McDonald’s is one of, if not, the most popular fast-food restaurants around the world.
Billions of customers have purchased hamburgers, chicken nuggets, french fries, and other fast food snacks and meals from McDonald’s since they got their start in San Bernardino, California on April 15, 1955.
French fries come with almost every meal and are the most popular side order. So let’s find out if these fried potatoes are actually gluten free . . .
Are McDonald’s French Fries Gluten Free?
The Answer is: YES and NO* (REGIONAL)
Recommended Gluten Free Cook Books:
Surprisingly, McDonald’s fries are NOT gluten free (in the United States), and it’s not even because of cross-contamination in the fryers! McDonald’s confirms on their official website that their world famous fries contain Natural Beef Flavor which has Wheat and Milk Derivatives. So for any dairy free people out there, unfortunately there are also milk derivatives in McDonald’s fries too.
You can see the official ingredients and nutritional facts here: https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/small-french-fries.html
* The reason we included an asterisk is because McDonald’s French Fries list different ingredients for different regions. In most countries outside of the United States, McDonald’s does not use wheat in their french fries. These regions include:
We couldn’t find all the individual websites, but other Countries such as Spain, Japan, and more also list their fries with no wheat ingredients.
So the conclusion is that in the US, McDonald’s fries are NOT Gluten Free. Outside of the United States, McDonald’s fries do not contain wheat, but cannot be confirmed GF due to cross-contamination concerns, etc.
We recommend checking with your local McDonald’s to confirm this in your region because we’ve seen people in certain countries share that they were able to safely enjoy the fries without any symptoms.
Photo: McDonald’s website
French Fries Ingredients (UNITED STATES)
Ingredients: Potatoes, Vegetable Oil (Canola Oil, Corn Oil, Soybean Oil, Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Natural Beef Flavor [Wheat and Milk Derivatives]*), Dextrose, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate (Maintain Color), Salt. *Natural beef flavor contains hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk as starting ingredients.
Contains: WHEAT, MILK.
