Are McDonald’s french fries gluten-free? Yes… and… well, no
(This AllergyEats Blog entry has been guest written by Ken Allen, a food allergic who also provides public relations services to AllergyEats.)
Questions continue to swirl around McDonald’s French fries and whether they are safe for people with gluten intolerance. Amy Ratner, associate editor of Gluten-Free Living (www.glutenfreeliving.com) made a valiant stab at the issue in the magazine’s November issue. The results of her exhaustive research are worth repeating.
The issue actually boils down more to semantics than to ingredients, Ratner reported.
Prior to 2006, the fries were generally considered gluten free. “Then Congress passed a labeling law that required all packaged food regulated by the Food and Drug Administration to always include the top eight allergens in the ingredients list. The law did not apply to food served in restaurants, including fast food eateries like McDonald’s, but the company voluntarily decided to make ingredients lists available to consumers,” Ratner reported.
That led to the realization that the oil used to par fry the potatoes before they are sent out to the individual stores contained 99 percent vegetable oil and one percent flavoring made with hydrolyzed wheat bran and other ingredients.
So wheat went on the list of ingredients, shocking many who had previously considered the fries to be safe. But as in so much of life, things aren’t always as they seem.
“The company that supplied the par fry oil had the flavoring tested at the University of Nebraska’s Food Allergy Research and Resource Program, a leading independent food testing lab,” Ratner reported. They found no gluten. Further testing by the same lab of the finished fries and hash browns found no “wheat-allergic residue.”
“The McDonald’s controversy demonstrated a glitch in the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act,” Ratner reported. “The law does not set a threshold for allergenic proteins. That means any food which cannot be proven to have absolutely zero protein from an allergen has to list that allergen on the label.”
The FDA is working to address this, and about a year ago proposed that foods could be labeled “gluten free” if they had 20 parts per million or less of gluten. If approved as proposed, that standard would allow McDonald’s to claim their fries are gluten-free even though the ingredients list would include wheat.
So, what is a gluten intolerant person supposed to do?
“Like many aspects of the gluten-free lifestyle, the decision regarding McDonald’s French fries and hash browns is a personal one. You have to weigh whether you are comfortable eating a product when the company that makes it says it contains wheat,” Ratner says.
Not a clearly definitive answer, but Ratner’s reporting helps us make a more informed decision.
From Paul:
Thanks Ken for that great post!
What about you? If you have Celiac, will you eat McDonald’s fries? Have you had a negative reaction from them? Are you comfortable with the proposed labeling definitions? Please share your thoughts by clicking on Comments/Reply below.
Be sure to also look for gluten-free menus, gluten-friendly certifications, and of course allergy- (and gluten-) friendliness ratings on our core site, AllergyEats (www.allergyeats.com).
Note also that we love guest bloggers! Just like with the main AllergyEats site, we’d love for the Blog to become a peer-to-peer resource. Do you have a restaurant story, positive or negative, that you’d really like to share? Are you a restaurateur or other restaurant employee who’d like to offer a unique perspective? What are your thoughts on recent news or articles related to food allergies and restaurants? If you are interested in having us post your blog entry, simply click “Submit a Post” at the top of this page or email your idea in advance to antico@allergyeats.com.
May 5th, 2010 at 5:55 pm
Keep in mind that McDonald’s fries not only have the wheat issue but they also contain beef and milk. Here is the list from their website:
French Fries:
Potatoes, vegetable oil (canola oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavor [wheat and milk derivatives]*, citric acid [preservative]), dextrose, sodium acid
pyrophosphate (maintain color), salt. Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to
preserve freshness). Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent.
CONTAINS: WHEAT AND MILK *(Natural beef flavor contains hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk as starting ingredients).
May 5th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
Even though the ingredients are fairly disgusting, sometimes fast food fries are the only thing you can eat. Recently my daughter and I were stuck for many hours in an airport in a foreign country. There were lots of duty free luxury goods to buy but almost no food. The food that was available was clearly off limits to celiacs. Except some McDonalds fries….good to know they are relatively safe.
May 5th, 2010 at 6:33 pm
Thanks for the additional info, Tom. I’ve been told about the “milk issue” in terms similar to that of the “wheat issue.” I can also share firsthand that my dairy allergic son wolfs down McDonald’s fries without a hint of discomfort, and his sensitivity to dairy is generally quite high. What does this all mean? I’m hoping others can shed some more light here.
May 5th, 2010 at 6:33 pm
Comment from Sarah Smith via Facebook:
My son is highly allergic to wheat and we have never had a problem with McDonald’s french fries. We drove from MA to Texas last March and McD’s was the only place we could safely eat without worrying like crazy that we would be headed to the nearest ER. So, we will continue to enjoy McDonald’s fries.
May 5th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
Ditto what Tom G. said about the info on McDonald’s website. When I found this info out I stopped letting our son have Mc D’s fries. For him the soy and milk are #1 & 2 on his allergy list.
May 5th, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Mark, out of curiosity, did your son ever have a reaction? I’m not suggesting that you should or should not have made the decision you did, just trying to glean more info.
May 13th, 2010 at 3:54 pm
No I don’t believe he did, but in his case his allergies are not anaphalxic. His reactions would be harder to detect, but the short answer is no I never did see a reaction to McD’s.
May 19th, 2010 at 5:42 am
I have had them twice, and I have gotten sick each time….
May 19th, 2010 at 6:00 am
Jason –
Was this from a gluten intolerance or a dairy allergy?
July 4th, 2010 at 11:39 am
My son has milk-protein intolerance. He’ll be 2 this week and we took him to McDonald’s when we were on vacation last week. He ate probably 10 – 12 fries and had a pretty severe reaction (he gets allergic colitis – blood, mucus, etc.). Although we were on vacation and I suppose he could have gotten his hands on something without me noticing, I bring most of his food and that was the only new thing he had in the 36 hours prior to the reaction subsiding. My understanding is that “hydrolyzed” means that the proteins are broken down, so perhaps for some, they’re not broken down enough? That’s just my hypothesis.
November 4th, 2011 at 6:04 am
I have yet to see any confirmation on any site there is more debate over the subject than an actual answer. I have the answer- DO NOT eat McDonalds fries! I had some last night thinking I would be fine but I woke up this morning feel like hell. So know matter what you read if you have a gluten intolerance DO NOT eat their fries.
December 11th, 2011 at 9:46 pm
My 7 year old daughter has been diagnosed with celiac disease for 5 years. She has been eating McDonalds french fries since her diagnosis. She is highly sensitive to gluten (is violently vomiting within the hour of eating any gluten) and has never once been sick from McDonalds french fries. Her yearly blood tests have always come back great — no traces of gluten.
April 27th, 2012 at 3:49 pm
Today I ate a hashbrown in a pinch for time, and shortly thereafter experienced dibilitating cramps and nasuea. I had to go home and lie down. I researched the ingredients and assume that the oil the potato is cooked in must have residues from the nuggets and chicken patties. I am newly wheat and gluten intolerant.
May 8th, 2012 at 2:28 pm
Just a quick reply to Leslie, the fries and chicken products are cooked in seperate fryers and then placed in seperate holding areas while they are packaged.
P.s. my husband is Gluten and Wheat intolerant and has never had a problem with either McDonalds fries or hashbrowns
July 14th, 2012 at 1:52 pm
My son (14mos) is allergic to cow’s milk protein. His left eye got swollen after only two fries. Not to mention the severe cough that freaked out even the people around as my son was choking and wouldn’t be able to regain his breath. Sad indeed.
October 6th, 2012 at 8:13 am
I have always had a gluten intolerance but it was not discovered by any of my doctors until this past August. My reactions to gluten include painful bloating, nausea and severe migraines. I can confidently say that I have not had any such reaction to McDonald’s fries.
December 15th, 2012 at 2:11 pm
I have not had a reaction to either the hash browns or fries on most occassions. The one time I did I attributed it to an especially GREASY hash brown (still good none the less– I obviously ate it). I am pretty sensitive to gluten ending up with major cramping and bathroom time so I do try to avoid it at all cost. Fries still on my OK list.
January 5th, 2013 at 1:36 pm
I had just had someone tell me that these fries contain gluten, so i googled the issue and found this article. I’m gluten intolerent and can handle very small trace amounts (ie cross contamination doesn’t bother me and small amounts don’t usually bother me much), and i’ve had these fries twice this week (had pain treatments and i had to fast for them and so i needed something fast afterwards and i was craving fries), and i didn’t have a reaction. Sometimes i think i do get a bit naseuous, but that can happen when i eat a lot of fat too, and obviously they have lots of fat, but if i get small fry im usually okay, when i have a gluten reaction i usually get worse effects than nauseua like bloating.
February 13th, 2013 at 9:04 pm
I have had reactions to McDonalds fries including nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. I have a wheat allergy. Any traces of wheat will set my inner ears to itching. I had the fries yesterday as a test. Had to rush home to go to restroom, ears have been itching like crazy and I have vomited several times. I will not choose to eat these as part of my gluten free diet.
March 9th, 2013 at 1:27 pm
My daughter has a gluten intolerance we just found out about. She has been doing beautifully until last night when she broke out in an itchy rash. What did she eat last night? McDonalds fries. No more McDonalds for us, I guess. Total bummer.
March 15th, 2013 at 1:36 pm
I had read on other Celiac blogs that McDonald’s fries were relatively safe. I have had a craving for fries since being diagnosed last October and today,gave in….BIG mistake! I have been sick for 2 hours now and counting….definitely not safe for a Celiac sufferer. Maybe a gluten intolerant yet I now know that I stick to what is 100% proven to be GF. NOTHING is ever worth being sick nor doing any damage.