What's Really in McDonald's Food? 10 Additive Claims Checked

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10 Fast-Food Additive Claims About McDonald’s, Checked

Most of the “horrifying” McDonald’s facts that went viral in 2014 describe real food additives, but they are framed to sound far worse than they are. Ingredients such as TBHQ, dimethylpolysiloxane, propylene glycol and silicon dioxide are permitted by food regulators in tiny, capped amounts, and the fact that a chemical also appears in putty or fertiliser says little about the trace in a burger or a fry. A few claims do hold up: red carmine colouring really does come from insects, much of the world’s L-cysteine is made from feathers or hog hair, and a 2012 Johns Hopkins study really did find banned antibiotics and drug traces in poultry feed.

Below, each of the ten claims is checked in turn, grouped by what the ingredient actually does. The aim is not to defend fast food, which has better reasons for concern, such as salt, calories and portion size, but to separate genuine questions from scare copy.

Why the viral list sounded so alarming

Lists like this rely on a simple trick: name an ingredient, then name the least appetising place it can also be found. Water is in sewage, salt is spread on icy roads and vinegar cleans windows, yet nobody worries about them in a salad. Toxicologists sum this up with an old principle, often attributed to the Renaissance physician Paracelsus: the dose makes the poison.

Food additives are regulated precisely around dose. In the United States, each permitted additive has a defined purpose and, often, a numerical ceiling written into the Code of Federal Regulations. The European Union gives approved additives an E number and sets its own limits. That does not make every additive beyond question, and regulators do revisit their decisions, but it does mean “also found in antifreeze” is not evidence of harm.

Ingredients with surprising origins

Carminic acid (carmine)

Carminic Acid
Image: Wikimedia Commons

This claim is true. Carmine, also sold as cochineal extract or E120, is a red pigment made from carminic acid, which comes from female cochineal scale insects (Dactylopius coccus) that live on prickly pear cacti. Indigenous peoples of the Americas used it as a dye centuries before it reached European kitchens.

It is one of the oldest natural colourings still in use, found in sweets, yoghurts, drinks and some processed meats. Vegetarians and people who avoid insect products may reasonably want to know about it, and a small number of people are allergic to it. In the US it must be named on the label as “carmine” or “cochineal extract”, so it can be avoided by reading ingredients.

Cysteine-L (L-cysteine)

Cysteine-L
Image: continentalfeathers

Partly true. L-cysteine is an amino acid, one of the building blocks of protein, and it carries the food code E920. Most of the supply is made by breaking down animal materials, mainly poultry feathers and hog hair. Human hair, despite the persistent rumour, is rarely used. A pricier fermentation method using bacteria also exists and is preferred by kosher, halal and vegan producers.

In food, L-cysteine is used as a processing aid in baking, where it relaxes dough, and in making savoury meat-like flavours. It is chemically identical whatever its source, so the concern is ethical or dietary rather than about safety.

Cellulose

Cellulose
Image: w8themes

Cellulose is the main structural fibre of plants. The powdered form used in food is often refined from wood pulp, which sounds odd but is the same molecule found in celery, lettuce and wholemeal bread. Humans cannot digest it, so it passes through as fibre.

Manufacturers add it to stop grated cheese and seasonings clumping, to thicken sauces and to add fibre. The claim that it sits in “nearly every” fast food item is unverified; it appears in some, not all.

Processing aids borrowed from other industries

Ammonium sulfate

Ammonium Sulfate
Image: Dong Ming

Ammonium sulfate really is a major fertiliser, supplying nitrogen and sulphur to crops, and it is added to some herbicide and insecticide sprays to help them work in hard water. It is not itself the bug-killing ingredient.

In bakeries it plays a much smaller role, acting as a nutrient for yeast so that dough rises reliably. The US Food and Drug Administration lists it as generally recognised as safe (GRAS), and the EU approves it as E517.

Silicone oil and dimethylpolysiloxane

Silicone Oil
Image: redrc
Dimethylpolysiloxane
Image: Shutterstock

The original list counted this ingredient twice, once as “silicone oil” and once by its chemical name. Dimethylpolysiloxane (PDMS, E900) is a silicone added to commercial frying oil as an anti-foaming agent, so hot oil bubbles and spatters less. Trace amounts end up in fried items such as Chicken McNuggets, fries and hash browns.

The same family of silicones does appear in Silly Putty, caulk, shampoo and contact lenses, which is where the scary comparisons come from. US rules cap its use in food at 10 parts per million, and a 2020 re-evaluation by the European Food Safety Authority found no safety concern at reported uses, while recommending tighter limits on certain manufacturing impurities.

Silicon dioxide

Silicon Dioxide
Image: Wikimedia Commons

Silicon dioxide (silica, E551) is chemically related to quartz and sand, which is why it gets called “industrial sand”. The food-grade form is a fine powder used in small amounts to keep spices, powdered mixes and seasonings flowing freely. It also occurs naturally in many plants and in drinking water. The specific claim about Wendy’s chili could not be verified.

Propylene glycol

Propylene Glycol

Propylene glycol (E1520) holds moisture, carries flavours and keeps textures stable in baked goods, sweets and drinks. The FDA treats it as GRAS. The antifreeze comparison is misleading: the toxic antifreeze chemical is ethylene glycol, and propylene glycol is used in some antifreeze precisely because it is much less toxic. Its acute toxicity is roughly a third of that of ordinary alcohol, and poisonings are linked to large medical doses, not to food.

TBHQ, the preservative in frying oil

Tbhq
Image: J.smith, Wikimedia Commons

Tert-butylhydroquinone, better known as TBHQ or E319, is an antioxidant that slows vegetable oils and animal fats from going rancid. Both the FDA and the EU cap it at 0.02 per cent of the fat or oil in a food.

The viral claim that it is “potentially lethal” comes from animal experiments using doses far above anything in food. At very high doses, studies have recorded stomach changes and other effects, and research on immune effects continues. Regulators in the US and Europe consider it safe within the permitted limit, though Japan has not approved it. Calling it a “petroleum byproduct” is also a stretch: it is synthesised in a lab, like many vitamins and medicines. The figure of “18 menu items” could not be confirmed.

The feather study and drugs in poultry feed

Prescription Drugs
Image: rudoilaw

This is the claim with the most substance, but it was garbled in retelling. In April 2012 researchers from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and Arizona State University published a study in Environmental Science & Technology. They tested 12 samples of feather meal, a by-product of poultry slaughter that is sold as animal feed, from six US states and China.

Every sample contained between two and ten antibiotic residues. Fluoroquinolones, which the FDA banned in US poultry production in 2005, turned up in eight of the twelve, which the authors read as a sign that the drugs were still being used. They also detected caffeine in ten samples and traces of paracetamol (acetaminophen), the antihistamine diphenhydramine and the antidepressant fluoxetine.

What the study did not do is test McDonald’s chicken, measure drugs in meat people eat, or show that antidepressants are routinely added to chicken feed. Its real point was about antibiotic overuse in farming, which feeds antibiotic resistance, a serious public-health problem in its own right.

How to read scary ingredient lists

  • Ask what the ingredient does. Anti-foaming, anti-caking and preserving agents are used in very small amounts compared with flour, oil, salt or sugar.
  • Check for a legal limit. Many additives have a published ceiling; a long chemical name is not a sign of danger.
  • Watch for name swaps. Ethylene glycol and propylene glycol, or quartz sand and food-grade silica, are not the same thing in practice.
  • Look at the bigger picture. For most people, the health impact of a fast-food habit comes from calories, saturated fat, salt and sugary drinks, not from trace processing aids.
  • Follow the original study. If a claim cites research, find what was actually measured. The feather-meal paper is a good example of a real finding being stretched.

Eating fewer additives, if you want to

Wanting simpler food is a perfectly reasonable choice even when individual additives are safe. Cooking at home more often, choosing fresh or minimally processed ingredients, and reading labels for things you personally avoid, such as carmine or animal-derived L-cysteine, all help. Growing a few herbs or salad leaves on a balcony or windowsill is a cheap way to start, even in a flat.

If you have a diagnosed allergy or a medical condition that affects what you can eat, talk to a doctor or a registered dietitian rather than relying on viral lists, in either direction.

Sources: 21 CFR 172.185 (TBHQ limit); 21 CFR 173.340 (defoaming agents); Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, 2012: feather meal study; Wikipedia: tert-Butylhydroquinone; Wikipedia: Polydimethylsiloxane; Wikipedia: Cysteine; Wikipedia: Carmine; Wikipedia: Propylene glycol; Wikipedia: Ammonium sulfate. The original list circulated via All Day, Real Farmacy and Viral Nova; image credits as shown under each photo.

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