Pressing the Meat

Spurlock writes the following of a McDonalds hamburger:

"It tastes kinda like meat, but more like an industrialized meat-flavored substitute."

He then spends a paragraph detailing what he feels are the more unappetizing features of a McDonalds hamburger patty.

In truth, McDonalds' hamburgers are made with 100% beef (scroll down to the "beef patty" ingredients). It is USDA inspected. The restaurant adds salt and pepper after cooking. That's it. No additives or preservatives. No filler. No beef flavor enhancers.

However in this writer's opinion, it's true, McDonalds hamburgers don't taste nearly as good as they once did. But that isn't because the company uses anything other than beef. It's because the beef they are using is leaner than it once was. Several years ago, the chain capitulated to nutrition activists, and began to use leaner ground beef in its hamburgers. The result? A less juicy, less savory, slightly more rubbery beef patty. That's why your local, independent burger joint probably tastes better (that, and the fact that McDonalds has no choice but to freeze its beef -- many smaller operators use never-frozen beef).

The funny thing is, the decision to put a healthier product on the market once again put McDonalds on the business end of an Internet rumor campaign. Outside the U.S., the company tends to use leaner, grass-fed beef in its stores. Here in the U.S., McDonalds buys almost all of its beef domestically. Problem is, the U.S. doesn't produce nearly enough grass-fed beef. And even the supply of grain-fed beef has dwindled of late. So several years ago, McDonalds started a limited pilot program looking at buying leaner, slightly cheaper foreign beef to supplement its domestic supply. This put some U.S. cattle ranchers in a tizzy, and touched off an Internet rumor campaign that vastly exaggerated just how much the beef the company planned to buy overseas (all of which, by the way, is USDA inspected).

This is all a fine example of the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-do don't public relations conundrums that face U.S. businesses. McDonalds got attacked for serving fatty, greasy (but delicious!) burgers. In response, the company made the effort to buy leaner beef, which put a dent in its sales. In response, McDonalds caught heat not only from domestic beef producers, but from people like Spurlock, who not only ridicule the leaner beef patty, but imply that it's not really meat at all.

Comments

[gina alexiou]

Murpheys Law , your damned if you do and your damned if you don't ... so what do you do , tell everyone to shuddup !!!!

[Evan Williams]

Here's a question fer ol' Morgan: if it tastes so f'n bad, then why do so many people like it?

It's bad enough to attack the company for what he perceives to be bad business practices. But to vilify them because he doesn't like how their food tastes?

I mean, let's be completely honest here: even if McDonald's burgers DID taste like a delicious pound of gourmet ground sirloin, would that make any difference to Spurlock's overall feelings? Of course not. That'd be like the American Cancer Society criticizing Parliament Cigs because they taste bad. Jeez, you know, if Morgan's goal is to get people to avoid McDonalds, then, wouldn't it HELP his cause if the burgers taste bad?

Idiot.

[Jim Cowling]

if it tastes so f'n bad, then why do so many people like it?

As if popular opinion was ever a reliable measure of quality.

[laura]

Not that I doubt that McD's uses beef (weirdly enough, here in the UK most places add "rusk" to burgers, making them taste like nothing I grew up with in Indiana), but in "Fast Food Nation" Schlosser talks about how food chemists create flavors to compensate for what's lost in the freezing process, and how he sniffs a test strip that smells frighteningly like a hamburger. So Spurlock ain't entirely wrong -- he's tasting beef with, you know, chemical extra-beefiness. ;)

[Nathan T. Freeman]

It's admittedly been nearly 15 years since I worked at McDonalds, but in the 1000's of hamburgers I made there as a kid, I never ONCE added salt and/or pepper to a pattie. Are you certain of that policy?

[Tim]

McD's patties are certainly made from beef, but they aren't your familiar patty. Their beef is frozen, then turned into dust, which is then molded into patties and frozen again.

This is how they ensure that every patty you eat is exactly like every other you've eaten before, which was the original core philosophy of McD's ("same experience in every restaurant, every time"), and is what created the food-industrial complex we have today.

[Violet]

Yes, they do salt and pepper the burgers as they come off the grill, in part because the leaner beef is less tastey than the beef they used 15 years ago.

Perhaps Spurlock should do what most consumers do when they don't like a product. Don't buy it. I know I won't buy his book.

[Brian Hawkins]

Who the hell cares what a vegan says a hamburger tastes like anyway?

I don't care if a lesbian thinks I'm handsome or not.

[dagny]

The main problem with McDonald's hamburgers is that the patties sit around a while after coming off the grill, so that the workers can just grab 'em & add the condiments. Same with all fast food that I know of. Even BK, with all their "oooh flame broiled" stuff that makes you think it's hot off the grill -- nope. They sit around in a heated metal box.

This doesn't make them any more or less healthy and it isn't a conspiracy, it's just the price you pay for getting food fast.

[chewybrain]

100% beef. Frozen, leaner, with some chemical additives. All granted. But keep in mind also the content of the beef itself. Check for antibiotics. Check for growth hormones. Check for parts per million of insects, rodents, et cetera. 100% beef is not, by USDA requirements, 100% beef. Some cud to chew on.

[Mario]

I hardly ever eat Mc. D burgers anymore... but I do prefer them to Burger King for example. But that doesn't mean that I don't like hamburgers. Ohhh... there was this hamburger place close to the university in Trondheim, Norway, called Sesam (run by a local Turkish immigrant)... oh lord oh lord... those were the BEST burgers in the world! Can't really say I think they are much healthier than Mc D's burgers, but tastier they are! I don't think it's the meat disk that the problem in fast food... it's the white breat, the fries, and last but not least, the sugar in the coke... unantural for a body to have such a high intake of pure sugar. And.. if you drink Coke light, you get cancer... dammit!

[Wendy]

Uh, he says it doesn't taste like meat. I've actually heard a lot of people say this. This is a purely subjective thing to say, and I think that's it's obvious that it is his opinion on the TASTE of the nasty Mickey D's hamburgers, not on what they are actually made of.

[Sam]

Mario, aspartame does not give you cancer. Bookmark this page: www.snopes.com.

Whenever you hear an old wives tale about something approved by regulating agencies being toxic and deadly and carcinogenic, do yourself a favor and look it up.

[Mario]

Well.. seems some studies indicate it can give cancer, and some indicate it can't. I have absolutely no belief that it's dangerous to drink a little light/diet coke once in a while. Anyway, it was ment more or less like a joke...

[bartine]

i heard that the hamburger meat processed for fast food is made "with" 100% beef. but dry worms is added for protien. is this true?

[slaymaccasfreely@yahoo.com]

u wouldn't happen to work for the golden arches would you? Nah of course not!!!

[Tim]

Wendy, while I value Snopes to check urban legends, they are hardly "scientists" themselves. There is plenty of literature pointing to the toxicity of aspartame. Here is but one single example

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/28/health/webmd/printable712605.shtml.

What you have to keep in mind is that there is a LOT of money invested in aspartame and artificial sweeteners. The people who have this money are those who pay to conduct these studies that of course show their products are safe. That's like asking a drug dealer if crack is bad. What's he going to say?

[Tim]

Link didn't work. Here it is again http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/28/health/webmd/main712605.shtml

[cubcadet]

I know a farmer who was in New York State, and got turned around. He stopped in at a place with a series of long low buildings, and asked the guy who worked there for directions. He asked what the buildings were. The fellow told him that they were part of a worm farm owned by McDonalds Corporation. They used ground worms in their burgers, mixed with beef hearts to give the meat color and flavor.

[gas powered scooters]

Help me to find cheap gas powered scooters
http://www.world66.com/member/gas_powered_scoote

[laura]

i dnt get it, r u tryin 2 say imported forgine beef doesnt taste as gd as american beef? int that takin patritizn 2 far?