The Deadly Fight Over McDonald's Fries

Crispy and golden-brown on the outside, pillowy soft on the inside, with just the right amount of salt and the perfect hearty finish. McDonald’s French fries are one of the world’s favourite snacks, with an astonishing 4 million kilograms being sold every single day. A full quarter of these are sold in the United States alone, accounting for nearly 33% of all French fries sold and 7% of all potatoes grown in the country. With over 37,000 restaurants worldwide, McDonald’s is by far the largest fast food company in the world, serving its world-famous fries, burgers, and other items in more than 120 countries. However, as we have previously covered in our video When Did McDonald’s Start Super-Sizing Meals? this sheer ubiquity has become something of achilles heel, turning McDonald’s into a global symbol of – and scapegoat for – issues as diverse as global capitalism, abuse of workers, American imperialism, environmental degradation, and the obesity pandemic. McDonald’s restaurants are often the target of violent protests, and the chain is banned in over 90 countries. But perhaps the greatest single controversy the fast food giant has been involved in centres not on its global business practices or the treatment of its workers, but the contents of its most popular and seemingly innocuous product. This is an abridged version of a video on our channel TodayIFoundOut which you can check out and subscribe to here:    / @todayifoundout