Delicious Facts You Didn't Know About McDonald's
By
Editorial Staff in
Food
On 22nd February 2016
Despite a rash of store closures last year, McDonald's still remains the world's largest restaurant chain. And with so many of our fondest childhood memories taking place there, it's not hard to see why.
But when a company gets as big as McDonald's has, sometimes it's easy to forget just what that means. When you look at the facts behind the fast food juggernaut, you start to get a picture of just how big it is.
But among those facts, you find some truly bizarre things — little footnotes that fade into the background as the company enters another chapter of its history.
So while we wonder where McDonald's will go in the future, let's have a look at all that happened to them on the way with these 15 fast and fun facts.
#1 McDonald's sells over 75 hamburgers a second.
They do according to their training manuals. When you consider that they have about 31,000 restaurants in 118 countries, it's not that hard to believe.
#2 Rachel McAdams started off at McDonald's.
As she puts it, the Hollywood star was not a great employee. She said, "I broke the orange juice machine one day."
#3 The Queen of England is a McDonald's franchise owner.
She didn't just aim for the restaurant, though. It was part of a retail plaza close to Windsor Castle that she purchased for $131-million.
#4 McDonald's doesn't actually make their McNuggets out of pink paste.
Well, not anymore. The paste is called "mechanically separated meat," edible meat tissue separated from the bone by food processors
McDonald's switched from the mechanically separated chicken to all white meat in 2003.
#5 McDonald's founder Ray Kroc personally chose locations for McDonald's franchises during the 1960s.
He did this by flying around in the company plane and picking out major road crossings and churches he wanted to build restaurants close to.
#6 McDonald's kale salad has more calories than a Double Big Mac.
The salad is also higher in fat and sodium. If you're wondering how this can be, the blame seems to fall on the crispy chicken and Asiago Caesar dressing that comes with the kale.
#7 The golden arches didn't always form an M.
The arches were cooked up as a memorable and appealing way to draw drivers to the restaurants. But as you can see from the oldest surviving McDonald's in Downey, California, they were once just arches.
#8 A McDonald's in Sweden is the world's first ski-thru restaurant.
Dubbed "McSki," the franchise has existed in Lindvallen, Sweden since 1996.
#9 There are no McDonald's locations in Bermuda.
In fact, trying to open one there could land you six months in jail. Since 1977, it's been illegal to run a non-Bermuda owned restaurant on the island, with the exception of one KFC that was grandfathered in.
#10 The Filet-O-Fish was invented so McDonald's could make money during Lent.
The sandwich was the invention of a struggling McDonald's owner in Monfort Heights, Ohio, whose population was 87% Catholic. The item not only saved his store but became popular enough to end up on the McDonald's main menu.
#11 The McRib was invented because of a chicken shortage.
When Chicken McNuggets first came out, the item was more popular than management expected, with demand becoming too great for the chain's chicken distribution network. This left some stores without McNuggets, so the McRib was invented as an alternative.
#12 Sarah Michelle Gellar was banned from McDonald's as a kid.
This is because the Buffy actress appeared in an ad claiming that Burger King had 20% more meat in their burgers than McDonald's. McDonald's sued Burger King and named the five-year-old in their claim.
While the matter was being settled, she couldn't enter the restaurant.
#13 Usain Bolt ate 1,000 McNuggets during the 2008 Olympics.
This wasn't some secret training technique, though. The gold-winning runner just wanted to eat something familiar while he was in Beijing.
#14 Economists sometimes use the price of a Big Mac to judge world currency.
For example, if a Big Mac costs $4.93 in the US and $2.68 in China, the Chinese yuan is seen as being undervalued by 46%.
#15 McDonald's is the world's biggest toy distributor.
It turns out all those Happy Meals really add up. McDonald's distributes 1.5 billion toys worldwide every year.
