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'It's a betrayal': Did you notice this McDonald's recipe change?

If you've been wondering why your McDonald's fries might taste different to what you remember, there's a reason for it.

Canadian historian and journalist Malcolm Gladwell has revealed that the fast food chain stopped using beef tallow (rendered fat) to cook their fries in the 1990s, but the new ingredient used isn't much better for us.

“They made the world’s greatest French fry. Then they threw it away," he said.

McDonalds changed the ingredient they used to cook fries in. Source: AAP
McDonalds changed the ingredient they used to cook fries in. Source: AAP

Speaking on his podcast Revisionist History, Mr Gladwell says he's been on a quest to find out how and why McDonald's “betrayed” him, The Sun reports.

McDonald's stopped using beef tallow after bowing to pressure from health campaigners over cholesterol fears.

Mr Gladwell believes that it destroyed the taste of the fries and didn't make them any healthier.

The campaign against beef tallow was started by Phil Sokolof, who was an advocate for healthier, low-cholesterol diets for Americans after he had a heart attack at 43 years old, according to The New York Times.

Mr Sokolof founded the National Heart Savers Association in 1985 and convinced McDonald’s to produce a low-fat, low-cholesterol hamburger in 1991.

Historian Malcolm Gladwell revealed the reason why the fries don't taste as good as they used to. Source: Getty Images
Historian Malcolm Gladwell revealed the reason why the fries don't taste as good as they used to. Source: Getty Images

“I can’t say we’re going to tear down the golden arches by the year 2000,” Phil told The New York Times in 1990,

“But I am confident that by the year 2000 they are going to be serving more healthful food. At the time, Maccas was cooking its chips in an animal fat called beef tallow."

Phil put out a full-page ad attacking the chain, headlined “the poisoning of America”, accusing McDonald's of selling fries loaded in fat.

The fast food giant eventually bowed to pressure, abandoning the one ingredient which made them famous.

French fries are now cooked in vegetable oil, which has a lower saturated fat content.

However, health experts have since discovered that vegetable oil contains dangerous trans fats, which are now thought to be more harmful that saturated fats.

Health experts say the oil is no healthier for us than beef tallow. Source: AAP
Health experts say the oil is no healthier for us than beef tallow. Source: AAP

"It’s not like when you’re frying an egg where it doesn’t really matter what you fry it in. A fried egg is a fried egg," Mr Gladwell said in his podcast.

"A French fry is a combination of a potato and some kind of cooking element. The thing you fry it in becomes a constituent part of the fry.

"It turns out to be false that vegetable oil is healthier for you than beef tallow.

"So not only did they destroy the French fry, they gave us something that was worse for us from a health perspective. So everything about it was a mistake."