Retail

REVEALED: This Is Exactly How The McRib Is Made

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McDonald's has released a new video detailing how its food suppliers make, freeze and cook the McRib sandwich.  

The video is part of a massive marketing campaign that McDonald's launched in the US last month to shed light on its often-criticized food sourcing and processing practices.

This particular video is in response to a photo of a frozen McRib patty that went viral on social media last year.

mcrib
Reddit user DJDanaK

The company invited high school teacher Wes Bellamy, who had tweeted about the photo, to take part in the video. 

"I'm a skeptic," Bellamy announces at the beginning of the video. By the end, he is devouring a freshly cooked McRib, licking his fingers and asking for a second serving. 

The video appears heavily scripted at times, but it still gives consumers a peek inside a McRib factory that we've never seen before. 

It begins by showing us the boneless pork shoulder that McDonald's uses in the McRib.

McDonald's McRib
YouTube/McDonald's

"There's no bones, no gristle, it's all meat," former "Mythbusters" host Grant Imahara says in the video.

The meat is then dumped into a vat where it is finely ground.

McDonald's McRib
YouTube/McDonald's

A worker adds salt, dextrose (a type of sugar) and preservatives to the ground meat. The preservatives include BHA, propyl gallata, and citric acid.

McDonald's McRib
YouTube/McDonald's

The preservatives are used to "to lock in the flavor all the way to the restaurant," according to the video.

Here's an aerial view of the factory. On the far right, the ground meat is dumped onto a conveyer belt. On the far left, the meat is formed into the familiar McRib shape. 

McDonald's McRib
YouTube/McDonald's
McDonald's McRib
YouTube/McDonald's

Here's a closer look at the part of the factory where the McRib shapes are made. Workers inspect the meat to make sure all the shapes look the same.

McDonald's McRib
YouTube/McDonald's
McDonald's McRib
YouTube/McDonald's

A mist of water is added to the meat to keep it from dehydrating when it's flash frozen. Here's what the meat looks like after it's frozen.

McDonald's McRib
YouTube/McDonald's
McDonald's McRib
YouTube/McDonald's

After being cooked, the meat is soaked in McDonald's barbecue sauce in a warmer. The sauce contains tomato paste, onion powder, garlic powder chili pepper, high fructose corn syrup, molasses, salt, sugar, distilled vinegar, xanthan gum, soybean oil, modified, food starch, caramel color, beet powder, sodium benzoate, and water. Here's what the finished product looks like.

McDonald's McRib
YouTube/McDonald's


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Hayley Peterson
Hayley Peterson
Hayley Peterson is an Executive Editor who oversees coverage of the economy, tech, media, advertising, defense, careers, and more.She was previously a chief correspondent at Business Insider and wrote breaking news, analysis, and in-depth investigations on large consumer companies, with an emphasis on retailers including Amazon, Walmart, major grocery chains, and department stores.Hayley won recognition from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing in 2018 for "defining the retail apocalypse" through her reporting on retail job losses, the decline of Sears, and the impact of store closings on bondholders.Prior to joining Business Insider in 2013, Hayley was a White House correspondent and embedded on the presidential 2012 campaign trail.