Chicken Mcnugget Research Paper

The Chicken McNugget: White Meat Or Chicken Beaks?

As the nursery rhyme goes, “Old McDonald has a farm, EIEIO. And, on the farm he has a Chicken McNugget, EIEIO.” If that did not sound right for some reason, it may have been because the Chicken McNugget was never on Old McDonald’s farm. The quality and safety of the chicken meat contained in McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets has been a subject of debate for many years (Snopes). The deliciousness of the juicy morsels is undeniable and debatably unbelievable. Reviewing how the chicken progresses from the farm to the fryer lends insight on why McDonald’s McNuggets produce a flavor that outshines its usually bland main ingredient. Additionally, A journey through the process where chickens are hatched, fed, stunned, decapitated, plucked, carved, ground, seasoned, mixed, extruded, breaded and fried will answer questions on how much of that nugget is still chicken and what steps have been taken to make it safe.

The process of creating a Chicken McNugget starts with breeding farms at one of three U.S. based commercial poultry suppliers: Keystone Foods, Lopez Foods and Tyson Foods (McDonald's). Even at this early stage, quality is a top priority. Farms

select specific breeds based on health and performance traits (Keystone Foods). Generations of chickens are crossbred based on resilience to disease and expected growth rate. The hens chosen for reproduction are mated and kept in a coop where they will lay their fertilized eggs. The eggs are collected from hens and stored in onsite hatcheries where they are incubated and monitored until they hatch.
Once the baby chicks emerge, they are transferred to the broiler farm. The broiler farm specifically raises chickens for meat (US Poultry). Chickens here interact with other chickens inside of a large building. Quality continues to be a priority as veterinarians and farmers monitor the health of the brood. When chickens need antibiotics, farmers carefully monitor the medicine’s usage and track chickens to obey mandated withdraw periods. Withdraw periods prevent antibiotics from contaminating meat. In addition to antibiotics, USDA prohibits other contaminates such as hormones and steroids in all US poultry (Keystone Foods).
Broiler chickens continue to live on the broiler farm until they reach a target weight of four to seven pounds (National). At this point, the market-weight chickens are around 47 days old and have consumed roughly twelve pounds of feed in that time (U.S. Broiler). Today’s chickens are fed precise mixtures of grains and proteins to maximize health, optimize growth rate, and minimize costs. These refined feeds produce chickens of more than twice the weight in about two-thirds of the time and lower the mortality rate of the chickens by about three percent compared to chickens raised in 1955. Farmers take great care to ensure chickens are healthy and well fed before transporting them to processing facilities.
The first of two processing plants handles draining, plucking, and cleaning the poultry. The facility is dimly lit to keep the chickens calm while workers carefully hang them on a conveyor by their feet (US Poultry). Then, the chickens are stunned in one of two ways, either by contact with a precise electrical current or by exposure to carbon-dioxide rich air. Both methods humanely render the birds unconscious—put into a deep sleep and unable to feel.
The chickens begin their transformation into a dinner-ready carcass with a quick pass over a sharp blade that severs the neck (US Poultry).

Fluids drain from the carcass before moving on to the rubber fingers. The array of fingers makes quick work of removing the feathers, leaving the bird bare. Finally, the bird’s innards are removed in what is a mostly mechanical process. Machines then spray an antimicrobial rinse on the chickens before food safety inspectors check each bird for broken bones, abrasions and bacterial infections. To ensure food safety, every day, workers thoroughly sanitize the entire processing facility with hot water and food safe cleaning agents. The poultry leaves the first facility resembling the oven-ready bird that is familiar to most U.S.

households.
The fresh chicken arrives at second processing facility and begins the final stages of becoming a McNugget. The carcasses are dutifully trimmed, carved, and sorted into two types of meat (McDonald's). The first type is dark meat that consists of the drumsticks and thighs and the second type is white meat that consists of breast meat, tenderloin, and rib meat. Only the white meat is used for McNuggets. Some skin is also saved to be added later for flavoring.
Once sorted, the white meat parts are fed into a course meat grinder (McDonald's). The resulting product has a consistency a little courser than ground beef. The ground meat then travels along a conveyor to a large mixer. The meat mixes with; water, sodium phosphates, and food starch-modified to add moisture; skin, salt, natural flavoring, wheat starch, dextrose, citric acid and autolyzed yeast extract to enhance flavor; rosemary extract and safflower oil to preserve freshness. The marinade mixes thoroughly with the meat and produces an extrudable blend that still resembles a ground chicken.
The meat finally receives its iconic McNugget shapes as the mixture presses through dies onto another conveyor (McDonald's). Shortly after, equipment coats the nuggets with a thin batter and then a “breader” containing white pepper and celery. The classic tempura coating containing wheat flour, corn flour, starches, and leavening agents is then applied. A quick dip in the fryer cooks the batter and seals in the moisture; however, the inside of the McNugget remains uncooked at this point.
In an effort to preserve freshness, the nuggets conveyed down the line to be flash frozen, bagged, and boxed for shipment to McDonald’s restaurants (McDonald's). Technicians preform testing every hour on the resulting Chicken McNuggets. Testers cook the McNuggets in the same fryer as used in the restaurants. The cooked McNugget is judged on color, appearance, texture, and flavor. The batches must meet all quality standards before they are sent to stores around the country.
Despite McDonald’s recent transparency based public relations campaign, there continue to be skeptics that doubt the content of the fast food chain’s nuggets (Ledbetter). After following the McNugget manufacturing process in detail, we see that not only does McDonald’s put copious amounts of thought into the look and taste of the iconic golden nuggets, but also a painstaking effort is taken to deliver a quality chicken product that is safe to eat. Moreover, one can rest assured knowing that McDonald’s chicken is exactly that, chicken.