Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@chefmikeharacz
Topics: Food and Drink, McDonalds, US News
Kit Roberts
A former chef at McDonald's has revealed whether or not a certain menu item is actually shrinking.
If you've been to the shops recently, you may have noticed that some items in your basket are smaller than they were before.
The price that you actually pay has stayed the same, but the item is smaller. So you might pay $5 for a pack of butter, but instead of getting 16oz like before, you only get 12oz.
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This phenomenon is known as 'shrinkflation', and is a way for retailers to disguise rising prices.
And now many people are wondering whether one particular item at McDonald's has been subject to this, and a former chef at the chain has spilled the beans
TikToker Mike Haracz (@chefmikeharacz) is a former corporate chef at McDonald's, and looked into the example of the Quarter Pounder to see if it does indeed still weight a quarter of a pound.
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After all, if there's any menu item that's easily measurable, it's the one where the weight is literally the name.
Taking to TikTok, he asked: “Is the Quarter Pounder still a Quarter Pounder?
“So there’s like four main things that they could do to make it more affordable with the loophole of it needs to be a quarter pound before cooking.”
That's an important part of it, the weight 'quarter pounder' refers to the weight before the burger is cooked.
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Why is that important? Well, because fat will render out during the cooking process.
Mike explained: “If they use fattier beef portions, then they can actually make it fattier.
“It weighs more, but when you cook it, more of that fat is released, and you might have a smaller-looking patty.”
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If you've ever cooked a duck breast at home you can see just how much fat renders out of it. All of that is no longer in the meat, so the meat will have lost the weight.
Mike continued: “The last thing they can do is adjust the shelf life. With fresh beef, obviously, they are not adding anything else to the beef mixture.
“If they did, it would have to be on their website and declare that it is in their beef patty. There are some loopholes and processing aids, but I don’t believe they do anything like that.”
So, the weight of a patty before cooking is a quarter of a pound, but probably not afterwards, and adding other ingredients such as preservatives would add to the weight, but he doesn't think that McDonald's does that.
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UNILAD has reached out to McDonald's for comment.