I've always wondered this, and imagined a pit of mash that was just formed into fry-shapes.

Am I overly cynical that I still don't believe this? Here's video footage of the process, but my distrusting, questioning mind still adds "supposedly" to its assessment of everything I see here.

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check out how they make mcnuggests, but not if you're eating

I think I believe this, they still add needless chemicals and even admitted it. Pre-fried, frozen & fried again... They may be telling the truth, but not in a way that implies that this process is most definitely very unhealthy - and I'm not being snobby, if I'm hungry while traveling and all there is - is McDonalds I'll eat it and not even grumble about it, though I wish all McDonalds were replaced by In & Out's

Why would they bother cutting and pulverising the potatoes into mush to form them into fries when they can just cut the potatoes into fries directly? What purpose would first making them into mashed potato serve, apart from making the process less efficient? And if they did mash them and form them, why are McDonald's fries different lengths?

For the same reasons they do it with meat, fruit, vegetables and other foods: control, consistency, easier to mix with other ingredients like sweeteners, stabilizers and preservatives.
Most food companies don't treat food the way households do, but as raw material for creating a product.

They've demonstrated that they don't need to mash up the potatoes to do any of those things, though.

Not surprised they're actual cut potatoes at all. Now if you told me Burger King or Jack in the Box's fries were real I'd slap you across the face and call you a liar. Granted it's been a long time since I've had either so they could have conceivably changed them. IMO McDonald's fries are fresh and made right they're some of the best, when they're not they're some of the worst.

Sell-out.

I feel like a nicotine addict watching a video on how they make cigarettes.

Now that Adam and Jamie fired their asses for being too popular, they gotta do SOMETHING to make the payments on their Teslas.

That's a lot of fuggin' taters!

Why? There's no reason to do something overly complex when something simple works. I think some people think that companies do random "evil" shit just for kicks. It is all about efficiency and money. Potatoes are cheap as hell, and processing them like this is really efficient. There would be no reason to go and do something overly complex and use other products. It is really easy to cut a potato in to fry shape.

If you want to see it happen, go to a In n' Out. There they take the potatoes and stick them in a little hand press device and when they push down, a pile of uncooked fries comes out the other end. Same concept as the water knife, just not a big assembly line process.

When you are talking cheap food preparation they keep it as simple as possible because the keeps it cheap. If anything is added, there's a reason like the Dextrose (which is just a sugar).

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