Having been at the top of the 1940 fast food game, McDonald’s knows something or two about how to return the customer and how to protect a brand. But unfortunately, this does not always include complete transparency with its users. He made a name for himself in the world of fast food with his crispy fries, delicious Big Mac burgers and McNugget’s mouth. But the iconic gold arches did not turn into a billion dollar brand without learning how to sweep some things under the carpet.
McDonald’s is no stranger to recall, scandals or contradictions. And while the fast food king may prefer to keep some things under packaging, there are some secrets that just refuse to remain hidden. From multimillion-dollar lawsuits and pink mucus in burgers to massive fraud and duck feathers in food, these are some of the most juicy secrets, scandals and schemes that McDonald’s do not want to know.
Read more: Popular fast food items that are not what you think
Fried fries are not vegan
McDonald’s French fried potatoes are known for the classic crunchy exterior and soft, butter insides, but unfortunately these famous fried potatoes were once at the center of a juicy scandal. When McDonald’s produced the original recipe for fried French in the 1950s, it uses an abbreviated company called Interstate Foods to provide the butter that made fried potatoes so fresh and delicious. International foods used beef in vegetable oil at this time to save costs and extend the shelf life of the product. While the beef tallow created the popular aroma, at that time it was of great concern for saturated fat, so McDonald’s chose to remove the ingredient in 1990.
The removal of the beef tallow greatly influenced the aroma of fried potatoes, so to compensate for the fast food company added natural aromatization of beef to the recipe. McDonald’s advertises fried fries and other elements of the potato menu such as vegetarian options. Subsequently, court cases against the fast food titan were filed for misrepresentation of the ingredients. The company offered $ 10 million to settle lawsuits from the affected groups and published a statement on its website: “We regret that we did not provide these clients with complete information and we sincerely apologize for any difficulties that these non -communication has caused among the Hindus, Vegetarians and others,” through CBS News. Today, the company uses an oil mix of rapeseed to fry its potatoes.
McDonald’s makes a significant amount of money from its real estate
McDonald’s not only makes money for its world -renowned burgers and fries; His real estate empire is a large part of his income. Ray Crock opened McDonald’s first franchise in 1955, seeing a wide open market for growth potential. He bought the owners in 1961, marking the beginning of the World Empire. Today, more than 36,000 seats on McDonald globally over 95% are operated by franchisees, and less than 5% are actually owned and operated by the McDonald corporation.
To expand his real estate business, Kroc and his business partner Harry J. Soneborne has created the franchise program that encourages entrepreneurs to become franchise owners and allows McDonald’s to open new stores at impressively fast prices. In the 2016 movie “The Founder“ Based on Ray Crock’s CV, Sonneborn (played by BJ Novak) states: “Land. There is the money.” By renting real estate to franchisees in large brands, McDonald corporation can maintain stable revenue, despite the constant fluctuations in the fast food industry. McDonald’s reported a total of nearly $ 6.9 billion in her report on the third quarter of 2024, with most of this income received from her real estate empire.
The chain has participated in a pink scandal with mucus
In early 2010, McDonald’s used a beef supplier company called Beef Products Inc. (BPI) for hamburger meat. In 2012, a report published by the Congress of the Research Service found that a product that BPI called “lean finely textured beef” is actually a meat by -product made of low quality beef garnishes to be used as a filler in the processed meat. Low-quality beef was referred to as a “pink mucus”, a term created by USDA scientist Gerald Zirnstein in an interview with the New York Times, and the scandal has gripped the public, opening a much greater conversation about food products used in restaurants for fast food.
McDonald’s issued a statement through ABC, which announced that it would end the use of pink mucus in its burgers: “In McDonald’s, the quality and safety of the food we serve our customers is a top priority,” the company wrote. “In early 2011, we decided to end the use of ammonia beef in our hamburgers. This solution was the result of our efforts to bring our global standards to how we drain beef around the world.”
Investigation revealed fecal bacteria in the ice
Fast food restaurants usually do not maintain a reputation for too sanitary, but the condition of the ice machines is something that applies to both customers and previous fast food employees. In 2017, some of these concerns were confirmed when an investigation into Watchdog revealed ice machines at McDonald’s, KFC and Burger King restaurants in the UK were anything but clean through CNBC. Investigation revealed faecal bacteria in ice machines in several places in all three fast food joints and caused fears among consumers about the hygiene habits of the fast food industry.
McDonald’s responded to the investigation, saying: “Nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and people, and we will continue to review our procedures and training by working in close cooperation with our restaurant teams to ensure that these procedures are respected at any time.” However, Reddit communities still remain concerned about the cleanliness of McDonald’s water and soda machines. A user shared a disturbing image of what they claim to be infected with a mold ice dispenser at its local McDonald’s restaurant and according to fast food staff in the thread, the ice machine is never the first priority in the cleaning checklist.
Ingredient in apple pie comes from duck feathers
Fast -food restaurants like McDonald’s have never been known for providing the most healthy food options, but some ingredients can still come as a shock to consumers. While McDonald’s popular apple pie can be full of American grown apples, not all ingredients are so attractive.
The roast apple pies of the fast food chain contain an ingredient called L-Cysteine. This balm is used to improve the texture of the dough and extend the shelf life of the product. According to Jeanne Yaku, MS, the director of research of the vegetarian resource group, L-Cysteine is most often derived from bird feathers and human hair. While the FDA recognizes it as safe for consumption, some customers may be interested in knowing that these pasta pies have an ingredient that more than likely comes from a duck feathers, which makes them not vegetarian.
McDonald’s seasoning is just salt and pepper
It is obvious why McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants would like to keep recipes secret. Otherwise, why would anyone pay for food that can repeat more cheap at home? Seeing that McDonald’s has made millions of burgers and invests time and money in refining the recipe for many years, it is easy to assume that there is some complicated secret formula for his delicious burgers. But the recipe of one of the most famous burgers on Earth is actually far from complicated.
The big juicy secret of the hamburger recipe is nothing more than a regular mixture of salt and pepper. As former McDonald’s chef Mike Harach prevented Tiktok, the exact ratio that McDonald’s uses in his kitchens is 86% salt and 14% pepper, making it quite easy to repeat at home.
The chain was judged for a copyright violation of McDonaldland heroes
McDonald’s created a fictional world called McDonaldland with Ronald McDonald and several other characters through a series of advertising campaigns in the 70s. The acting staff included Hamburg, Captain Crick, Grimas, officer Big Mack and Mayor McChees. However, they have a striking resemblance to characters in the 1969 television series “HR PUFNSTUF”.
SID and Marty Krofft Television Productions Inc. They filed a copyright infringement case against McDonald’s to steal the characters from their television series, taking a specific problem with Mayor McChees, who was an obvious Rip of the HR Pufnstuf character. The jurors found evidence of plagiarism in the characters and the court ordered McDonald’s to pay $ 50,000 damage. The company was dissatisfied with the decision and decided to appeal by losing once again and forced to branch over $ 1,000,000 to Krofffs. Until 2003, many of the McDonaldland characters had been taken over by ads.
A woman suffered a third degree burns from McDonald’s coffee
In 1992, a 79-year-old woman named Stella Libek ordered hot coffee from McDonald’s. When she opened the glass to add cream and sugar to her drink, the coffee spilled into her lap and left serious damage. The woman suffered such severe injuries that she had to get multiple skin grafts on her inner thighs. According to the costume, McDonald’s employees were asked to keep coffee between 180 and 190 degrees F, which could cause serious burns in a few seconds.
There was a lot of media attention and criticism in the case, but although he was ridiculed for bringing such a case, Libec took McDonald’s court and eventually received $ 3,000,000 in penal damage to the burns they suffered. To make things worse, poor Stella Libec was not the only one who suffered damage from McDonald’s dangerous hot coffee. In the 10th years there were 700 other reports preceding its case.
Skamer stole $ 24 million by arranging McDonald’s monopoly game
McDonald’s has held a promotional game of a monopoly from the 1980s, in which customers collect stickers from the menu qualification elements to receive prizes. Between 1989 and 2001, the game was seasoned by a man named Jerome P. Jacobson. Jacobson was the security leader of the company who made the game pieces used in the promotion of McDonald’s Monopoly. Through his high -level access, he assigned the winning games and distributes them to people he knows about profit.
Over the time he spent the fraud, he stole a huge money of $ 24 million and the fraud became known as the MacMillione scandal. The story became so viral that HBO even released documents in 2020 according to the huge scheme. The FBI reported eight arrests in connection with the assumption in 2001, all of which received charges of conspiracy for committing a fraud in the mail. Prosecutor General John Ashcroft said in the report: “Those involved in this type of corruption will understand that violation of the law is not a game.”
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