7 ms·

Full disclaimer: Info coming from a variety of sources: some documentaries which I know have their own inaccuracies, some my own personal experience in food ser

by icxa 7y ago

Full disclaimer: Info coming from a variety of sources: some documentaries which I know have their own inaccuracies, some my own personal experience in food service, and specifically working at McDonalds, and some having an ex-girlfriend of 3 years who was the district manager of another international large fast food burger chain, so by chance that gleaned me a lot of insight into the inner workings of fast food burger chains (he was previously a DM of several Golden Arches) I haven't read this page recently (it certainly has changed much), but on skimming through, none of the terminology McDonalds uses on their website are meaningful in the sense that the standards there is no official definition and could not be distinguished between similar competitors that make similar claims besides simply what they say, and, more importantly, there is no regulated term between what constitutes beef being “pure” or “not pure” or otherwise put. It’s just some “thing” they say about their beef and we have to take them up on their word. Now if they said “we use USDA organic ground beef” that might have some teeth. It’s the same thing between a bag of candy telling you they no longer use artificial flavors and now use “natural” flavors. Now the question of do I believe they have changed? Possibly. Do the burgers taste different? No, so common sense tells me you don’t drastically change your process like this and still get the same tasting burger from 20 years ago. But I will actually do something uncommon here and admit I could be wrong, and have an outdated understanding of their process.

tptacek 7y ago
McDonalds does in fact use 100% USDA-inspected beef, with "no fillers, additives, or preservatives", and explicitly does not use mechanically separated meat. It's not "organic", but then, most beef isn't.
- icxa 7y ago
  Then I am happy to say I am happy for their recent changes, this certainly wasn’t the case a few years ago when I wrote them off, and even more not the case 10 years ago when I was still in the industry. I think it should be promoted as an example that consumer pressure and expectations can cause companies to change for the better. I will say I remain skeptical on exactly how they can go from the ammonia wash + chemical food flavoring process to using fresh beef and not have any discernible difference in taste or food safety, but kudos to them.
  - tptacek 7y ago
    I'm not saying you shouldn't write them off. McDonalds fries are solid, but everything else there is terrible. And fast food is in general bad, and I don't want to be coming off like I'm saying that people should eat more of it.
    - rayiner 7y ago
      McDonalds is great. Especially the breakfast menu items: egg McMuffin, chicken biscuit, etc. nuggets are solid too.
  - mackey 7y ago
    They haven't used ammonia wash or "lean beef trimmings" since around 2011.
    - tptacek 7y ago
      The ammonia is a bad scene, but the idea of using TG to repurpose "trimmings" isn't something we should be demonizing; if you're going to kill animals to feed people, you should be maximizing the yield (of muscle protein, that is). This is just an extension of the idea that if you're going to eat pork chops, you shouldn't be grossed out by the idea of eating offal; however ecologically irresponsible it is to eat meat at all, it must be more irresponsible to waste it because it squicks you out to eat anything but a loin chop. (TG'd meat was a faddish fine dining trend a few years back, and it's pretty neat; for instance, you can make a solid, ribeye-like slab of skirt steak by "gluing" layers of skirt together, which is pretty delicious. It's also a technique that's been used in sausagemaking for a long time.)
      - mackey 7y ago
        I am totally with you on this one. I feel similar about GMOs. The business behind GMOs isn't always the greatest, but we need all the help we can get.
  - kevinmchugh 7y ago
devinhelton 7y ago
On their ingredients page ( https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/hamburger.html https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/hamburger.html ) it says that the patty consists of: "100% Beef Patty. Ingredients: 100% Pure USDA Inspected Beef; No Fillers, No Extenders. Prepared with Grill Seasoning (Salt, Black Pepper)." That seems pretty clear to me. USDA defines beef as flesh of cattle. If there is anything but "flesh of cattle" in the patty, McDonald's is committing fraud.
- fucking_tragedy 7y ago
  USDA has a pretty wide definition for what constitutes as ground beef[1]: > After a months-long evaluation, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) determined in December that BPI’s signature product—the offering famously called “pink slime” in an ABC News exposé that got the network in a lot of trouble—can be labeled “ground beef.” Legally speaking, it’s now no different from ordinary hamburger, and could even be sold directly to the public. [1] https://newfoodeconomy.org/bpi-pink-slime-ground-beef-usda-reclassifed/ https://newfoodeconomy.org/bpi-pink-slime-ground-beef-usda-r...

by icxa 7y ago

tptacek 7y ago

McDonalds does in fact use 100% USDA-inspected beef, with "no fillers, additives, or preservatives", and explicitly does not use mechanically separated meat. It's not "organic", but then, most beef isn't.

icxa 7y ago
Then I am happy to say I am happy for their recent changes, this certainly wasn’t the case a few years ago when I wrote them off, and even more not the case 10 years ago when I was still in the industry. I think it should be promoted as an example that consumer pressure and expectations can cause companies to change for the better. I will say I remain skeptical on exactly how they can go from the ammonia wash + chemical food flavoring process to using fresh beef and not have any discernible difference in taste or food safety, but kudos to them.
- tptacek 7y ago
  I'm not saying you shouldn't write them off. McDonalds fries are solid, but everything else there is terrible. And fast food is in general bad, and I don't want to be coming off like I'm saying that people should eat more of it.
  - rayiner 7y ago
    McDonalds is great. Especially the breakfast menu items: egg McMuffin, chicken biscuit, etc. nuggets are solid too.
- mackey 7y ago
  They haven't used ammonia wash or "lean beef trimmings" since around 2011.
  - tptacek 7y ago
    The ammonia is a bad scene, but the idea of using TG to repurpose "trimmings" isn't something we should be demonizing; if you're going to kill animals to feed people, you should be maximizing the yield (of muscle protein, that is). This is just an extension of the idea that if you're going to eat pork chops, you shouldn't be grossed out by the idea of eating offal; however ecologically irresponsible it is to eat meat at all, it must be more irresponsible to waste it because it squicks you out to eat anything but a loin chop. (TG'd meat was a faddish fine dining trend a few years back, and it's pretty neat; for instance, you can make a solid, ribeye-like slab of skirt steak by "gluing" layers of skirt together, which is pretty delicious. It's also a technique that's been used in sausagemaking for a long time.)
    - mackey 7y ago
      I am totally with you on this one. I feel similar about GMOs. The business behind GMOs isn't always the greatest, but we need all the help we can get.
- kevinmchugh 7y ago

devinhelton 7y ago

On their ingredients page ( https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/hamburger.html https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/hamburger.html ) it says that the patty consists of: "100% Beef Patty. Ingredients: 100% Pure USDA Inspected Beef; No Fillers, No Extenders. Prepared with Grill Seasoning (Salt, Black Pepper)." That seems pretty clear to me. USDA defines beef as flesh of cattle. If there is anything but "flesh of cattle" in the patty, McDonald's is committing fraud.

fucking_tragedy 7y ago
USDA has a pretty wide definition for what constitutes as ground beef[1]: > After a months-long evaluation, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) determined in December that BPI’s signature product—the offering famously called “pink slime” in an ABC News exposé that got the network in a lot of trouble—can be labeled “ground beef.” Legally speaking, it’s now no different from ordinary hamburger, and could even be sold directly to the public. [1] https://newfoodeconomy.org/bpi-pink-slime-ground-beef-usda-reclassifed/ https://newfoodeconomy.org/bpi-pink-slime-ground-beef-usda-r...