Mcdonald's French Fries MEGA Factory: Processing Millions Of French Fries With Modern Technology

The journey begins with picking the perfect potatoes, but not just any potatoes will do. McDonald's chooses only russet Burbank potatoes for their fries. These aren't your average spuds. They're chosen for their unique qualities, making them perfect for frying. These potatoes aren't picked just because they taste good. They're also chosen as they can keep the growing quality and texture, even when made in big batches for fast food. Take the United States for instance, where russet Burbank potatoes are a top pick and mostly McDonald's contractors are from U.S. thanks to the perfect potato growing weather there. Now, here you can see how the potatoes are dug up from the ground with the help of heavy duty all-in-one machines. Inside these machines, advanced tools clean the potatoes, removing all the dirt. This process goes on continuously until all the potatoes are gathered. All these potatoes are then gathered and stored in a room. This way, they can be quickly taken out when needed, ensuring that the processing never stops. You'd be amazed by the sheer quantity of potatoes here. Believe it or not, not a single potato goes bad. They're all used up within 15 days. A big reason for this is McDonald's makes approximately 9 million pounds of french fries every day. As soon as these potatoes are taken to the factory as needed, that's when the real magic begins. Let's take you inside the factory where you'll see french fries being made. First up, we've reached the potato washing station. Here, the potatoes are tossed into cleaning containers filled with water. Thanks to the vibrating belts, the fast-flowing water easily washes away the dirt from the potatoes. After a thorough wash, a portion control elevator lifts the potatoes out of the water and transfers them to another belt. This belt gradually collects the potatoes in a container-like hose, sending small batches to the peeling machines for further washing. The peeling process is incredibly delicate, ensuring only the skin is removed without wasting any part of the potato. Once the potatoes are peeled and clean, they're moved through belts to the third washing chamber. Here, the final wash takes place with water containing chlorine and safe chemicals. Freshly washed and ready, these potatoes are then taken by the belts for special treatments. What you're seeing, all these units standing tall, are actually fine cutting chambers. They expertly cut the peeled potatoes into uniform sizes. This is why McDonald's fries always look the same in shape and length. Their machines work in a precise and effective way. The machines propel the potatoes at speeds of 60 to 70 miles per hour through high pressure water knives. These water knives finely slice the potatoes into thin strips, which are then sorted by their size and shape. After being cut, the fries are washed and then placed on an automatic elevator. This takes them toward the boiler for the next step in their journey to becoming the perfect fries. Sometimes, the cut fries get a special treatment with a mix of sugar and sodium pyrophosphate for two main reasons. The sugar is there to help the fries achieve that perfect golden brown color when fried. The sodium pyrophosphate, on the other hand, keeps the fries from turning gray or brown, whether they're cooked or frozen. The real reason they're boiled for a bit is to make the inside of the fries soft, so when they're fried later, they turn out crispy on the outside but remain soft inside. The fries head straight to the boiler. Here, any broken or misshapen fries stick with the belts, while the perfectly shaped fries fall through to the boiling area. They're fried to 50% to lock in the quality, flavor, and freshness from the inside out. This step also takes away some water and starch from the fries, making a light crust on them. The oil they're fried in is a mix of canola, corn, soybean, and hydrogenated soybean oils. This blend is healthy because it doesn't have trans fats or cholesterol. After the fries are half fried, they're taken out with an elevator and set aside to air dry. This usually takes about five to ten minutes. During this time, any extra oil dries up, making the crispy, half-cooked fries ready for packing. The fries that are only half-cooked get frozen super fast in a special freezer tunnel. This keeps their taste and texture just right. Freezing them quickly is important to make sure they all look the same and can be stored without going bad. Potatoes can spoil quickly once they're peeled or cooked. After that, the fries are put in cool trucks or storage areas, all set to be sent off to restaurants. Cutting onions seems like the toughest part of cooking, right? It's the reason half of us are scared to even start cooking. But what if we told you you could skip that mountainous task entirely? These machines are so efficient that no matter how you place the onion, they'll figure it out, set it right, and then, with the help of a belt that looks like a bunch of molds, make peeling and cutting super easy. First, gadgets that remove the tough outer layer grab onto the onion and peel it away in no time. Look at how cleanly and perfectly peeled these onions are now, all thanks to these fantastic machines. After a manual quality check to make sure no bad onions slip through, they're sent to be cut. This manual check is crucial if there's a bad one. It can be caught and removed by hand. With incredibly precise cutting, all these onions are then packed and frozen, ready to help you out in the kitchen. If you want to get the job done without even touching the fish, don't worry. These machines will do everything for you. You won't have to touch them at all. These preset units seal a specific amount of fish into packets perfectly. It's rare for these machines to make mistakes. Well, to say they never do would be stretching it. They do make errors, but only at a rate of 0.001% because they're tested over 100 times before being used in factories. First off, thanks to their excellent eyesight, these machines quickly sort out the bad apples to one side while the good apples gently move along the belt. These good apples are on their way to be turned into apple puree, which is used in a variety of delicious dishes. These machines process a ton of apples into smooth, sweet puree in no time. It's amazing to see apples zip through this process and come out as something that makes our foods taste so good. The apple skins get removed and sent off to another side, often ending up mixed into fodder at dairy farms. Pancakes? Anyone? Here we have one of the biggest and most famous automated lines for making pancakes. You'll see everything from the batter being poured to the pancakes being cooked and layered all done by machines without a hitch. These molds take a ride through an oven where the pancakes are cooked until they're just right golden and delicious. After cooking, the pancakes are carefully picked up and arranged into neat stacks ready to be packed and shipped out. That's not the end of your fun. If you want to spice up your time with more amazing and bulk production videos, we're right here.