The Real Reason McDonald's French Fries Taste Different Now - Mashed (2024)

FAQs

Why do McDonald's fries taste different now? ›

Variations in the supply chain, such as changes in potato suppliers or oil sources, can influence the taste of the fries.

And so McDonald's bowed to the public pressure and changed their fry oil. But of course the story doesn't end there, because the oil they replaced the tallow with was hydrogenated vegetable oil, which not only didn't taste as good as the beef tallow but also contained a hearty helping of trans-fats.

More often than not, its' the preparation steps that you take or the oil that you are using. Former Simplot training director, Greg Shannon, used to travel the USA and foreign countries diagnosing problems, and more often than not this is what he found: It's the oil. This is 90% of the typical off-flavor source.

On its website, McDonald's explains that when its “suppliers partially fry our cut potatoes, they use an oil blend that contains beef flavoring.” “Natural beef flavor contains hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk as starting ingredients,” the company notes on its site. In hydrolysis, water breaks chemical bonds.

In 1990, though, McDonald's swapped the tallow for vegetable oil due to a prolonged campaign conducted by Phil Sokolof, a multi-millionaire who made his money from producing construction equipment (via The New York Times). Ever since, the french fry that built McDonald's was merely good, not amazing.

McDonald's changed their ingredients for fries in the early 1990s. Specifically, they changed the oil they used to cook the fries from a mixture of vegetable oil and beef tallow to 100% vegetable oil. The change was made in response to health concerns about the use of saturated fats, such as beef tallow, in fast food.

In 1990, the company announced that they would replace the beef tallow with 100 percent vegetable oil. After the announcement, McDonald's stock fell 8.3 percent. The new fry didn't stack up. As it turns out, the beef tallow had added more than just cholesterol to the signature french fry.

McDonald's changed their ingredients for fries in the early 1990s. Specifically, they changed the oil they used to cook the fries from a mixture of vegetable oil and beef tallow to 100% vegetable oil. The change was made in response to health concerns about the use of saturated fats, such as beef tallow, in fast food.

As health concerns over saturated fat grew in the 1990s, McDonald's finally made the switch to vegetable oil. Unfortunately, customers noticed that the fries didn't taste how they used to. To mimic the chain's original oil blend, the oil is laced with natural flavoring to replicate that mouthwatering smell.

Because greasy foods contain high amounts of fat, they slow stomach emptying. In turn, food spends more time in your stomach, which can cause bloating, nausea, and stomach pain ( 2 ).

Do McDonald's fries taste different? ›

"It's because McDonald's cooks their fries with beef flavoring mixed within their vegetable oil," divulged the content creator.

"McDonald's used to fry their potatoes in beef tallow, giving them extra flavor and making them extra crisp, but they stopped doing that years ago." Something home cooks can still do. They stopped doing that when saturated fats became unpopular.

The dextrose, a natural form of sugar, is to help achieve a uniform golden color and the sodium acid pyrophosphate prevents the potatoes from turning grayish after they are cooked, according to McDonald's. Fear said these ingredients are of no health concern.

Rather than using any old oil, all food – including French fries – was fried in beef fat. This gave the chips an extraordinary depth of flavour, even if they weren't veggie friendly. However, under pressure from campaigners, the recipe was changed in 1992, and they've never been the same since.

Big changes, including meltier cheese and more flavorful patties, are coming to McDonald's burgers nationwide. In 2023, the fast food chain announced it would be making changes to its classic hamburger, cheeseburger, double cheeseburger, McDouble burger and Big Mac sandwiches.