The chain may be most famous for its iconic burgers and fries, but McDonald’s is also the reigning American champion of eggs. People certainly love McDonald’s breakfast, and it shows in the figures, as the company is the number one buyer of eggs in the United States, going through more than two billion each year. And while industrial food production of this scale often raises some eyebrows, McDonald’s eggs don’t actually have that many added ingredients. Although, to slightly complicate matters, McDonald’s eggs actually come in four different forms, each with their own ingredient list.
The first type is on the iconic McDonald’s Egg McMuffin, and true to its name, it highlights the egg by using a freshly-cracked USDA-inspected egg that is cooked in a ring mold. So if you want an egg that’s free of any additives at McDonald’s, the McMuffin is the way to go. The most common option is what McDonald’s calls folded eggs. This is what you get on most McDonald’s breakfast menu items besides the McMuffin, like the McGriddles or biscuit sandwiches. McDonald’s folded eggs are pre-cooked and frozen before being shipped to stores, where they are reheated by being cooked in butter on the grill. The rest are made with uncooked liquid eggs, which are made with egg, milk, salt, modified food starch, and citric acid. Modified food starch is usually used as a thickener or stabilizer, while citric acid is used for flavor and as a preservative.
McDonald’s uses mostly liquid eggs made from real eggs with a few additions for flavor
The next type of eggs you can get at McDonald’s are the scrambled eggs, which are on chain’s breakfast plates. These are made from liquid eggs, but they are cooked fresh in house with butter. Unlike the folded eggs, these liquid eggs contain only egg and citric acid. There are no other additives or preservatives. So if you are looking for real eggs they are your second best choice behind a McMuffin.
The last type of egg at McDonald’s is only in the breakfast burrito. It uses the same precooking method as the folded eggs, but they get scrambled with sausage and vegetables, making it hard to determine what ingredients are in the eggs by themselves. But either way, this mixture contains similar additives like modified food starch, citric acid, and calcium chloride, which is another stabilizer and preservative.
It might surprise you that McDonald’s eggs have only a few ingredients, but over the last decade the company has been making changes over the years towards more sustainable and healthy versions of its breakfast sandwiches. In 2023 the company hit the milestone of having all of its eggs come from cage-free hens. And prior to that, McDonald’s eggs were part of a company-wide effort to cut down on artificial ingredients, which also included its Chicken McNuggets and eventually burgers too. Turns out McDonald’s eggs may be a lot more real than you expect.
