Fast Food

Why McDonald's Fries Taste So Good (Condensed)

The delicious flavor of McDonald’s French fries have changed average America from eating four pounds of frozen potatoes a year to eating thirty pounds of frozen potatoes a year in forty years. The flavor of the fries is what sells them, not the type of the potatoes or the way they are prepared. Until 1990, McDonald’s fries were cooked in beef fat to impart that unique flavor to the fries. Under criticism about the amount of cholesterol these fries produced, McDonald’s eventually switched over to cooking in vegetable oil, yet the taste of the French fries remained number one in America. That is because fabricated flavors are added to the fries. In fact, just about every product of food that has been processed has either natural flavoring or artificial flavoring, but to be clear, a flavor is always added after the food is processed. In fact, the flavors whether they are natural or artificial are more alike than they are different. But there is no mistake, the look and the taste of what we eat is deceiving -- by design, to attract the consumer to purchase and then come back and purchase again.

The flavors found in processed foods are created by a separate “flavor” industry from the food industry. One can find most of the flavors being created in the state of New Jersey by companies most people have never heard of, despite the fact that many brand names such as Coca-Cola, Pop Tarts and grape Kool-Aid derive their best ingredient from these factories. The companies creating the flavors prefer the anonymity. The investigative journalist of this article spent most of his time at International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), after first signing a non-disclosure agreement not to reveal the brand names that are flavored by IFF. IFF is one of the biggest companies that produce flavors for commercially processed foods.

The investigative journalist was given a tour of the laboratories and test kitchens (but not in the...