McDonald's recycles its used cooking oil by converting it into biodiesel, which then fuels their delivery trucks and other vehicles, creating a closed-loop system that reduces reliance on petroleum diesel and lowers carbon emissions. This process involves collecting the oil from restaurants, processing it at bio refineries, and then using the resulting renewable fuel for their logistics, with some initiatives even seeing the oil used for jet fuel.
In 2020, McDonald's announced an initiative where all used cooking oil from their fryers would be recycled through a renewable diesel program.
On its website, McDonald's says it filters its oil daily and changes it at "regular intervals" ... which is a bit of a corporate non-answer, and what it really means is actually anyone's guess. Because the truth, according to McDonald's employees, varies wildly.
Yes, we do recycle the used cooking oil from our kitchens into biodiesel which is then used to fuel around 42% of our delivery fleet. However, due to more efficient frying vats the amount of used cooking oil our restaurants recycle has actually decreased over time.
We use a blend including canola and sunflower oils to cook with. Like all vegetable oils, it's cholesterol free. We use only 100% Aussie grown beef to serve you the best beef burgers, sourced from farmers across the country. Our Angus beef is 100% Aussie grown.
Now that the sting of miracle french fries has passed, you may be wondering, “But what about the fries?” As we mentioned before dimethylpolysiloxane (or PDMS) is the silicone compound McDonald's uses in its french fries to prevent the oil from foaming.
We stopped using tallow primarily due to health concerns in the late 20th century, specifically its high saturated fat content linked to heart disease, leading to a shift towards vegetable oils in commercial cooking, though some trends now re-evaluate its place in diets. A major catalyst was a public health campaign by Philip Sokolof in the 1980s, who used newspaper ads to highlight saturated fats in foods like McDonald's fries, causing companies to switch oils to avoid backlash and lawsuits, notes Yahoo and Reddit r/todayilearned.
In July 1990, McDonald's announced that it would "start cooking their french fries and hash brown potatoes in 100% vegetable oil" and stop using a "blend of vegetable oil and beef tallow," said The New York Times.
While the issue had been fully contained — and any contaminated product associated with this issue had been removed from our supply chain as of October 22, 2024 – it can now be classified as “closed” and remediated. This also closes out all known public health reviews of the issue.
The taste of a french fry is largely determined by the cooking oil. For decades McDonald's cooked its french fries in a mixture of about seven percent cottonseed oil and 93 percent beef tallow. The mixture gave the fries their unique flavor -‐-‐ and more saturated beef fat per ounce than a McDonald's hamburger.
Some of this oil will be absorbed by the potato on cooking. The cooked Fries will therefore end up being approximately 86% potato - the remaining 14% being vegetable oil.
Food bits and particles, fluctuating oil temperatures, as well frequent “low smoke point” use can cause the oil to become rancid. This rancidity can give your food an “off” flavor. To dive even deeper, every time you heat the oil, the molecules in the oil break down bit by bit.
A Flavor Replaced, Not Restored
For vegetarians, it also introduced a new dilemma: despite using vegetable oil, the fries still contained animal-derived flavoring. McDonald's has since changed its oils multiple times—to soy-corn blends in 2002 and trans-fat-free formulas in 2007—but none restored the original taste.
Sweden is the country famous for achieving an extraordinary waste management success, recycling or converting nearly 99% of its household waste into energy, meaning less than 1% goes to landfills, leading them to even import trash from other nations like the UK and Norway to keep their energy plants running. This remarkable feat stems from strong policies, advanced waste-to-energy (WtE) technology, and public participation in sorting waste into recyclables and fuel.
The 10 countries with the highest food waste in the world
Globally, the three countries with the most food waste in 2022 were China – over 108 million tonnes –, India – over 78 million tonnes – and Pakistan – over 30 million tonnes. These figures refer to food waste generated by households.
(Both restaurants acknowledge that their fries are cooked in the same oil as other meat or fish products.) McDonald's fries, however, are made with a flavoring that includes hydrolyzed milk — a non-vegan ingredient.
HealthDay News — US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials have uncovered dozens of violations at a McDonald's supplier tied to last year's deadly E. coli outbreak, which sickened over 100 people and led to a massive recall of onions used in the fast-food giant's signature Quarter Pounder burgers.
Yogurt: Yogurt with live and active cultures is an excellent source of “friendly” bacteria, also known as probiotics. Opt for plain yogurt, which has zero added sugars. Mix in fruit for a tasty breakfast or snack. Yogurt drinks can contain high numbers of bacteria that are good for the gut.
coli – while lettuce is consumed raw. Rinsing lettuce does help, Dong said, but doesn't remove all the bacteria because of their tight attachment to the leaf. The researchers also inoculated cut leaves with E. coli O157:H7 to compare the intact surface of a whole leaf to the damaged surface of a cut leaf.
But nutrition experts quoted in the article cautioned against using beef tallow, noting that it is high in saturated fat, which is much worse for heart health than unsaturated fats such as vegetable oils (which include seed oils and others such as olive and coconut).
More often than not, its' the preparation steps that you take or the oil that you are using. Former Simplot training director, Greg Shannon, used to travel the USA and foreign countries diagnosing problems, and more often than not this is what he found: It's the oil. This is 90% of the typical off-flavor source.
Which restaurant chains are using beef tallow?
“Beef tallow is high in saturated fats,” says Ansari. “High intakes of saturated fat contribute to elevated LDL cholesterol levels and increase risk of heart disease.”
No, Crisco is not lard; lard is rendered animal fat (usually pork), while Crisco is a brand of vegetable shortening made from hydrogenated plant oils like soy and palm oil, designed to mimic lard's solid texture and functionality in baking but without the animal origin. While both are 100% fat and used for flakiness in pastries, they come from different sources (animal vs. vegetable) and have different flavors and textures.
Dermatologists caution against beef tallow skincare primarily because it's highly comedogenic (pore-clogging), potentially worsening acne, and lacks scientific backing and regulation, risking contamination and inconsistent quality, despite some fatty acids being beneficial. While it offers moisture, its thick, occlusive nature can trap bacteria, and experts prefer formulated products with proven ingredients like hyaluronic acid or ceramides for better, safer results, especially for oily or acne-prone skin.