a car, that’s a worst-case scenario, and McDonald’s won’t let people walk through Drive-Thrus to eliminate the risk of accidents between drivers and pedestrians. Of course, a person on foot just needs to walk into McDonald’s and order at the counter. The Drive-Thrus is for drivers only. While walking through the Drive-Thru might sound like a fun idea, it’s not really necessary, is it? People don’t even need to go to McDonald’s any more to get the fast food that they crave, thanks to delivery services that bring burgers, fries and other Mickey D’s fare straight to their homes, or wherever they happen to be when they get the munchies. It’s a new era of fast food, but the Drive-Thrus will always be popular with people who get hungry while they’re on the road. McDonald’s is renowned for doing Drive-Thru transactions very quickly. In fact, the average transaction lasts just three minutes. Wendy’s is known for being even faster, although not much faster. Fast food chains know that time is money, so Drive-Thru service needs to happen fast.
8. Ray Koch Founded The Fast Food Chain
Ray Koch is commonly believed to be the founder of McDonald’s, but he took over later on, rather than getting the ball rolling. The guys who did get the ball rolling were Dick and Mac McDonald. Dick was short for Richard and Mac was short for Maurice. These two bros basically invented fast food, by creating the Mickey D’s franchise and putting together a speedy service system that made it easy for customers to get delicious food quickly. Both brothers are sadly no longer with us. They started out in the food biz by opening a hot dog stand in California. The stand was popular with young men because the men enjoyed chatting with cute lady carhops who delivered their orders. However, the brothers were canny enough to realize that speeding up service was the way of the future. They made plans for a new franchise that didn’t rely on carhop service. In 1948, they opened the first of the “no carhops” restaurants. People drove up to the restaurant and placed their orders inside. Food was delivered right at the counters. The restaurant served milkshakes, burgers and fries and it was a great success. It was called McDonald’s and the rest is history, with a lot of help later on from Ray Koch.
7. McDonald’s Food Doesn’t Go Bad
Some people honestly believe that McDonald’s menu items, such as Big Macs, will never spoil. Let us put your mind at ease by telling you that this simply isn’t true. The rumor started when people shared pics of McDonald’s burgers that were months or supposedly years old, with no apparent signs of spoilage. To debunk the myth, a food scientist explained that McDonald’s burgers are just like other foods. If the foods don’t come in contact with air or moisture that allows microbes to flourish, the burgers will look much the same as they did when they purchased, for a long time after they were purchased. If they are exposed to air and moisture that promote food spoilage, they’ll rot like any other foods. So, don’t eat old burgers that look fine. It just isn’t safe. There may be food spoilage going on under the surface, which you can’t see with your naked eye. Stick to fresh fast food. If you must consume McDonald’s leftovers, be sure that they are stored correctly, in a fridge, and eat them soon after you buy them, such as a day or two afterward. In other words, don’t treat uneaten McDonald’s food any different than other food. Follow the same rules when it comes to freshness. The well-preserved burgers shown off online, which didn’t rot, allegedly after months or years, may have been tightly wrapped and then frozen. None of us know how they were stored or if they were really as old as described.
6. 100% Beef Is Just A Name
On our quest to find the top 10 craziest McDonald’s myths, we come to one of the most famous myths to circulate over the years. A lot of people will have seen on the internet that McDonald’s doesn’t use 100% beef in their burger patties. In fact, those people think that McDonald’s doesn’t use real beef at all and they use various other animals and animal parts to create their burgers. Obviously, if they did do this then how can they get away with it? Especially when it comes to advertising? Many people think that the answer is a clever bit of wordplay and McDonald’s uses a company called 100% beef so they can say on their commercials that their product is 100% beef. Clever right? Well, it would be if it were true. McDonald’s has never used a meat company called 100% beef, or The All Beef Company, which was another rumored name. The fact is that McDonald’s meat is very well inspected by governing bodies and not only that, McDonald’s themselves have to print the ingredients of their patties by law. On their website, it clearly states their patties are made with 100% USDA inspected beef. There is now clever wordplay here, just the simple and straightforward facts.
5. The French Fries Are Vegan-Friendly
Delicious McDonald’s French Fries aren’t the right choice for vegans, although many people believe that these salty, golden-brown treats are made without any animal products. The truth is that the fries are made with natural beef flavor, which is derived from beef products. This means the fries aren’t exactly ideal for vegetarians, either. In 1990 and beforehand, McDonald’s actually made its fries by frying them in beef tallow. Today, vegetable oil is used instead, but there’s still the issue of seasoning, which does contain animal products. The current oils used to make these fries are corn, canola, and soybean. A blend of the oils is the secret recipe for great McDonald’s French Fries. The seasoning is another part of the secret. The oil was changed from beef tallow to a blend of vegetable oils for health reasons, but Mickey D’s needed to mimic the taste of the initial beef tallow recipe because that recipe got rave reviews. So, it added seasoning made from natural beef ingredients. This is why the fries aren’t good choices for vegetarians and vegans. Luckily, a lot of fast food joints do offer vegetarian-friendly and vegan-friendly items. There are other options out there but French fries that contain beef ingredients.
4. The Milkshakes Contain Pig Fat
When you enjoy a creamy-thick McDonald’s milkshake, such as a limited-time-only Shamrock Shake, do you assume that you’re ingesting pig fat, as well as other ingredients? Some people do, but they’re wrong. A lot of people who believe this myth actually avoid the milkshakes because they’re understandably grossed out by the pig fat thing, but they don’t have to miss out because McDonald’s milkshakes do not really contain pig’s fat. This rumor did get around. It got so much traction that McDonald’s in Australia went so far as to debunk the myth right in the nutritional information section of its website. Basically, McDonald’s provides full and complete nutritional information for everything on its menu and we aren’t just talking about McDonald’s Australia. We mean all McDonald’s everywhere on the planet. So, it’s not hard to find full lists of ingredients, and you’ll never see pig’s fat listed as a milkshake ingredient because there is zero pig’s fat in these creamy and sweet drinks. If you don’t believe us, look for yourself. The truth is out there and doesn’t take very long to find. If you’re worried about sugar and calories, the milkshakes might not be great choices, but not because of pig fat. People love to start negative and salacious rumors about restaurants. They are juicy rumors, but most of them just don’t stand up to proper fact-checking.
3. Mickey D’s Doesn’t Use Genuine Eggs
Some people believe that McDonald’s doesn’t use genuine eggs in its breakfast menu items, but they are under the wrong impression, There are genuine eggs in Egg McMuffins and other, similar breakfast items, such as Sausage McMuffins with Egg. This famous McDonald’s food myth probably cropped up because Mickey D uses a liquid mixture to make its scrambled eggs. The mixture definitely contains real eggs. Fast-food restaurants like McDonald’s have to serve a ton of menu items in no time flat. This means that the restaurants put a lot of thought into how to facilitate quick food preparation. The liquid mixture used to make the scrambled eggs speeds up food prep. It’s a practical way to get those eggs made each day. With other egg dishes, such as the Egg McMuffin, the eggs are cracked onsite and cooked. So, McDonald’s does use real eggs in dishes promoted as containing eggs. Now that you know the truth about eggs and McDonald’s, you’ll be able to order breakfast items without worrying about their ingredients. McDonald’s isn’t exactly secretive about what it puts in its menu items these days. There is full transparency. If real eggs weren’t used, McDonald’s would let the public know, but this just isn’t the case.
2. McDonald’s Food Is Healthier Nowadays
There are healthy items available at McDonald’s, but the reality is that most people who come to the fast-food chain’s locations don’t want the healthier items. They want burgers, fries, McNuggets, McFlurries and so on. People tend to come to fast-food joints for classic fast food and some fast food, from McDonald’s and similar restaurants, isn’t always the healthiest choice. Depending on what you order, it’s possible to take in a lot of calories. A burger might contain several hundred calories, or less, depending on which burger is ordered and which toppings are added. So, don’t assume that the grub served at McDonald’s is better for you than it would have been in the old days. There’s still lots of sugar, salt, calories and fat in fast food, including food from Mickey D’s. It’s best to enjoy fare from McDonald’s and other fast-food joints in moderation, rather than eating a lot of it all of the time. When fast food is an occasional indulgence, you’re enjoying it the smart way. Fast food at Mickey D’s is quite affordable and convenient to access. It’s easy to go too far with McDonald’s food or any other fast food, from Taco Bell to KFC to Burger King and beyond. People need to be mindful about what they are putting in their bodies, in terms of calories, fat grams, sodium, sugar, and nutrients. Information about fast food ingredients and calorie counts is readily available at most official fast food websites, including McDonald’s.
1. The Fast Food Chain Gave Cash To Terrorists
Did McDonald’s fund terrorists. No, of course not! Some rumors about fast-food chains are very damaging and cruel and this is one of them, but this myth has been debunked. How did this crazy myth become so prevalent? Well, in the latter part of the 80s, in the UK, a rumor about McDonald’s secretly giving money to the Provisional Irish Republican Army sprouted up. The funds were supposedly delivered through the Irish Northern Aid Committee or NORAID for short. This information apparently was leaked by a source who misunderstood something important after watching a CNN talk show. Basically, McDonald’s helps employees by funding their IRA accounts, not by funding the IRA, which is the Irish Republican Army. There’s obviously a huge difference between IRA accounts and the IRA group. IRA accounts are Individual Retirement Accounts. So, McDonald’s got undeserved bad press once again. Sure, McDonald’s has probably deserved some of the shade it’s gotten since it opened for business, but it never funded terrorism, and, as you can see, this is just one of many misconceptions about the fast-food chain and how it operates. Now, we’ve debunked 10 crazy McDonald’s myths. We’ve cut through the hype and told the truth about this American fast-food chain, which now operates all over the world.