Recently I read a report about salt and have always know how dangerous it can be to our health but have always wondered why McDonalds and other fast food companies add salt to french fries?
It seems that most of them put the salt on the fries as soon as they come out of the oil and why don’t they let the customer put the salt on themselves?
With all the literature on salt and it’s adverse effects doesn’t this just start kids on salt as they grow up.
I have even seen parents putting more salt on their kids fries when they get to the table.
I just wish when I was younger that I had never been exposed to salt although fortuneately I had not had a problem with it but it just amazes me that these restaurants would do this especially when a great many of their customers are children and thus get them hooked on salt at a young age.
The OP seems to be operating under the assumption that McDonald’s is a health food restaurant with one glaring exception.
When I worked there, I was told it was to season them.
I can buy that… cause if you’ve ever tried them without salt, they do not taste very good at all.
With regards to the salt = bad issue, I recently saw on a news program that some people have cut down on salt too much and need to add more to their diet. I don’t recall exactly what I heard it on…
I say eat what you like in moderation and the experts be dammed… there’s always some scientist contradicting other scientists…
I’d bet McDonalds has spent hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars to determine the exact amount of salt to add that maximizes profits (i.e. less or more salt = reduced sales). If they’d sell more fries with no salt, they’d do it.
Arjuna34
First off, I work at McDonald’s.
Second, I think it’s because people are used to it. I know when I get fries at Steak and Shake that they usually are not very salty, which gives me a bad impression of their fries. I usually don’t think to ask for salt packets, since I’m usually at the drive-thru, though I probably should.
If you don’t want salt, and you want FRESH fries (emphasized because they come out blistering hot), ask for no salt on your fries. They have to put a new basket down for you. After your fries are served, they salt them like they do everyone elses.
In my opinion, fries are dreadfully bland if not salted after frying. Often times they are not salty enough even after a worker “salts” them, because they do it quickly and there are often large amounts of fries to cover. Just a sprinkle on the top, and the bottom batch remains woefully saltless. (I’m not a salt freak, FWIW.)
Also, it makes you thirsty and buy a soda, our highest markup item.
Most people like salt on their frys, and those little salt packets can do a horrible job of evenly applying salt, especially if you are trying to salt them while driving.
I’ve always believed that they salt the fries soon after they come out of the fryer because the salt sticks to 'em better. Ever try to salt a lukewarm french fry?
~~Baloo
It is a good idea to cut down on salt if you have high blood pressure although the correlation (which makes sense theoretically) between the two is surprisingly moderate given good kidney function.
The real question here is why McDonald’s adds SUGAR to its fries (answer: it caramelizes and makes them a sexy golden). People like eating fat and salt.
I think everyone kinda misses my point.
I agree they taste better with salt on them and salt sticks easier to wet fries fresh out of the oil, but if we had not been exposed to salt as youngsters what would we be missing?
If we never had salt would we be better off?
As one mentioned everything is best in moderation but I can’t think of anything that bothers me more than exposing our kids to salt at a young age.
It just seems to me that it is the one thing in a fast food restaurant that we as consumers do not have a choice on how we want it prepared.
Although even trying to order anything other than a “meal” deal at McDonalds confuses the hell out of the employees.
Salt = thirsty
Thirsty = supersized coke
Big ass coke = $$$
$$$ times “Billions and Billions served” = $$$ times Billions and Billions
All for the price of some salt…
Next week, why Tim Hortons Doughnuts (Canadian thing) wants you to drink Coffee
Upham
Note that the “salt” added to fries is not regular table salt. Check the little salt packets at your local fast food place. They list plenty of ingredients besides sodium chloride. Usually it is salt-related stuff, but some chains like Burger King also add dextrose (sugar) to their salt packets.
I doubt that. When I worked at McD’s (about 5 or 6 years ago), the fries were salted with a normal, albeit large, salt shaker. The amount of salt on the fries is only as precise as the person with the shaker makes it.
Upham has already come up with one idea of this new marketing strategy…
I thought maybe they’ve found some top secret derivitive of MSG which can’t be detected yet! just add salt, if it doesn’t make you thirsty, it send you back for a sundae or another burger! 
It seems clear from Skwerl’s post that you can ask for fries without salt. And I’ve actually seen elderly people make this request (although from the way one particular guy kept repeating the request it seems obvious they must screw up it up most of the time). So how is McDonald’s making up servings of fries ahead of time with salt any different than making up hamburgers ahead of time with ketchup?
[brief hijack]
i don’t go to mcd’s that often but what alarms me is watching people salt their bacon cheeseburgers at wendy’s. ouch.
I don’t know why they add salt to their fries, Dandmb50, but if you convince them to stop, I’ll be forced to hunt you down, shoot you and then salt the wound. 
I know that at least when I worked there, McD’s was very good about a no-salt order. We had to go wash out the basket before we started, just in case any salt had gotten on it. After cooking, the fries went straight from the clean basket to the fry box. You couldn’t put them in the bin under the heat lamp because salt collected there.
Really? how about exposing your kids to McDonald’s at a young age? I know a family who absolutely will NOT let their young kids eat fast food, and they’re forty times healthier for it.
I hate McDonald’s, but as a kid I was trained to believe that it was a big special treat to go there, so I valued it.
In my opinion, salt ain’t the problem.
If you were never exposed to salt as a youngster, you’d be missing out on school, t.v., waffles, and just about everything else in life because you’d be dead.
Well, that’s not exactly true, but it’s pretty close. Salt provides two nutrients that your body needs: sodium and chloride. While these nutrients occur naturally in foods, they usually do so in the form of salt. I can’t really imagine that a young child could survive without eating any salt whatsoever.
Perhaps you’re complaining about adding salt to food. True, there’s probably enough naturally occuring salt in foods to satisfy your nutritional requirements. But for a few thousand years, salt has been added to foods to make them more palatable.
Try this fun home experiment: go to McD’s and get two orders of fries, one with salt and one without. Wait 20 minutes, and then try each one. Notice how the unsalted fries and cold and just sort of blah? Notice how the salted fries are-- well, cold and a little less blah because at least they’re salty? At least they’ve got some kind of taste. Practically every society has used salt to give flavor to otherwise bland (or spoiled) foods. Heck, the Romans used to pay soldiers in salt. The Pilgrims and the Pioneers salted the shit out of their meat to keep it from spoling during trips. Salt is good for you. It loves you. All this crap in the early 80’s about “salt causes high blood pressure” has been largely repudiated by subsequent studies. (Links on request.)
Oh, and as for “what would we be missing” without salt: approximately 25%* of taste sensations. You may remember from 5th grade science that the tongue has taste receptors for sweet, sour, salty, and bitter tastes.
- Yeah, yeah, I know, 20%.
Umm, well, ok – maybe they spent millions and determined that using a large salt shaker was precise enough, but that you had to have SOME salt
Arjuna34