Friday, October 31, 2014

McDonald’s Chicken Nuggets

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Having a child has completely changed my schedule and life around. Usually I spend my days cooking and crafting, now I attend play groups, the library, spend a lot of time at the park and we recently started attending a Small Fries group that meets once a week at a local McDonald's. It's a great program (and not to mention a free activity that gets us out of the house), every week is a new theme the leader reads a book and she puts out fine motor skills activities and a craft.

Recently they had a great day planned around the chicken McDonald's serves. My son was excited to make a chicken, he’s been showing it to everyone when they come to our house. It’s so cute!

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So you are wondering what my stay at home life has to do with my post today right? Well they had a guest speaker recently with the theme of chicken. Specifically a rep from Tyson foods which provides all of the chicken products for McDonald’s. Kristen came in and she had a great video showing the production of their chicken nuggets and how they are made as well as answered any questions the parents had regarding their products. I thought it would be a great way to pass on some info in case you where wondering what’s in those tasty little nuggets. ere’s a list of things I learned:

*Tyson provides over 8,000 restaurants in the Central and Western parts of the United States with all of their chicken products? They’ve also handled the account for 31 years now, so your experience will always be the same no matter what location you visit.

*It takes 225 family farms and 3 dedicated facility's to handle the McDonald's quantity, 2 in Arkansas and 1 in Tennessee. Keystone Foods handles the poultry supplier in the Eastern side of the US.

*It takes each chicken 52 days from the day they hatch to reach the size needed before being processed. Each chicken is par-fried then frozen, shipped to the restaurant making them Farm-to-fork within 2 weeks cooked fresh at the restaurant location.

*What part of the chicken is used in the nuggets you ask? They start with white-meat chicken cut from the tenderloin, breast and rib, and grind it with a small amount of chicken skin for flavor and juiciness to help them keep their fun shape. Next, a marinade is added.

*For those worried about antibiotics….they are used for therapy reasons only for sick chickens and never passed through to the chicken meat you eat. Even if a chicken was given antibiotics, they would be separated and then once the antibiotics where totally out of their blood stream they would then be moved on to being processed. They also do not use any hormones and no chicken farmer should due to the fact that it’s against federal law in the 1970’s. For more info regarding antibiotics in chickens click HERE.

*Regarding genetically altered chickens, people forget that most things in life are genetically altered. We mix breeds of fruit and vegetables as well as our pets to get the best qualities. You even mix colors to get that cool effect for Easter egg dying. No additional chemicals etc are introduced to make a chicken grow larger, it’s basic science breeding 2 types of chickens produces a larger chicken. To see more on Genetically Modified Grain in the breading and Tyson click HERE.

*Here’s a fun fact for you did you know Tyson doesn’t just handle this one large chain of restaurants? They also provide to another famous brand, which I won’t mention (they mainly sell chicken) The process is slightly different and they use different seasonings.

*Ever wonder what those little nugget shapes are? They are a bell, boot, ball and bone.

Wanna know more about what’s in the chicken nuggets? Click HERE and HERE for details. You can also get info from the Tyson website if you want to further research. Click HERE.

So to sum it up I know everyone is entitled to their own opinions and once someone is passionate enough to try to ruin a company they will voice it on social media as much as possible. Bottom line is if you don't like it don't go and leave everyone else alone that wants to go. McDonald's is doing something right to be as large and successful as they are. Do some research before you complain too that really irritates me when people have no clue what they are even complaining about.

What else would you like to know? I can ask Tyson directly and get you an answer!

Disclaimer: Information was provided from Tyson Foods, and my own research. I was not required to write a positive review or any review at all. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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