McDonalds French Fries - Essay Example

The product is cooked in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils which may contain partially hydrogenated soybean oil and/or partially hydrogenated corn oil and/or partially hydrogenated canola oil and/or cottonseed oil and/or sunflower oil and/or corn oil). Mc Donald’s french fries also contain derivatives of wheat and dairy.

I used to eat McDonald’s french fries every week, sometimes even more especially when I hang out with my friends more often than usual. However, I have recently come across several articles claiming that McDonald’s french fries contain a considerable amount of trans-fat oil and so I have limited my consumption of the product since then. However, the rest of the world still apparently enjoys eating McDonald’s french fries as millions of pounds of the product are being consumed every day. This probably explains, in part, the health issues faced by the world’s population since a small pack of french fries could amount to 250 calories, 13 grams of fat with 2.5 grams of that being saturated fat, and 140mg of sodium. The unknown composition of “natural flavorings” is likewise seemingly not a concern for McDonald’s french fries consumers.

McDonald’s is apparently among the leaders in the industry when it comes to environmentally-conscious policies. The company website mentions that all of McDonald’s bags, tray liners, and cup carriers are made from 100 percent recycled paper while packaging of hot foods including french fries are made from cartons or paper packaging made from 72% recycled paper. In addition, a decrease in the cardboard weight of corrugated containers and the introduction of larger shipping containers during product transport have helped minimize the number of packaging materials required by McDonald's.  Also, the company is employing the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Dispose of the program which aims to decrease wastage as much as possible. They have reduced the use of their Styrofoam packaging and recycled the cooking oil that they use (Wasik).

Still, McDonald’s constantly receives criticisms for a number of their policies from people who claim that a lot of these are actually just smokescreen mechanisms of the company in its aim to turn out higher profits in the long run.