McDonald’s Says ‘Secret Menu’ Is Real, Keeps Healthy Foods Secret

If you think you already know about McDonald’s secret menu because you are great at combining their ingredients to form new sandwiches — think again.

On July 17, it was reported that McDonald’s fans were right all along — McDonald’s does have a “secret” menu. However, there are a second set of healthier secrets that Americans may not be aware of.

Although most fans are fine with McDonald’s secretly trying out new things like the McLobster with limited members of their customer base, the idea that they actually have a secret menu has been sought out by McDonald’s customers for at least a decade.

Now, for a select group of McDonald’s customers, they have been given the green light to regularly order from the secret menu — but their ingredients are, surprisingly, a secret to most American McDonald’s customers.

On their website, McDonald’s has claimed for years that they do not have a truly secret menu. Instead, McDonald’s says the following in their website FAQ.

“Actually, our customers are pretty clever when it comes to customizing their orders with our menu items, so you may have seen some of their creations online. But we have no official secret menu of our own.”

What are these secret menu items like? On July 16, Las Vegas Weekly describes a potential secret menu item from McDonald’s called the Land-Sea-Air that includes a hamburger patty, a fish fillet, and a chicken patty on one bun.

Nevertheless, the idea that customers can dramatically customize their orders did not occur to some McDonald’s customers in the UK.

On July 17, the Mirror published an article stating that the secret menu was just for Americans — and not people in the UK.

To clarify that claim, Metro wrote on July 18 that a McDonald’s manager in Scotland confirmed that the “secret menu” was, in fact, real.

This anonymous McDonald’s manager in the UK confirmed that customers were allowed to order from the secret menus found online and that the proper term for ordering was “grill items.”

In addition, McDonald’s in the UK revealed not-so-secret menu items that American customers may be jealous to learn about.

When talking about the secret McDonald’s menu, the Independent mentioned on July 19 the following ingredients that are unavailable to American McDonald’s customers.

“The meat however, is good and is freshly grilled. It’s 100% local beef flank and doesn’t even use any binders like egg or rusk that you’d find even in the ‘good brands’ from the supermarket. McDonald’s milk is organic and the eggs are free range.”

How great is McDonald’s in England compared to America? The McDonald’s restaurants in London are so drastically different than the ones in NYC that even food-quality critic and chef Jamie Oliver approves of McDonald’s in the UK.

Sadly, for now, it appears that McDonald’s will continue to keep healthier food ingredients a secret from American menus.

[Feature image via Wikimedia Commons]