McDonald's French Fries: MacFries or McFries?

October 21, 2008

A few weeks ago I read McDonald’s press release on the visit of Moms to a Lamb Weston facility to see how MacFries are produced. I figured a PotatoPro Newsletter on this iconic potato product, the MacFries, was long overdue.

So here it is, a PotatoPro Newsletter on "McDonald's World Famous Fries" or MacFries as I will keep calling them in short. Yes, as far as I could figure out they were called MacFries, not McFries, even though Google gives more than twice as much hits on McFries than MacFries.

So I got to work to collect some bits and pieces that are out there in cyberspace on MacFries, with focus on what McDonald’s tells us about their French fries. Thought that wouldn’t be so hard.

I guess I was wrong…

History of McDonald's French Fries

1955 – Mid 1960s:

The First McDonald's Restaurant

The first McDonald’s French Fries were made from fresh potatoes in restaurants, with employees peeling, cutting, washing, blanching in oil, and conditioning the potatoes before finishing frying them. The first cooking oil was an animal-based shortening and the blend specific to McDonald’s.

Early – Mid 1960s:

McDonald’s Food Scientist Ken Strong and Food Researcher Edwin Traisman patented the McDonald’s frozen French Fry process which enabled McDonald’s potato suppliers to obtain the same great taste, color and texture characteristics that came from in-store preparation with more consistency.

Early – Mid 1970s:

McDonald’s potato supplier partners perfected French Fry production with new technologies like the steam peeler, cutting systems, and Automatic Defect Removal equipment, enhancing quality and efficiency.

2008:

McDonald’s System completed transition to the new 0-gram TFA canola blend cooking oil.

Updated by PotatoPro in 2016:

In recent years, McDonald's has released a number of video's to clarify how their french fries are made.

Here are two of them:

(Click picture to watch video)

How McDonald's Canada Makes their World Famous Fries
McDonald's Canada, 2012

(Click picture to watch video)

Our food. Your questions. What are McDonald’s USA fries made of?
Explained by Grant Imahara
McDonald's USA, 2015

Source: McDonald's Corporation

First of all, MacFries differ from country to country. You can see that for example if you are looking at the nutritional information that McDonald’s publishes for each country.

So here is our first tip:

If you are looking for nutritional information, make sure you are looking at the information for your specific country. There are differences in portion size, oil type, salt content and even in protein and fiber content (?!). I checked the Nutritional information for the Netherlands, Ireland, United Kingdom, Canada and USA, see the table below.

Some noticeable differences between those 5 countries: Canada has the largest LARGE portion, The Netherlands has the highest salt content, Ireland has the healthiest oil composition and the lowest salt content. Another reason it was hard to create this overview: the nutritional information is being updated...

McDonald's nutritional information for their fries in various countries

Notes:

You can find nutritional information for other European countries at www.mcdonaldsmenu.info.

Note that the Canadian nutrition declaration lists an amount for trans fats, but the listed amounts are well within the limits of what in most countries would qualify as trans fat free (<2% of fat).

We found two different sets of nutritional information for Ireland.

Reviewing all information, it is clear that McDonald’s wants us to know a lot about how their products are made.

Especially they want us to know how much effort they put into making sure their products are of high quality. And that sure includes the French fries.

Who manufactures the french fries for McDonald?

The first McDonald's restaurants prepared their french fries in their restaurants from potatoes, but that is history (see "History of the McDonald's French Fries") and now of course good business for the potato processing companies that supply the MacFries.

Several McDonald's websites mention the local MacFries suppliers. In North America, McDonald's French Fry suppliers are Lamb Weston, McCain Foods and J.R. Simplot.

Potato varieties that used to make Macfries

Potato varieties that are used for Macfries include Russet Burbank, Shepody, Pentland Dell. McDonald's expresses its commitment to sustainable farming practices and the environment and has a special working group (MAAP, McDonald's Agricultural Assurance Programme) for this purpose in Europe.

In summary and in McDonald's own words:

"McDonald's works closely with all of its potato suppliers to ensure stringent food quality and safety standards are followed delivering high-quality potato products in our restaurants, everyday"