"FRENCH FRIED FACTS"

Have you ever noticed that whenever you consume french fries from McDonald's the quality and taste is always extremely consistent and has a certain standard to it. Well I hope you will be surprised to find out that McDonald's follows a strict 16 step procedure merely to make sure that the french fries you consume are the best. This procedure is strictly followed at every McDonald's across the globe, and if you are surprised, yes ! the same procedure is followed in Pakistan as well. Just because the Federal Department for Health and Hygiene does not make routine checks is not an excuse for McDonald's to relax standards.


Following are the steps which go into making some of the worlds best tasting french fries:

1. First of all potatoes are harvested from more than 300 square kilometres of farmland across the country. Currently Pakistan has also begun to supply potatoes for McDonald's.
2. Then the potatoes are transported to factories in major cities (Lahore and Karachi). In Pakistan McDonald's processes about 100 tonnes of fries a year. Before this Pakistan had frozen french fries imported from Kuwait.
3. The potatoes, after reaching the factory, are checked for flavor, colour and size.
4. Then soil and dirt is cleaned off the potatoes and vegetable matter is seperated out.
5. Small stones and grit is removed afterwards in a centrifugal machine.
6. The potatoes are then steamed, peeled and the defected areas removed by hand.
7. The potatoes are cut into strips and inspected for consistency in size after which they are blanched and dried.
8. Then the potato strips are par fried in a process fryer in pure vegetable oil.
9. After being fried the strips are cooled and quick frozen so as to retain natural flavors.
10. The french fries are then cooled to -18 degrees and packed after being inspected.
11. Then the sealed bags are passed through metal detectors.
12. Every thirty minutes the fries are tested by quality control personnel.
13. 16 criteria have to be met including color, consistency of length, texture, flavor and temperature.
14. The fries are held in cold stores at -25 degrees before being distributed to the restaurants on refrigerated lorries.
15. Fries arrive at the restaurant where a 16 step checklist is followed for preparation.
16. The fries are kept for no longer than 5 minutes after being fried, this is called the holding time, within this time if the fries are not sold they are disposed. KFC has a 7 minute holding time. You may have noticed that the fries at KFC are usually not very fresh, well this is the reason.

So next time if you walk into your nearest McDonald's food chain I hope you will remember this list while chomping down those excellent French Fries. And I also hope that you will appreciate the effort that McDonald's goes through only to serve you a mere bag of French Fries. I havent even started on how they prepare the Big Mac, that is even more complicated than this!