Must Be Snowing in Hell Today

Posted By elissa on Sep 7, 2010 | 1 comment

… Because I’m actually posting a link to an article defending McDonald’s against frequently-occurring charges that its food is so loaded up with preservatives, it won’t spoil.

The truth is pretty prosaic: while the “food” certainly contains some preservatives (like many other processed food products), they’re pretty tame (like citric acid and calcium propionate). The actual secret of the foods’ longevity is what we in the food science world call “water activity.” Simply put, there needs to be a certain percentage of free water available for bacteria and molds to grow.  Low water activity = no growth of spoilage organisms.  As Riddih Shah explains at Salon.com:

McDonald’s French fries, for example, which have repeatedly proven their hardiness to spoilage, contain citric acid as a preservative. But a bigger factor might be the fat content of the fries. About 50 percent of the total 250 calories contained in a small order of fries come from fat. “Anything that is high in fat will be low in moisture,” says Barry Swanson, a professor at the Washington State University department of food science. And low moisture means less room for mold to grow. They’re crisper and thinner than regular fries, which means that they’re exposed to greater heat per surface area, killing pathogens and reducing water content. McDonald’s fries are also coated in a nice, thick layer of salt, something we’ve been using as a natural preservative for the last 2,500 years

…Ultimately, says O’Keefe, the McDonald’s haters have gotten their science wrong. “The ingredients are similar to anything you’d see in processed fast food,” he says. For better or for worse, McDonald’s is no more a chemical laboratory of secret compounds designed to embalm us from the inside than any other processed food maker. A Happy Meal manages to stay unspoiled because it is fatty, salty and practically empty of nutrients — which, really, are all good reasons to avoid it anyway.

McD’s food should be avoided because it’s energy-dense and relatively nutrient-poor. Needless to state, the preservatives are the least of its problems.