McDonalds Doesn't Want Our Ideas

[GlorifiedRice]

So I love those crunchy crispy green beans from Trader Joes. They are made in Asia by a special low temperature vacuum fry method.

It lowers the fat content of veggies fried in this method.

http://www.sciencedi...023643808000431

The Asian market has other varieties (mixed crispy veg, crispy okra, Potatoes)

http://i.imgur.com/a4D5U.jpg

I also hate the skinless (meaning no nutrition) apples with carmel dip from McDonalds in the Happy Meals. Its all sugar!

So I called up McDonalds to tell them about the green beans, they could put American Farmers to work by growing green beans for a healthier

Happy Meal side. Dust them with ranch or nacho cheese flavor!

I was also going to tell them they should sponsor a nationwide contest to find a healthy, nutritious veggie based snack, for the Happy Meals...

So I called em up and before I even got the green bean idea out, they stopped me and told me "A court of law will not allow us to even

listen to ideas from consumers" and hung up.

HUH? what gives?

Edited January 6, 2013 by GlorifiedRice (log)

[ChrisTaylor]

I guess there's a fear that, hey, you give them this idea and they run with it and then you're expecting money. I mean, if some multinational business worth many millions of dollars was using one of my ideas, I'd sure as shit want a cut.

[OliverB]

No sane person should eat there, so it doesn't really matter. They don't sell food, they sell weird science experiments :-D

[gfweb]

All the nutrition in an apple is in the peel? Who knew?

[huiray]

No sane person should eat there, so it doesn't really matter. They don't sell food, they sell weird science experiments :-D

Oh, come on. At the least the Filet-O-Fish is a thing of beauty. In fact, I just had two of 'em today for lunch. :-)

[ruthcooks]

It's obvious...they don't want to be sued. If they listen or talk to you, they might already have a similar idea in the works. When they come out with a similar product, you could claim that you stole their idea.

They probably record all those calls so they can prove they didn't get the idea from you.

[Jason Perlow]

No sane person should eat there, so it doesn't really matter. They don't sell food, they sell weird science experiments :-D

Speak for yourself. They still have some of the best French fries in the fast food industry, and an excellent coffee program that has vastly improved in recent years. Better than dunkin or starbucks for regular coffee, if we are talking about a location with a full blown mccafe. Just for those two items alone McDonald's is excellent.

[Shalmanese]

McDonalds would get so many unsolicited suggestions every year that if they independently comes out with any sort of new food, there would be dozens of people claiming prior credit for inventing it and potentially tying them up in costly litigation. The easiest way to prevent this is to refuse to listen to any unsolicited suggestion, thus proving that it would have been impossible for them to have stolen the idea from someone else.

This is not an uncommon practice and many organizations of various sizes do this (including authors and other creative workers).

[Martin Fisher]

McBaffling!!!!

I agree, the coffee isn't bad, considering.

The fries are horrible compared to those of yesteryear....I miss the beef fat.

Same with my beloved Filet-O-Fish.....lately, they're flavorless!!!

It is was it is.

Growing up in the very rural area, it was a rare treat (a couple times a year) to go to such a place when I was a kid.

I still hit McDonald's a couple times a year out of nostalgia.

~Martin

[Jason Perlow]

I miss the beef tallow flavored oil they used as well but the lawsuits by vegan and vegetarian customers put the kibosh on that.

[GlorifiedRice]

Okay then why don't other companies do the same?

They welcome ideas and suggestions

[Jason Perlow]

Other companies haven't been besieged with lawsuits at such scale. We're talking about the largest fast food franchise on the planet here.

[Crouton]

They stopped cooking fries in beef fat because of lawsuits? I would have assumed it was because vegetable oil was cheaper and last longer.

[Jason Perlow]

They stopped cooking fries in beef fat because of lawsuits? I would have assumed it was because vegetable oil was cheaper and last longer.

There was a rather well-publicized lawsuit about 10 years ago about a Hindu man who bought french fries at McDonalds in the US and when he found out the frying medium was seasoned with beef fat, he freaked out and it became a group lawsuit. Since then it is my understanding Mcdonalds stopped flavoring the oil with Beef Tallow.

One of eG's founding members, Holly Moore, worked for McDonalds and may have some history as to when they changed their frying oil mixture. At one point it had a much higher proprtion of beef fat to vegetable oil.

Edit: the article linked above cites that in 1990 McDonalds switched from beef fat to vegetable oil entirely, but used beef essences to flavor the oil, making it not a vegetarian product.

Edited January 6, 2013 by Jason Perlow (log)

[Martin Fisher]

As Jason posted......In 1990, they switched from the 93% beef tallow and 7% cottonseed oil that had been used for many years to 100% vegetable oil, but added beef flavoring extract.....bad move!!!!!

In recent years there have been some lawsuits initiated by vegans and vegetarians over the use of beef flavoring extract. Some have reached settlement.

Beef flavoring is still used.

From the McDonald's website:

"French Fries:Potatoes, vegetable oil (canola oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavor [wheat and milk derivatives]*, citric acid [preservative]), dextrose, sodium acidpyrophosphate (maintain color), salt. Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added topreserve freshness). Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent.CONTAINS: WHEAT AND MILK.*(Natural beef flavor contains hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk as starting ingredients)."

~Martin

Edited January 6, 2013 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[Tri2Cook]

Unless McDonalds was actively and intentionally hiding the use of meat products, the lawsuits and those initiating them should be/should have been told to take a flying leap. Punishing them because they weren't actively advertising it is/was ridiculous. If you have special requirements for the food you eat, you take the trouble to find out if something does or does not fit within your parameters. If the information isn't available or the company refuses to provide it, then maybe you have a right to complain... though I'd be more inclined to say you have the right to not give them your money.

[Jason Perlow]

How the hell do you make beef flavor out of wheat and milk derivatives?

[Martin Fisher]

Unless McDonalds was actively and intentionally hiding the use of meat products,

That was the basis of the lawsuits.... misrepresentation.

http://www.compassionatespirit.com/images/Appeals-court.PDF

~Martin

[Martin Fisher]

How the hell do you make beef flavor out of wheat and milk derivatives?

Like all garbage beef base, it contains cheap flavor boosters...."Natural beef flavor contains hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk."

~Martin

[IndyRob]

How the hell do you make beef flavor out of wheat and milk derivatives?

Feed it to a calf.

[Keith_W]

Like all garbage beef base, it contains cheap flavor boosters...."Natural beef flavor contains hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk."

Aw, come on now. I know a guy who used to be a food scientist in McDonald's. I may not go there to eat myself, but I have nothing but admiration for him and the work that he did. Think about the challenge involved in making sure that your products meet the same standards everywhere in the world, when the food is prepared by 17 year olds who have never cooked in their life. Think of the logistics, and all the different suppliers, and how you would get them to meet your standards.

People on eG go gaga about Transglutaminase, LN2, sous-vide, and other innovations that are considered old hat by those veteran food scientists who work in places like McDonalds. Is it the snob factor that makes techniques only respectable when they migrate from the industrial to the artisan kitchen? Because nothing diminishes the fact that these amazing innovations would not have taken place without companies like McDonalds to drive them.

As for how wheat and milk derivatives can be turned into beef flavour - they are all amino acids and sugars. All you need to do is know how to rearrange them to get the flavour profile you want.

[Martin Fisher]

I'm not going to pretend that I like beef base when I don't.....that would be dishonest.

Certainly not just because some food scientist at McDonald's is simply doing his job.

Any beef base that I've ever had the displeasure of trying has been horrible stuff.

In the above case, it's use has led to a product that's sadly inferior compared to the good-old-days when beef tallow was used....so I hardly consider it an innovation.

But, as always, I'll try to keep an open mind!!!

Maybe you can suggest a good beef base!?

~Martin

Edited January 7, 2013 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[pbear]

This is all a bit off-topic, but since we're discussing the french fry case, an important thing to know is that, at the time, the ingredients list on McDonald's website listed only "natural flavoring" without disclosing the source. (I know this of my own knowledge, as I went to the site after reading one of the early news articles on the controversy.) Identifying it as "natural beef flavor" came later, presumably because of the lawsuits.

[janeer]

It's obvious...they don't want to be sued. If they listen or talk to you, they might already have a similar idea in the works. When they come out with a similar product, you could claim that you stole their idea.

They probably record all those calls so they can prove they didn't get the idea from you.

There were several responses like this. Once disclosed (told to someone else), there is no basis for a claim; McDonald's could freely use any idea so given that was not legally protected or which was not provided under a confidentiality agreement. Also, the Asian company might already have a patent on the process, and since all major corporations patent in all countries, it would already be available for license or, they could choose not to do so. And even if not patented, if it has been available for a while there is an "on sale bar" that prevents it from being claimed--it's like it's in the public domain. So there is some other reason--like they don't want to be bothered dealing with everyone; they have their own research.