Fresh off a proclamation that its food does indeed rot, McDonald's has produced an entire video showing that the McRib sandwich is not made from a slab of fake frozen meat that best resembles a Lego brick, but from a slab of real frozen meat that best resembles a Lego brick.
McDonald's invited high school teacher Wes Bellamy to tour the factory of one of its McRib suppliers in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, after he tweeted an image of a frozen McRib patty last year:
McDonald's PR team also invited along Grant Imahara of MythBusters fame to add a little color commentary. What the two found was that the making of the McRib isn't as gross as they may have thought.
First, real pork meat is processed and mixed with water, salt, dextrose -- a type of sugar -- and preservatives.
Then, they move the meat around the factory a bit.
The pork gets shaped into something that vaguely resembles a rack of ribs. Then the patties are sprayed with water and frozen.
See? What's gross about square-shaped pork slabs being hosed down with water?
Of course, as this is a video produced by McDonald's, the mass production of the McRib patty is being shown in the most palatable way possible. As The Awl's John Herrman points out, the video may be a clever marketing ploy not because it reveals any secrets or refutes any rumors but because it puts the patty in the context of how mass-produced food is made. Instead of a gross viral image taken out of context, it now becomes "a triumph of precision and science," as Herrman put it.
And here's the final result.
Ah, jeez, wait, they actually ate that?
Here's the full video: