Beef tallow in fries

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Beef tallow in fries raises fears among foreign buyers

By The Associated PressKENNEWICK — Fallout from the mad-cow scare in Washington state has hit the potato industry, with more than $500,000 worth of frozen French fries — prefried in beef tallow — held in limbo at ports.

The delay raises concerns that other exports containing beef products could be affected by the bans countries have imposed on U.S. beef because of mad-cow disease.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Dec. 23 that the disease had been discovered in a dairy cow from Mabton, about 40 miles southeast of Yakima. Since then, more than 35 countries have imposed bans on U.S. beef imports.

French fries and other potato products are prefried in beef tallow or vegetable oil by the manufacturer before they are frozen and shipped. They are then fried again before being served.

Most products fried in beef tallow are exported, while vegetable oil is used domestically, said Pat Boss, executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission.

At least 60 containers of frozen potatoes have been delayed at Northwest and Asian ports. Each container can hold about 40,000 pounds of frozen potato products.

Boss said potato processors were concerned the containers might not be allowed into China and Korea. Japan was allowing some containers into the country but holding them in warehouses, he said.

There is no evidence that beef tallow can transmit mad-cow disease to humans, Boss said, but that doesn't matter if customers don't think it is safe.

"The buyers are reporting that they want to move away from those products," Boss said. "I really do think there is a level of hysteria building because of mad cow, and unfortunately other products are being lumped in."

Potato processors and growers in the Northwest depend especially on Japan's large export market. About 500,000 tons of fries, or $100 million worth, went to Japan last year, Boss said. Other key export markets for fries include Mexico, China, Korea and Taiwan, all of which have acted to ban U.S. beef.

 

 

 

 

Food Product Design

 

The taste of McDonald’s french fries has long been praised by customers, competitors, and even food critics. James Beard loved Mc­Donald’s fries. Their distinctive taste does not stem from the type of potatoes that McDonald’s buys, the technology that processes them, or the restaurant equipment that fries them. Other chains buy their french fries from the same large processing companies, use Russet Burbanks, and have similar fryers in their restaurant kitchens. The taste of a fast food fry is largely determined by the cooking oil. For decades, McDonald’s cooked its french fries in a mixture of about 7 percent soy oil and 93 percent beef tallow. The mix gave the fries their unique flavor — and more saturated beef fat per ounce than a McDonald’s hamburger.

 

Amid a barrage of criticism over the amount of cholesterol in their fries, McDonald’s switched to pure vegetable oil in 1990. The switch presented the company with an enormous challenge: how to make fries that subtly taste like beef without cooking them in tallow. A look at the ingredients now used in the preparation of McDonald’s french fries suggests how the problem was solved. At the end of the list is a seemingly innocuous, yet oddly mysterious phrase: “natural flavor.” The frozen potatoes and the cooking oil at McDonald’s both contain “natural flavor.” That fact helps to explain not only why the fries taste so good, but also why most fast food — indeed, most of the food Americans eat today — tastes the way it does.

 

Fast Food NATION

by Eric Schlosser

 

 

 

 

Beware!

 

How many other companies are doing this? How many other processed

foods are contaminated in this same manner We Are What We Eat!

 

Everything Is In Divine OrderAs We Follow Our Souls Melody!

 

Baba Kundi Ma'at-Shambhala

 

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