Is there pink slime in Chicken McNuggets? Does McDonald's use the whole chicken, beak, claws, feet and everything else? Thanks to a new ad campaign, McDonald's is giving the public answers about its most popular menu item:Kip McNuggets.
Fast food company employeeearlierto tackle the tough questions consumers may have about Chicken McNuggets as part of the new campaign called 'Our Food. Your questions'.
The campaign aims to reveal the truth to the public about how McDonald's food is treated. Imahara has already gone behind the scenes of a food processing plant to get the facts about whether McDonald's uses itpink slime in his burgersofyoga mats in his McRib sandwiches.
This time, Imahara visited the Tyson Foods processing plant in Tennessee, one of theMcDonald's suppliers- to find out once and for allwhat Chicken McNuggets are made of.
Imahara met with Amy Steward, senior meat scientist at Tyson Foods, who gives him a tour of the step-by-step process involved in making McNuggets.
Imahara shows Steward a photo found on the internetpink slime rumorsused to make McDonald's McNuggets. “If you search for Chicken McNuggets on the internet, this comes up,” Imahara said in the video as he showed Steward the photo. "They say this is pink slime. So if you paint parts of the chicken you're using, this is what it will look like?"
Steward responded, "I don't know where that image came from, but it's not used in Chicken McNuggets."
The tour takes Imahara through the food factory, including a look at an assembly line of workers in hairnets, face masks, white lab coats and gloves cutting up whole chickens.
“This surprises me,” Imahara said in the video. “There are several lines of people cutting the chicken just like you would do at home or like a butcher would do.”
Imahara seems to be onewhole chickencut into sections to see what parts are needed to make Chicken McNuggets. According to Steward, the dark meat of the drumsticks and thighs does not go into McNuggets. However, to make McNuggets, the breast and rib meat as well as the chicken tenderloin are used. Before making McNuggets, the entire chicken skin is first removed and a small portion is added back "for flavor."
"Is this the only part of the chicken that goes into Chicken McNuggets?" Nothing else?' Imahara asked incredulously in the video. "No beak? No feet?" Steward laughs and assures Grant that there are no beaks or feet in McNuggets.
Next is the milling process at Tyson, where the chicken is ground before being formed into McNuggets. The ground chicken is placed on a conveyor belt in a way that is difficult for even the most seasoned meat lover to see.
“We grind it to give it the right meat texture you expect from Chicken McNuggets,” Steward tells Imahara in the video.
“I can't stop looking at it, it's like a lava lamp,” Imahara said as he came face to face with the mixing machine at the factory. The blender combines the ground chicken meat with several ingredients in a marinade, including water, sodium phosphates, food starch, salt, wheat starch, dextrose, citric acid, autolyzed yeast extract, natural flavor, rosemary extract and thistle oil.
The chicken mixture is then formed into the "four famous Chicken McNugget shapes: bell, boot, ball and leg."according to McDonalds.com. The molds are covered with a tempura batter, partially fried and flash frozen to preserve the flavor until they are fully fried again in the restaurant itself.
Imahara meets Gena Bumgarner, a National Account Executive at Tyson Foods, in the factory kitchen where they quality test McNuggets. They judge the quality of McNuggets based on appearance such as golden brown color, edges and tops, slightly firm texture but still remains juicy. The test also determines the flavors of chicken, light pepper and 'celery notes'.
“This is the experience I remember. It reminds me of my childhood,” says Imahara as he tastes the ready-made Chicken McNugget.
These behind-the-scenes videos exploring how McDonald's processes meat to make its famous sandwiches are an interesting way to attract customers, even if not everyone finds the videos entertaining. Last month, Lisa Suhay, a correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor and parent of a 10-year-old "MythBusters" fan named Quin, wrote that McDonald's ad campaign featuring Imahara could create a negative reaction among young consumers.
When I heard about the new video ad campaign during a report from NPR,Suhay wrotethat her son asked, "What is 'pink slime' and why on earth does Grant from MythBusters say it's not in chicken nuggets," Quin asked. "When I say it's not in there, I just think it is. He also talks about eyeballs and lips and things that aren't in the food. I never eat there. Ever."
Whatever you think about McDonald's latest "myth-busting" ad campaign, the fast-food giant has asked for your toughest questions and criticisms and seems to be listening to your tweets, so make sure you send all your probing questions to McDonald's.
