McDonald's Reveals What's Actually in Their Chicken McNuggets—and the Answer May Surprise You!

McDonald's Canada released the video in response to the pink goo question

By John Boone Feb 04, 2014 8:18 PMTags

Mysterious Pink McGoo doesn't quite have the same appetizing ring as Chicken McNuggets.

Which is why McDonald's wants you to know that there isn't any mysterious pink goo in their Chicken McNuggets, despite what the Internet may tell you. And Mickey D's Canadian branch has released a video showing what exactly is in the McNug. 

The answer may surprise you. Because apparently it's...chicken?! Like, all chicken.

While a study recently tested chicken nuggets from various unnamed fast food restaurants (which means there is a possibility that McDonald's was not among the chains chosen) and found that the nuggets contained mostly fat, blood vessels and pieces of bone, here is what actually is inside a McNugget:

"It's an image that often gets associated with McDonald's and it's a question that we get a lot," Nicoletta Stefou, McDonald's Canada's Supply Chain Manager, explains. "We don't know what it is or where it came from, but it has nothing to do with our Chicken McNuggets."

Nicoletta takes a tour through the factory that makes McNuggets, where Jennifer Rabideau, a product development scientist, says, "The process starts with whole chickens. We separate all the chicken cuts and set aside the chicken breasts meat for Chicken McNuggets."

The chicken is then blended and grinded, seasoned and mixed with chicken skin ("for flavor and as a binder"), portioned into the Chicken McNugget shapes (a ball, a bell, a boot and a bowtie, apparently, though they all look like the Chicken McBlobs you know and maybe love), covered in batter, fried, frozen and then shipped to restaurants to be cooked.

"It's very different," Nicoletta compares the chicken mix to the pink goo.

We mean, yeah, it's different. But it still looks disgusting. At least it's not pink?

McDonald's Canada has a whole page of their site dedicated to answering questions from their customers (and the answers are actually pretty interesting). They have making-of videos for their burgers and their french fries (featuring a cameo by a hot farmer). 

But most of the Q's seem to be about the McNuggets.

Here, McNuggets are brought to a lab to be examined under a microscope:

And in another video, someone asks whether Mickey D's mix in "the whole chicken," to which a deboning specialist explains, "We do not grind up whole chickens" then proceeds to cut up a chicken carcass on camera (if you want to lose your appetite before your lunch break, watch the whole damn deboning here).

So, are you more or less hungry after reading this post?