This Viral TikTok Reveals How McDonald's McRib Is Made
On December 2, the McRib, McDonald's periodically available barbecue-flavored pork sandwich, was released once more in more than 10,000 McDonald's restaurants nationwide (via USA Today). Last year, when the sandwich was previously being sold, Alexander Chernev, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, explained the importance of the sporadic appearances of the sandwich to CNN: "When you have these exclusive products, which exist for a short period of time, it gives people a reason to come to the store."
However, a week later, videos from the TikTok account @thatonedepressedginger may put a damper on that enthusiasm. In the first, the user, presumably a McDonald's employee, pulls out a tray of dry-looking ribs with the caption: "I don't know how long those have been in there." In the second, more troublesome video, they show the cooking process which involves placing what seems like styrofoam blocks upon the grill. These blocks are white frozen bricks of McRib meat. According to Snopes, these TikTok videos are authentic.
The bricks presented on TikTok are identical to a photo that floated around the WTF subreddit in 2013, in which a hand belonging to a friend of the original poster holds a completely frozen piece of meat. Responses varied between disgust and bewilderment over the fact that people would react so strongly to the fact that a fast food franchise would ... freeze its meat.
McRibs can, in fact, rot
Back in 2013, McDonald's was annoyed with the squeamish reaction over how shaped meat products were made. In a statement given to The Huffington Post, they explained that they shape the McRib and, "We then flash freeze the patty to seal in flavor and freshness, just like you freeze meat in your own freezer, before going to our restaurants."
The following year, McDonald's took to pressing into TMI territory. As another piece written for The Huffington Post noted, McDonald's became the only food purveyor that advertised the fact that their food rots. Then, as ABC reported, they presented a series called "Our Food, Your Questions" that displayed everything you did not want to know about their food, including the McRib.
In a step by step video, McDonald's showed its customers how they ground and preserve boneless pork shoulders before shaping and freezing them in the now well-known block look. However, we'll probably forget about this, as memory on the internet usually does, only for us to be shocked once more when presented with the process behind our beloved McRibs. Until then, enjoy.