Back in 2002, McDonald’s settled a lawsuit with Hindus and vegans and agreed to pay $10 million in a class action suit brought over its use of beef tallow in McDonald’s fries. The suit complained that McDonald’s used beef tallow in the fries without letting customers know while claiming they were fried in vegetable oil. The result? McDonald’s fries are not as good as they used to be and are not actually more healthy. But, the public is still confused about whether McDonald’s continues to use beef in their French fries, because of the way the ingredients are listed. Do McDonald’s French Fries contain beef? The answer is we don’t know.
As a result of the lawsuit, McDonalds issued an apology to “Hindus, vegetarians, and others for failing to provide the kind of information they needed to make informed dietary decisions at our U.S. restaurants.”
Even before settling the lawsuit, McDonald’s began bowing to public pressure, removing beef tallow from its French frying oil in the 1990s and using 100% vegetable oils, after which the public complained about the dreary results, McDonald’s went changed the recipe again. There is no beef tallow, but this does not mean there is now no beef in McDonald’s French Fries. Here is the ingredient listing for McDonald’s Fries:
Potatoes, Vegetable Oil (canola Oil, Corn Oil, Soybean Oil, Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Natural Beef Flavor [wheat And Milk Derivatives]*), Dextrose, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate (maintain Color), Salt. *natural Beef Flavor Contains Hydrolyzed Wheat And Hydrolyzed Milk As Starting Ingredients.
The ingredients clearly state “natural beef flavoring.” The confusion comes from the inclusion of “wheat and Milk Derivatives” in brackets and then at the end of the listing “Natural beef Flavor Contains Hydrolyzed Wheat And Hydrolyzed Milk as Starting Ingredients.”
It may be a benefit to the company that this confuses the public about whether or not there is beef in the fries, but it is actually there due to updated FDA rules regarding ingredient listings for natural flavors. As well, the listing must disclose wheat and milk ingredients as an allergen warning for those with a wheat or milk allergy, as well as celiac sufferers.
The beef flavoring isn’t inside the fries. They are just cut potatoes. But, McDonald’s explains that when their suppliers partially fry the potatoes, they use an oil blend that contains beef flavoring.
So, does this ‘beef flavoring’ use beef? It’s quite possible that it does not. Most ‘meat” flavorings are made from hydrolyzed amino acids, sugars, citric acid, and other additives. A food chemist named Gary Reineccius explained it to Eater in 2015:
…the flavor in beef is created during the cooking process. Food scientists identified the amino acids found in beef, added some very common sugars — starch hydrolysate — put it in a pot, added some citric acid to drop the pH, controlled moisture content, and heated it to the same temperature as meat. Then…*poof* we have meat flavor
McDonald’s and other companies are not required to disclose what exactly is used in a “flavor additive” as long as all the ingredients are GRAS or “generally recognized as safe.” This is subject to the updated rules I mentioned above, and the need to provide allergen warnings. Meat ingredients are not included in allergen warnings.
Beef is an expensive ingredient to use only to add flavor, so chances are there is not any meat in the beef flavor used by McDonald’s. Using the processes described, an unami-like flavor similar to beef can be achieved without using any beef at all. No matter the process used, the term “natural flavor” can be used on the ingredient listing. Here is how it is defined by the FDA:
The term natural flavor or natural flavoring means the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional.
However, the updated 2019 rules for natural flavoring state that hydrolyzed animal vegetable protein cannot be identified solely as “natural flavoring” on the label:
FSIS regulation requires that animal or vegetable proteins must be specifically identified in the ingredient statement on the labels. The source of the protein must also be disclosed. On the label, you will read “hydrolyzed wheat protein” or “hydrolyzed milk protein,” not just hydrolyzed protein.
This explains why McDonald’s lists Hydrolyzed Wheat and Milk in the ingredients for its French fries in addition to a milk and wheat allergen warning below the listing.
These rules also included things like “beef broth” or “meat extract.”
Can the terms “dried meat or poultry stocks,” “dried broth,” “meat extracts,” and “dried beef plasma” be listed on meat and poultry labels as “natural flavorings”?
No. Substances derived from animal sources must be identified as to the species of origin on the label and be consistent with the definition established by Federal regulation. For example, the listing on the label would read “dried chicken stock,” “lamb extract,” or “dried beef plasma.”
This means that sometimes companies need to list when meat ingredients are used in their natural flavor and sometimes they do not. While we know that the beef flavoring contains wheat and milk ingredients, we have no way of knowing, for sure, whether it contains beef. McDonald’s is keeping this information close to its chest.
Why? If beef caused such a controversy and the fries do not use beef ingredients, why not proudly state as much? Well, not everyone, including myself, was thrilled with the decision to stop using beef tallow in the cooking oil. Many restaurants with great-tasting fries put some beef fat into their cooking oil mix. It tastes good. While I’m only speculating, I suspect that playing both sides is what the company wants. The company is not claiming its fries are vegan since they admit they contain milk.
On the other hand, McDonald’s UK clearly states that its fries are vegan!
Pentland Dell and Shepody potatoes, which are chosen for their quality, taste and long shape when cut. The fries are not coated in any fats or substances from an animal. Once at the restaurant, our fries are simply cooked in dedicated frying vats in a non-hydrogenated blend of sunflower and rapeseed oil which is 100 percent suitable for vegans.
But McDonald’s US doesn’t have to say its fries are suitable for vegans as they are not. So, they don’t have to clearly state whether they are “coated in any fats or substances from an animal.”
