There's a pretty interesting answer to that question.
Tallow flavor comes from the same source as other meat flavors added to frozen fast food: the industrial perfume complex situated along the New Jersey Turnpike. I kid you not [pbs.org].
The article specifically addresses McDonald's switch from real beef tallow to perfume. It cites the book Fast Food Nation--a great read.
One other cool fact from FFN, if I recall correctly, is that In-n-Out is one of the few chains that both does not perfume their food and also controls their own beef production. If you've ever watched fries being made at In-n-Out, they go from potato slicer to the table very quickly, and, like the submitter's article indicates, this makes them go stale in minutes (even though they taste great at first).
(Score: 3, Informative) by Schafer2 on Sunday March 02 2014, @07:01AM
Tallow flavor comes from the same source as other meat flavors added to frozen fast food: the industrial perfume complex situated along the New Jersey Turnpike . I kid you not [pbs.org].
The article specifically addresses McDonald's switch from real beef tallow to perfume. It cites the book Fast Food Nation--a great read.
One other cool fact from FFN, if I recall correctly, is that In-n-Out is one of the few chains that both does not perfume their food and also controls their own beef production. If you've ever watched fries being made at In-n-Out, they go from potato slicer to the table very quickly, and, like the submitter's article indicates, this makes them go stale in minutes (even though they taste great at first).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @06:19PM
Ewwww, gross, New Jersey!!
Thank you. I think I shall stay away from fast food from now on. :)