During McDonald’’s early years French fries were made from scratch every day. Russet Burbank potatoes were (1)_______, cut into shoestrings, and fried in its kitchens. (2)_______the chain expanded nationwide, in the mid-1960s, it sought to cut labour costs, reduce the number of suppliers, and (3)_______that its fries tasted the same at every restaurant. McDonald’’s began (4)_______to frozen French fries in 1966—and few customers noticed the difference. (5)_______, the change had a profound effect on the nation’’s agriculture and diet. A familiar food had been transformed into a highly processed industrial (6)_______. McDonald’’s fries now come from huge manufacturing plants (7)_______ can process two million pounds of potatoes a day. The expansion (8)_______ McDonald’’s and the popularity of its low-cost, mass-produced fries changed the way Americans eat.
The taste of McDonald’’s French fries played a crucial role in the chain’’s success—fries are much more profitable than hamburgers—and was (9)_______praised by customers, competitors, and even food critics. Their (10)_______ taste does not stem from the kind of potatoes that McDonald’’s (11)_______, the technology that processes them, or the restaurant equipment that fries them: other chains use Russet Burbank, buy their French fries from the (12)_______large processing companies, and have similar (13)_______in their restaurant kitchens. The taste of a French fry is (14)_______ determined by the cooking oil. For decades McDonald’’s cooked its French fries in a mixture of about 7 per cent cottonseed oil and 93 per cent beef fat. The mixture gave the fries their unique (15)_______.