Fries facts you would rather not have known
Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the gourmands at online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat it and what to cook. This time our cheffies serve you: French fries facts you would rather not have known.
Can you imagine visiting a fast food chain without ordering fries? For many people, that is impossible, and that's not strange. Read on if you want to know how fast food chains keep you hooked on their fries.
Fries, chips, whatever you want to call them, they are addictive things. What is the appeal of such a fried potato stick? (Um, I know: fat, salt, and therefore not normally delicious.). But there is quite a bit hidden behind that innocent fry, and here are a few things that fast food chains would rather not broadcast.
How often they ‘go over the top’ is extreme
The cost price of fries is particularly low, the profit that can be made on them is incredibly high. Especially at the large fries from McDonald's. And who says they are the only ones?
They are made to be addictive
That McDonald's (in America) adds extra beef flavor to their fries is known; that is one of the reasons why people think their fries are very special and come back for that flavor. The American chain Wendy's (which has no foothold in the Benelux due to a national snack bar resistance from Zeeland) launched a specially designed fry from machines that keep one crust/side thicker so that the heat is retained longer, the other side has a thinner crust/side for a crunchier effect.
Beyond potato, fat, and salt
Although you only need potato, oil, and salt for fries, there are fast food chains that show a shockingly long ingredient list when it comes to their fries. In the Netherlands, there may be stricter supervision, but on the websites of Burger King and KFC, it is not transparently visible what the exact ingredients of their portions of fries are. McDonald's is at least honest about it: in addition to four types of oil, there are a stabilizer, disodium diphosphate, dextrose (a type of sugar), salt, and anti-caking agents.
