Ex-McDonald’s chef explains why salads were taken off the menu in 2020

An ex-McDonald’s chef has drawn the veil back on why the fast food chain discontinued its salad line back in 2020.

Ex-McDonald’s chef Mike Haracz took to TikTok to break down why salads were discontinued from the fast food chain back in 2020.

The former McDonald’s chef revealed that the reason for doing so was simply due to the fact that salads were a more difficult item to make than burgers.

In the new TikTok video, the former McDonald’s chef who claimed to have worked at the company up until 2019 revealed that “the biggest reason is that salad doesn’t last long and by salad, we are talking about iceberg lettuce, romaine, leafy greens, and things of that nature,” he explained.

Haracz then added, “You can freeze beef, you can refrigerate beef, for shelf-life extension,” he said, also citing the “fragility of lettuce. 

“The same trucks that transport beef also transport lettuce. You can’t compound it. You can’t crush it. You have to be very delicate with it, or it gets bruised, and people won’t buy it.”

While many assumed that McDonald’s chose to remove salads from their menu due to the global crisis a few years back, it appears that cost and pricing was also a major factor in the decision.

Haracz ended the TikTok by further adding, “If it looks weird, even though it is perfectly fine to eat, people just don’t want to buy it. But with ground meat, you can use a variety of different portions of the animal that are ground so you don’t know what it looks like, you can mix fat content and things of that nature.” 

TikTok users were quick to comment on the new video, claiming that they “knew” there was a reason for the salad range disappearing from the McDonald’s menu.

Another user commented that the removal of salads “makes so much sense” after Haracz explained the cost and demand breakdown of the item.