How McDonald's Fries are Made

"Billions and billions served" is the parlance proudly touted high on Golden-Arches out side of McDonald's restaurants the world over. It would probably be safe to assume that the majority of those billions and billions of customers that have been served over the years have sampled at least one order of McDonald's French fries.

Have you ever stopped and considered just how that hot, crispy order of lightly salted, golden French fries was brought together with that juicy Big Mac that you had for lunch? Driven by personal curiosity I decided to investigate the various steps involved.

Logic told me the best place to "get the dirt," would be a local potato farm. Fortunately, I knew just the man to call. Rob Gines, of Pocatello, has worked every job that "the field," has to offer. Through him I learned that the "spud farmer's" job starts in early March, when they buy their seed. This seed is then stored in root or "spud cellars" until May, at which time it is cut by hand. This freshly cut seed is then planted. After four months of nurturing, and "plenty of water and luck," the potatoes are ready to harvest. Large combines, pulled by tractors, harvest and load the potatoes into "ten wheel trucks" that drive slowly alongside them. The farmer then either sells and delivers the potatoes to local processors, or stores them for sale at a later date.

Enter into my investigation another old friend, LeAron Plackett. Le has spent the last thirteen years working at Lamb Weston, one of the largest processing plants in the area. It is common knowledge that Lamb Weston has contracts McDonald's to produce their French fries. In his years with the company Le has worked his way from the lowest job in the plant to his current position as an operator. He knows both the plant and the process from end to end and was more then happy to share that knowledge with me.

Le says, "The process is quite involved and takes about an hour and a half." He also told me of the more then twenty steps involved, as he verbally walked me through the process. He began with the potatoes, purchased from the farmers and stored in root cellars, being "flumed into the plant." A flume is nothing more than a small stainless steel canal that uses water to move the "product" through the plant and is only one of four methods used. The others are: conveyer belts, shakers and slides. The rate of line flow is computer controlled.

Once flumed inside the plant, the potatoes are peeled through a process of steaming and tumbling. They then move down the line and are rinsed free of any particles left from this phase of the process.

The product then moves to the "sizers." The sizers use various sized grates to separate the potatoes by length. The plant follows strict length specifications set by McDonald's. This is only the first of three attempts to comply with those specifications.

This product then goes to the "trim line," where "trimmers," who hand cut any defects from it, visually inspect it.

The product is then pre-cooked in boiling water for three minutes to soften it in preparation for introduction into a pipe system called the "lamb guns." Here water pressure moves the product through a series of blades, which cut it into French fries.

The fries are then deposited in the "wet graders." This is the second attempt to screen out the shorter product.

From the wet graders the fries are flumed to the "A.D.R. room." A.D.R. stands for automatic defect removal. The A.D.R. uses blades to re move laser-detected defects.

The fries are then flumed out of the A.D.R. room to the "blancher." The blancher is a large vessel filled with one hundred and seventy degree water. The trip through the blancher takes about fifteen minutes and it is here, according to Le, that "the chemicals are added." Le was not sure what all is added, but I later found a pamphlet published in June of 1991 by McDonald's entitled, "McDonald's food: the facts." It states that both dextrose and sodium acid pyrophosphate are added here to enhance color, as well as to protect the flavor, of the finished product.

After the fries leave the blancher, they are dried and then it's off to the "fryer," which is filled with one hundred percent vegetable oil. The oil is heated to three hundred and sixty five degrees and the fries take a fifty second dip before being conveyed to the "de-oiler shaker," where excess oil is "shook off."

A six-minute wait on the "cooling belt" precedes a transfer to the "freezer belt," which runs the product through a "blast freezer." This phase takes six minutes and drops the products temperature down to, a chilling, fourteen degrees Fahrenheit. The now frozen product is conveyed to "packaging," and dropped onto shakers, which move it over the "frozen graders." This is the third attempt to meet length specifications set by McDonald's.

The fries are conveyed past an "inspector," to the "packaging machine," where they are packaged in bags. The bags are then conveyed through a metal detector to the "dynapak." Here they are packed, in cartons, six bags to a carton. These cartons, or "cases," are then sealed in a "glue press," and "automatically palletized," thirty-six cases to a pallet. Each of these pallets is then dated, wrapped in shrink-wrap, and moved on rollers the freezers.

From there, Le told me the fries are shipped out on trucks to an area distributor who is also contracted by McDonald's. This distributor is based out of Denver Colorado, and operates under the moniker, Mile High Frozen Foods. A quick call to the long distance directory and I was soon talking to a truck driver in Denver named Barbara Little. She told me that she had driven for Mile High Frozen Foods for ten years and had in fact driven the Lamb Weston route for most of that time. I asked her which states her company distributed McDonald's fries to and she told me they delivered "all of McDonald's frozen foods" to "all" the McDonalds stores in six states: Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. She also told me that all of the McDonald's fries produced in Idaho were first shipped to Denver and then shipped back to Idaho to be distributed to the various McDonalds stores. The last question I asked of Barbara was how many cases of fries one of her company's trucks could haul in a single trip. "Twelve hundred" was the answer she gave.

It was at this point in my investigation that I turned my attention towards Lisa Hansen. Lisa is the area supervisor for the all the local area McDonald's stores, and I found her to be quite helpful. She told me that on averages each of the local stores use approximately one hundred and twenty, thirty-six pound cases of fries every four days. She went on to tell me that one hundred pounds of frozen fries produces four hundred orders of cooked small fries. Once the fries are delivered the "outlets," they are stored in large walk-in freezers until they are needed. When an order is received for the fries, they are deep fried in pure vegetable oil at three hundred and sixty degrees for three and a half minutes, lightly salted, and finally served up hot and crispy to the customer.

In the beginning I had no idea just how much time and effort actually went in to something as seemingly simple as an order of McDonald's french fries. As a result of my investigation into the processes involved I no longer look at it the same. No big deal, just a little food for thought the next time someone ask you...

"Would you like fries with that?"