so, mcdonald's uses 'beef flavoring' in their fries? is this really bad?

Question

According to their official site, their fries contain

"natural beef flavor (wheat and milk derivatives)*"
"*CONTAINS: WHEAT AND MILK (Natural beef flavor contains hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk as starting ingredients.)"

my question is, are these ingredients really bad if you are only excluding meat and you are eating dairy products? when i first read this a few months ago, i was under the impression that they used something like cow fat. guess i read it wrong or they changed the site. so, is it okay for me to eat those delicious fries?

mcdonald's official site:
http://www.mcdonalds.com/app_controller.nutrition.categories.ingredients.index.html

screenshot:
http://www.freefilesaver.com/be5258483e2467fdea172ec5a8bbbf1904157207685.jpg

I'm not asking your opinion on whether or not you think it's okay to eat meat. I'm not asking about childhood obesity. I'm asking for facts. I don't eat meat, but I do consume dairy products. Based on my diet, is it okay for me to eat the fries?

Answer 1

I strongly doubt it's just dairy-based flavoring. Remember the big controversy a few years back when Hindus sued U.S McDonalds over beef flavoring in the fries? Hindus are allowed to eat dairy and I'm sure McD's knew this. If there was only dairy in the fries, McD's wouldn't have lost the lawsuit. The original lawsuit was over the vegetarian status of the fries, not their vegan status.

The fact that they state "Contains wheat and milk" doesn't necessarily mean it *doesn't* contain beef. Wheat and milk are common allergens, beef is not.

So yeah, I'm 99.9% sure their fries contain MEAT-derived animal fat, most likely beef tallow.

Answer 2

this is fact ..Mc Donald's fries ...."The taste of a french fry is largely determined by the cooking oil. For decades McDonald's cooked its french fries in a mixture of about seven percent cottonseed oil and 93 percent beef tallow. The mixture gave the fries their unique flavor -- and more saturated beef fat per ounce than a McDonald's hamburger.

In 1990, amid a barrage of criticism over the amount of cholesterol in its fries, McDonald's switched to pure vegetable oil. This presented the company with a challenge: how to make fries that subtly taste like beef without cooking them in beef tallow. A look at the ingredients in McDonald's french fries suggests how the problem was solved. Toward the end of the list is a seemingly innocuous yet oddly mysterious phrase: "natural flavor." That ingredient helps to explain not only why the fries taste so good but also why most fast food -- indeed, most of the food Americans eat today -- tastes the way it does. so now here is the clincher ..natural flavoring can contain all types of animal derivatives .... beef , chicken, even seafood ..you name it by law they can put it in under that broad term ..stick to Wendy's ...they were rated number one in fries ..

Answer 3

No, Dont eat their fries or anything at mcdonald for that matter!!! Do you really think they're going to tell you that their fries are cooked with beef tallow?? Um, no cause then you wouldn' buy them! Read fast food nation, it has all the info you'll need !! Don't watch the movie, it's not as good and only contains about 1/16th of the information as the book!

Answer 4

it's your own personal decision. I gave up meat for lent and I avoided anything with beef/chicken flavoring. It is still a meat product. I did however keep eating dairy. Come to think of it, there was a case in India some years back where a man tried to sue McDonalds because he did not eat cow meat (it's thought to be sacred in some parts of India) and ate the french fries without knowing that there was beef flavoring in it. Wish I could remember where you could find that info. but it was pretty interesting.

Answer 5

When I see "beef", I think the flesh of cows. Also, as a vegan, I wouldn't eat them due to the possible milk in them. Persoanlly, I don't trust anything from McDonald's. It seems to me that the more people wise up about what is and isn't in processed, manufactured food and fast food, the more McDonald's changes thier menu. Heh. Go figure. I doubt they're missing my business.

Answer 6

I would not endorse McDonald's if my life depended on it.

I highly suggest you read up on hydrogenated oils, they are basically edible plastic.

A few years ago McDonlad's was sued for using Beef Talo in their fries because they were listed as a vegetarian item.

Before you even get to the ingredients in the item you should look at the menu as a whole.

They use names like McChicken, Mcburger etc. because this obsolves them with any liabilities of trying to pass their items off as real.

See Supersize me and you will know of what I speak.

Do yourself a favour and leave Mcdeath before it kills you.

Answer 7

I am a sous chef and we are told that we are to let any vegetarian or vegan know if there is any kind of animal or poultry flavoring in our food. Alot of our vegetarian customers will not eat the food if we tell them it has this in it. I guess it just depends on your personal feelings

Answer 8

the beef flavoring in the fries contains beef tallow, which is the fat from a slaughtered cow-same as lard is from a pig. It would be quite hypocritical to eat them if you are a vegetarian, because an animal had to die in order for them to be made.

here are the other ingredients:
Potatoes, vegetable oil (partially hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavor (wheat and milk derivatives)*, citric acid (preservative), dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate (maintain color), dimethylpolysiloxane (antifoaming agent)), salt. Prepared in vegetable oil ((may contain one of the following: Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, partially hydrogenated corn oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness), dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent). *CONTAINS: WHEAT AND MILK (Natural beef flavor contains hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk as starting ingredients

Many of these ingredients are derived from animal sources as well

Answer 9

Yes! I read a book by Kevin Trudeau and he uncovers alot of unhealthy "fillers" or "preservatives" in everyday foods such as that. When its called beef flavoring its mixture of alot of other things besides beef flavoring.

Answer 10

US Disneyland terminated the 10-year contract with McDonald's - it means that there will no longer be any Golden Arches on any Disneyland resort anywhere in the world. Reason: McDonald's has been linked to contributing to children's obesity and other health dangers.

Darn good reason to boot them out.