McDonald’s breakfast menu items seem like an attractive option for when you decide to go to a drive-thru for a quick meal on your way to work or simply don’t feel like making yourself a freshly-squeezed glass of OJ and some scrambled eggs.
However, TikToker Shay, who goes by the username @blexican_shay83, has exposed some behind-the-scenes details of the famous fast-food franchise that may make you get up a few minutes early to prepare a homemade breakfast.
Image credits: Jill Evans (not the actual photo)
On Sep. 19, The 20-year-old McDonald’s worker revealed that there’s nothing fresh about everyone’s favorite breakfast food.
“Things that McDonald’s won’t tell y’all — y’all be getting folded eggs that come already made,” she said while opening up a box containing the pre-prepared eggs wrapped in plastic packaging.
She continued by pointing her camera to another box, this one containing pre-cooked hotcakes. “Your pancakes, they be made already. They don’t do nothing but warm them up.” Instead of preparing the batter and cooking the pancakes on a heated pan after a customer places an order, the Golden Arches gets each piece out of the bag and heats them.
You can watch Shay's full video below
Image credits: blexican_shay83
The most shocking revelation was perhaps the white bags full of pre-prepared burrito mix used to make the beloved wraps. As Shay revealed, the food is kept inside a cardboard box labeled “Egg-sausage-vegetable mix for burrito.”
The video, which has garnered over 240,000 views, isn’t the only one to shine a light on the Golden Arches’ questionable food quality. In July, TikTok user @gia2bad, another Mickey D’s employee, showed in a viral clip that the fast-food chain uses a 4-pound bag of sugar to prepare their iced teas.
The clip shows how pre-cooked hotcakes, burrito mix, and folded eggs are stored in plastic wrappers and heated after customers place their orders
Image credits: blexican_shay83
“If y’all were wondering why the sweet tea is so sweet at McDonald’s,” Gia wrote in the text over the viral video, which showed her emptying a large bag of sugar into a bucket of tea and mixing it up.
“Yes, we use a whole bag, sometimes two,” she added in the caption.
The burrito mix was kept in white bags inside a box labeled "Egg-sausage-vegetable mix for burrito"
Image credits: blexican_shay83
The US Food and Drug Administration’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that added sugars should make up less than 10% of daily calorie intake. “For example, if you consume a 2,000 calorie daily diet, that would be 200 calories or 50 grams of added sugars per day,” the site reads.
According to the official McDonald’s site, a large cup of their iced tea contains 40g of added sugars.
Before the viral clip was posted, another McDonald's whistleblower recorded herself pouring in a four-pound bag of sugar to prepare the company's classic iced tea
Image credits: jen (not the actual photo)
While some users in Gia’s video disputed her claims about the popular beverage being so unhealthy, commenting that they use a different recipe at their respective McDonald’s, a former manager of the multinational fast-food franchise supported her statement.
“For every four gallons of the red jug, the sweet tea, there was a full four-pound bag of sugar emptied into it,” ex-employee Nicole Weisler admitted.
"Yes, we use a whole bag, sometimes two," the employee captioned the video
Furthermore, the chain’s reputation was also smeared by whistleblowers in the southern hemisphere. In a deleted TikTok video posted in October 2021, a New Zealand McDonald’s worker disclosed a few concerning aspects of the drive-thru process.
The clip showed the employee, TikTok user @charlton.a, in the middle of a shift and featured captions that revealed the “drive-thru facts.”
According to the worker, the company hears what customers say before they’re notified that the mic has been turned on. Additionally, drivers are allegedly photographed without their consent to let employees know who gets what order.
While some people were baffled by the revelations, others were not so shocked to learn about the Golden Arches' food quality
