Why McDonald’s Fries Taste So Good. A long Atlantic exposé on the flavor industry and its manipulation of our palate for profit.

People usually buy a food
item the first time because of its packaging or appearance.
Taste usually determines whether they buy it again. About 90
percent of the money that Americans now spend on food goes
to buy processed food. The canning, freezing, and dehydrating
techniques used in processing destroy most of food’s flavor —
and so a vast industry has arisen in the United States to make
processed food palatable. Without this flavor industry today’s
fast food would not exist…

The flavor industry is highly secretive. Its leading companies
will not divulge the precise formulas of flavor compounds or the
identities of clients. The secrecy is deemed essential for
protecting the reputations of beloved brands. The fast-food
chains, understandably, would like the public to believe that the
flavors of the food they sell somehow originate in their
restaurant kitchens, not in distant factories run by other firms. A
McDonald’s french fry is one of countless foods whose flavor
is just a component in a complex manufacturing process. The
look and the taste of what we eat now are frequently deceiving
— by design.