15 Times Fast Food Companies Were Caught Lying, Cheating, and Being Generally Shady

And these are just the times they got caught.
15 Times Fast Food Companies Were Caught Lying, Cheating, and Being Generally Shady

Yes, ignorance is bliss… But what if it’s slowly killing you? Shucks, we didn’t mean to get so deep off the hop there. The topic of fast food’s shady practices has always lived in that realm though. Do we actually want to know? While we’re craving it, maybe not. But when that inevitable tummy ache comes around, yeah, forget those clowns. Well, the one actual clown, and his buddies — The king, the colonel, the bell, the submarine, and that freckled little redhead. 

At one point or another, they’ve all been caught cutting corners on the neverending hunt to keep production costs low. And worse, their financial success is a bad influence on once higher quality options. Lookin’ at you, Bareburger. Mass production is a slippery slope like that. The quality dips low enough that they don’t want us to know about it. Cus if (and when) we find out, class action lawsuits and the public’s general disgust will set them straight. Well, until our guards are down again. Here are 15 times that fast food companies were caught lying, cheating, and just being downright shady.

Meat suppliers do the ol’ expiration date switcheroo.

CRACKED MCDONALD'S WAS COOL WITH EXPIRED MEAT! In 2014, reporters filmed an American-owned Shanghai factory changing the dates on expired meat before sending it to McDonald's and KFC locations in China. KFC dropped the supplier, but McDonald's kept using them.

USA Today  / Ranker 

Bareburger was supposed to be one of the good guys!

CRACKED MISFILS BAREBURGER IS FAR FROM 100% ORGANIC. In 2017, Gil Rosenberg witnessed a supply truck delivering meat without the certified organic seal. They boast 100% organic beef, but he got the CEO to admit that the burgers are only 75 to 80% organic.

Mashed / NY Times 

Look, tuna’s expensive. Let’s just shred something up and slop it in mayo.

CRACKED SUBWAY'S TUNA IS ANYTHING BUT. In an ongoing lawsuit, of the 20 Subway tuna samples taken, 19 samples found no detectable tuna DNA sequences whatsoever. The samples contained other types of animal DNA, such as chicken and pork.

NPR

Pumpkin Spice Latte does sound a lot sexier than “Orange Cancerous Ooze.”

CRACKED STARBUCKS' PUMPKIN SPICE WAS A PUMPKIN-LESS POSSIBLE CARCINOGEN. Chemically tested in 2015, the PSL contained no trace of actual pumpkin, and was high in caramel color class IV. Experts debate its link to cancer, but Starbucks played it safe by releasing a new syrup without the chemical (and with actual pumpkin).

Foodbeast / FoFarms 

What percentage of beef are you okay with?

CRACKED BREAK T AT TH BEL TIL 11AM TACO BELL'S MYSTERY MEAT BY THE NUMBERS. In 2011, a lawsuit claimed that Taco Bell's beef contained only 35% meat and could not call itself beef. Taco Bell spent millions to prove that it's actually 88% beef, so we're left trying to account for the other 12-65%.

NPR / Today 

As if McDonald’s bigwigs aren’t rich enough!

CRACKED EXHIBIT A HTV SHA BIG MAC TWO WASS TO time Wellit - B UILD Seous PRIZE чело P YORD EXPLORE VI - NA THE MCDONALD'S MONOPOLY SCANDAL. In the '90s, McDonalds' Monopoly marketing executive Jerry Jacobson made $24 million by stealing and selling the game's most valuable pieces.

NY Times 

Subway’s sneaky sugars are no match for the Irish courts.

CRACKED SUBWAY SUBWAY BREAD IS LEGALLY MORE CUPCAKE THAN BREAD. At 10 grams of sugar per foot-long, an Irish judge ruled that the sugar content is too high to be considered bread, and should actually be classified as a confectionary.

The Guardian

You see kids… When a chicken and a soybean fall in love…

CRACKED SUBWAY'S CHICKEN IS HALF THE CHICKEN IT USED TO BE. In 2017, the CBC revealed that chicken from Canadian Subways consists of just 50% chicken DNA. According to the study, the remaining 50% is made of soy fillers.

CBC / NY Post 

Now that we think about it… These burgers look nothing like they do on TV!

CRACKED ON-BALANCE LELAND ИГР . ON BALANCE'S - AD LUNCH TODAY M Pepper M M A CLASS ACTION SUIT FOR FALSE ADVERTISING. A Wendy's commercial food stylist said that she uses undercooked beef to make burgers look plumper, and layers toppings with pins. We all know the visual discrepancy, but in 2022, Wendy's and McDonald's got slapped with a false-advertising suit.

News Nation Now 

If you thought we meant 100% GMO-free, that’s on you.

CRACKED CHIPOTLE LIED ABOUT BEING GMO-FREE. They announced that their food was GMO-free in 2015, but their meat and dairy still came from animals fed on GMOs. Chipotle attorneys said, no reasonable consumer would expect that the non-GMO claims would be so strictly applied.

Mashed / Barrons 

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