# What's in a McDonald's burger? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 25, 2006, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-mcdonalds-burger/354205 "2006-04-25T21:24:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Polerius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d78d45/32.png) [@Polerius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polerius)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-mcdonalds-burger/354205/1 "2006-04-25T21:24:44Z")
Which parts of the cow are in a McDonald’s burger? Only the type of meat we normally buy in supermarkets, or meat plus all the horrible parts of the cow McDonald detractors claim go into their burgers? ---
**Author:** ![hawksgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ed655f/32.png) [@hawksgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawksgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-mcdonalds-burger/354205/2 "2006-04-25T21:29:43Z")
All the horrible parts - meat. Cattle are expensive to raise, and the beef industry won’t waste a bit of product. The don’t include what you would buy at the market (except for ground beef) because it can be sold for more as retail cuts than in a patty. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-mcdonalds-burger/354205/3 "2006-04-25T21:32:31Z")
McDonald’s patties are made predominantly of very lean steer meat (which is cheap but largely flavourless), with some very fatty beef for taste. It is, as they company claims, 100% beef, which means that it cannot contain “meat by-products,” grain fillers or any other nastiness. ---
**Author:** ![hawksgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ed655f/32.png) [@hawksgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawksgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-mcdonalds-burger/354205/4 "2006-04-25T21:36:39Z")
By horrible parts I meant not organs, but not good pieces of meat either. I just realized that even if I know that, I don’t communicate it well. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-mcdonalds-burger/354205/5 "2006-04-25T21:44:36Z")
Wow, got that a little backwards with a bonus typo thrown in. [Cecil](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_097b.html) gives a slightly different answer. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-mcdonalds-burger/354205/6 "2006-04-25T21:50:05Z")
> [@Cerowyn](#): > > Wow, got that a little backwards with a bonus typo thrown in. Sigh. It seemed so simple. A quick answer to a question answered incorrectly. Just to clarify, my comment about “getting it backwards” and a “different answer” refers to my own post, not to **hawksgirl** ’s intervening one. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-mcdonalds-burger/354205/7 "2006-04-26T11:34:14Z")
> [@Cerowyn](#): > > McDonald’s patties are made predominantly of very lean steer meat (which is cheap but largely flavourless), with some very fatty beef for taste. It is, as they company claims, 100% beef, which means that it cannot contain “meat by-products,” grain fillers or any other nastiness. Actually in the USA, it’s predominantly _cow_ meat, that is, expired dairy cows, which are very lean and flavorless. Typically we don’t eat cow, we eat steer, so this meat comes off as being rather inexpensive. But, it being dry and relatively tasteless, fat sluiced off from the normal beef industry is added to give the McD-burgers their 10% to 20% fat content. There’s nothing funny at all in McDonald’s hamburgers, and if they knew how to _prepare_ the things correctly, they’d make pretty decent little sandwiches. I can say from experience that if you remove the burger patties from the restaurant and make them “normally” they’re decent, regular burgers. McD’s has a lot of merits, but good burgers aren’t their _razon de ser_ (don’t know how to spell that in French so there you go in Spanish). If you like hamburgers at home, one of the best tips to purchasing hamburger is to purchase the cheapest package of “hamburger” that you can find. Don’t look for “ground chuck” or “ground round” or any of those other homogenous ground beef meats. The thing labelled as “hamburger” will be a composite of the boring bits _as well as_ the gooder bits of meat from the cow (that’s vernacular; it really is a steer, and yes, I’m aware that I wrote “gooder”), plus the fat content to make it good ‘n’ juicy. Plus you save several cents per pound. Of course if money is no object, you could just buy the entire good cut of meat and grind it yourself – that gives you the added benefit of being able to make a rare to medium-rare burger _safely_. ---
**Author:** ![Ponster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponster/32/17081_2.png) [@Ponster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponster)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-mcdonalds-burger/354205/8 "2006-04-26T11:49:47Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > Of course if money is no object, you could just buy the entire good cut of meat and grind it yourself – that gives you the added benefit of being able to make a rare to medium-rare burger _safely_. Can’t you just ask your local butcher for a good cut of meat and ask for it to be ground for you? ---
**Author:** ![dre2xl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@dre2xl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dre2xl)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-mcdonalds-burger/354205/9 "2006-04-26T12:32:33Z")
According to Fast Food nation, the meat is low-quality meat from low-quality cows. They don’t grind up organs or anything, but the meat itself is extremely flavorless as other posters have said. The meat is then injected with flavorings and colors to make it taste & look more like a real hamburger. They do the same thing for the fries and even for the bun, too, FWIW. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-mcdonalds-burger/354205/10 "2006-04-26T12:35:16Z")
McDonalds in Australia insist they only have 100%, Export Quality, Australian Beef in their patties, with dash of salt & pepper. Of course, as others have said “100% Beef” doesn’t mean it’s made from the same stuff as a Prime Rib or a Filet Mignon, however… ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-mcdonalds-burger/354205/11 "2006-04-26T12:39:20Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > Of course if money is no object, you could just buy the entire good cut of meat and grind it yourself – that gives you the added benefit of being able to make a rare to medium-rare burger _safely_. I can’t see how this is safe unless you grind it after cooking it to kill pathogens on the surface. Is that what you’re suggesting? ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-mcdonalds-burger/354205/12 "2006-04-26T14:21:46Z")
> [@riker1384](#): > > I can’t see how this is safe unless you grind it after cooking it to kill pathogens on the surface. Is that what you’re suggesting? Why would this be unsafe? How do you think they make the ground beef you buy at the store? ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-mcdonalds-burger/354205/13 "2006-04-26T14:37:38Z")
> [@flurb](#): > > Why would this be unsafe? How do you think they make the ground beef you buy at the store? Generally you will find pathogens on the surface of the beef. Grinding it distributes them throughout so you have to cook it all the way through to kill them. If you have a solid piece of meat, you only have to cook the outside. If you grind just one piece of meat it might be safer than bulk ground beef, since that one piece might be somewhat less likely to be really heavily contaminated, but if you make it into a medium-rare burger there can be pathogens on the inside. It’d probably be about as safe as eating a completely raw steak. On the other hand, if you ground it after the outside was cooked, then it could be safe. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-mcdonalds-burger/354205/14 "2006-04-26T14:43:22Z")
> [@dre2xl](#): > > According to Fast Food nation, the meat is low-quality meat from low-quality cows. They don’t grind up organs or anything, but the meat itself is extremely flavorless as other posters have said. The meat is then injected with flavorings and colors to make it taste & look more like a real hamburger. > > They do the same thing for the fries and even for the bun, too, FWIW. Got a more qualified cite than _Fast Food Nation_? That film can be described charitibly as a dubious source at best. ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-mcdonalds-burger/354205/15 "2006-04-26T14:53:42Z")
> [@Cerowyn](#): > > Got a more qualified cite than _Fast Food Nation_? That film can be described charitibly as a dubious source at best. You’re thinking of Super Size Me. Fast Food Nation was a book. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-mcdonalds-burger/354205/16 "2006-04-26T15:45:07Z")
> [@Ponster](#): > > Can’t you just ask your local butcher for a good cut of meat and ask for it to be ground for you? You could, but I wouldn’t. I don’t think they clean and sanitize their grinder between every, single use, and what you’re trying to do is minimize – not eliminate – internal contamination of the meat with bacteria. If you do know that the grinder at the butcher is sanitized, then go ahead, but use the meat as soon as humanly possible. Refrigeration doesn’t stop the growth of nasties, and now that the meat is ground, there’s a lot of surface (yeah, internal surface) available for further contamination and colony growth. Contamination of a cut of meat only happens on the surface, so if you’re paranoid you could soak your steak in bleach or iodine solution, but a good rinse ought to get of a significant number of nasties if you think that’s the right thing to do. Me? I’d just salt and massage the exterior and let it be - high salt content kills bugs, too. Nothing’s going to kill everything, but then you ingest bad stuff all the time anyway. You’re just trying no to overwhelm your immune system. It’s better/easier to grind cold meat ('cos of the fat), but I like to cook with room temperature meat better, especially on the grill. So weigh your options and risks here, too. Finally, you’ve got a piece of steak that may or may not have a bunch of bacteria on the surface. Once you grind it, it’s more or less evenly distributed. Because you’re cooking to medium rare or medium, you’re effectively destroying about 50% of the distribution in the meat. So if you’re healthy, not too old, and not too young, you’re consuming a miniscule amount of bacteria that has only a teensy, weensy chance of making you ill. Commercial ground beef and ground beef that’s not very freshly ground has bacteria colonies that _are_ potentially hazardous to your health. Witness all of the _e. coli_ outbreaks that used to be reported before Mad Cow was more newsworthy. We could solve the problem with irradiated meat, but Americans are too paranoid – can’t eat the bugs, but don’t want to use radiation to kill 'em. Now overall I’m not saying to throw food hygeine out the window. No siree! You’ve just got to recognize what is dangerous, what isn’t, and be able and willing to play the odds – and remember that not all odds are bad odds. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-mcdonalds-burger/354205/17 "2006-04-26T15:49:34Z")
> [@riker1384](#): > > Generally you will find pathogens on the surface of the beef. Grinding it distributes them throughout so you have to cook it all the way through to kill them. If you have a solid piece of meat, you only have to cook the outside. > > If you grind just one piece of meat it might be safer than bulk ground beef, since that one piece might be somewhat less likely to be really heavily contaminated, but if you make it into a medium-rare burger there can be pathogens on the inside. It’d probably be about as safe as eating a completely raw steak. On the other hand, if you ground it after the outside was cooked, then it could be safe. The other issue is that supermarket beef is probably the result of someone, somewhere, dumping various parts of a gazillion cows into a grinder. If any one of those cow parts were contaminated in some way, the whole batch is then potentially contaminated. OTOH, if you take one single slab o’ beef, determine that it’s not spoiled, wash it so that the outside is most likely free of ordinary contaminants (dirt, fly specks, feces), and grind it up, the resulting stuff is probably safe to eat rare. At least, a lot safer than the commercially ground beef. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-mcdonalds-burger/354205/18 "2006-04-26T16:20:07Z")
> [@Ponster](#): > > Can’t you just ask your local butcher for a good cut of meat and ask for it to be ground for you? You’ll probably be a bit disappointed. Not long ago, we bought a bunch of chuck roasts that were on sale for $1.99 a pound at a time “hamburger” was selling for $3.69 a pound and ran it through our grinder. There’s not enough fat in the ground chuck that we had to make a good hamburger. They fall apart in cooking and are a bit low on flavor. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-mcdonalds-burger/354205/19 "2006-04-26T16:46:14Z")
In Canada, in the late 1980s, I went on a temp job in Toronto to the plant where they make and process hamburger patties for McDonald’s. There, it started with a two-storey high bin of cuts of beef. The bin was upended into a grinder. From there it was squeezed into a tube and shaped into patties. Then, down a conveyor through a freon chamber, where they were spat out at the end, frozen solid, packed in boxes, sealed and stacked on pallets. This was a one-person operation, at the end of the line. No humans touched the meat until it was at the box-packing stage. If they do it any differently in the US or elsewhere, I don’t know. But I have seen how it was done in Canada. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-mcdonalds-burger/354205/20 "2006-04-26T16:52:14Z")
> [@](#): > > What’s in a McDonald’s burger? Twoallbeefpattiesspecialsaucelettucecheesepicklesonionsonasesameseedbun. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-mcdonalds-burger/354205.md?page=2)