McDonalds is the leading global foodservice retailer in the world today. They have more than 32,000 local restaurants who serve more than 60 million people in 117 countries each day. They have over 145 food items on their menu, and yet one seems to stick out from the rest, the Big Mac.
The Big Mac has been McDonald’s flagship sandwich since 1970, when it was added to the menu of every McDonalds in America. It was first created by Jim Delgatti on August 22, 1967 when he tried to add a unique item to the menu of his Uniontown, PA McDonalds. It took about two years for McDonalds to accept it and add it to their menus, but once they did, it was an instant classic.
Though the Big Mac may be one of the world’s most popular and frequently sold burgers, how is it made? I decided to try and answer this question by tracking each of the Big Mac’s ingredients from their origins to the kitchen, here are my results.
The Big Mac consists of:
100% Beef Patty
Big Mac bun
Pasteurized Process American cheese
Lettuce
Onions
Pickle slices
Big Mac “secret sauce”
Beef
McDonalds purchases their beef mainly from the U.S, but also from sources in Australia and New Zealand, where the beef is frozen and then shipped. The beef comes from corn-fed cattle, so while it may be true that their meat is indeed 100% beef, it comes from unhealthy cattle. The reason that McDonalds beef is so unhealthy is because it comes from corn fed cattle as opposed to grass fed ones. Some factory farms choose to feed their cattle corn because it fattens the cow quicker before they are slaughtered for beef. This allows farms to produce a significant amount more beef, considering they can get their cattle to an acceptable size in a timelier manner. However, because corn is not in the diet of cows, this can lead to a higher chance of E.Coli bacteria infecting the beef, and it can lead to bloat, diarrhea, ulcers, liver disease, and a weakened immune system in cows.
Pasteurized Process American cheese
McDonalds gets their dairy products from chains such as Kraft and Dean Foods, which leads many consumers to trust it. Unfortunately, many consumers are uneducated on just what pasteurized process cheese is. Pasteurized process cheese is a cheese that doesn’t meet the moisture or milk fat standards. It’s made from a combination of multiple cheeses and may contain additives such as cream or anhydrous milk fat. The cheese is then blended and heated with an emulsifier such as sodium or tartrate.
Lettuce
McDonald’s uses 14 different varieties of lettuce, depending on what’s seasonal, for both their Big Mac’s and salads. Their primary produce supplier is Taylor Farms in the Salinas Valley, CA. This is an industrial farm which treats their lettuce with a combination of 12 or so different chemicals and pesticides which serve to make the lettuce look more green and fresh than it does naturally.
Onions & Pickles
McDonalds acquires their onions and pickles from Martin-Brower and Gold west Foods respectively. Both of these distributors dehydrate their vegetables and then transport them to McDonalds, where they are soaked in water for a certain amount of time until they are back to their original moisture levels.
Big Mac bun
While the bun may seem like the safest thing on the Big Mac, this is yet another uneducated mistake by the consumer. The Big Mac bun contains chemicals and additives such as: high fructose corn syrup, ammonium chloride, azodicarbonamide (which is banned in many parts of the world), calcium propionate (preservative), and many others.
“Secret Sauce”
While this has long been thought of as “what makes the Big Mac the Big Mac” it is in fact just one of the factors making the Big Mac so unhealthy. Some of the known ingredients in the “secret sauce” include high fructose corn syrup, vegetable protein (aka MSG), sugar, and caramel color.
My views on McDonalds and the Big Mac were GREATLY altered after conducting this research, because it was really made clear to me for the first time just how much McDonalds ignores health and safety issues in favor of profits. As shown by the use of unhealthy materials such as beef from corn fed cattle and pasteurized process cheese, McDonalds chooses to use materials that have a better chance of making them a profit regardless of the implications, and I believe the public should be made aware of this.
That’s why I agree with groups such as “McSpotlight” and “McCruelty” which are focused on making the public aware of the unethical actions of McDonalds, and providing the people with alternatives and ways to show their disappointment with such a major franchise. I believe that it's okay to use certain resources over others if you believe they will bring you a profit, but when they put the consumer at risk, it becomes unethical.
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