Fast Food Chains That Don't Actually Serve Real Whole Eggs
Which came first? The chicken? Or the egg-like product made with medium chain triglycerides and tocopherols?
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00:00Which came first, the chicken or the egg-like product made with medium-chain triglycerides
00:04and tocopherols?
00:06Dunkin' only dropped the Donuts part of its name in 2018, but it expanded its horizons
00:11beyond sugary baked goods well before that. The chain added its first breakfast sandwiches
00:15to the menu in 1997, and while the offerings have changed somewhat over the years, they
00:19remain among the most popular items at Dunkin'. If your go-to breakfast sandwich contains
00:23egg, however, you may be surprised to learn that those eggs aren't just, you know, eggs.
00:27Each patty contains a whopping 10 ingredients, including soybean oil, water, cornstarch,
00:32salt, natural flavor, xanthan gum, cellulose gum, and citric acid.
00:36That list actually used to be a lot longer. In 2016, the chain promised to go cage-free
00:41with their eggs, and a year later they decided to cut some ingredients in its egg patties
00:45and use fewer fillers, as there was more water in each patty than actual egg yolk.
00:49Nigel Travis, the then-CEO of Dunkin' Brands, promised Fox News,
00:54The yolk is much fuller. It looks much more yellow."
00:57Taco Bell's breakfast menu has a lot of fans, but for some people, the eggs may raise red flags,
01:02because they aren't just eggs. Far from it. Back in 2015, Taco Bell removed all artificial flavors
01:07and colors, added trans fat, high-fructose corn syrup, and unsustainable palm oil from
01:11its core menu items. Three years later, it removed preservatives and other additives where deemed
01:16possible. But for whatever reason, those positive changes didn't extend all the way through their
01:20breakfast menu. While Taco Bell uses 100% cage-free whole eggs, these are combined with soybean oil,
01:26salt, citric acid, pepper, sunflower oil, flavors, xanthan gum, and guar gum. Of course,
01:31salt and pepper are classic additions to any breakfast egg. However, the likes of xanthan gum,
01:35a fermented sugar often used as a thickener and sometimes substituted for eggs in gluten-free
01:40baked goods and sauces, is a little harder to understand. While not considered dangerous by
01:44the FDA, those who are trying to avoid additives as much as possible may want to look elsewhere
01:49for a fast-food breakfast, as these ingredients are added to the eggs in Taco Bell's breakfast
01:53crunchwrap, breakfast burritos, and quesadillas. Chick-fil-A currently only serves breakfast until
01:5810.30 a.m., so you'll need to move fast if you want to sample its biscuits or muffins. If you're
02:02looking for real whole eggs, however, you may wish to move even faster in the opposite direction,
02:07because Chick-fil-A is not the breakfast spot for you. Delicious though its breakfast biscuits may
02:11be, those menu items that contain eggs — such as the chicken, egg, and cheese biscuit — are a
02:15playground of preservatives, additives, and fillers. The ingredients list for each folded
02:20egg reads as follows. Whole eggs, water, salt, butter-type flavor, which is made of medium-chain
02:25triglycerides, coconut oil, and natural flavors, xanthan gum, citric acid, annatto, soybean oil,
02:31palm kernel oil, soy lecithin, natural flavor, and beta-carotene. The latter is used as a coloring
02:36agent, giving the egg its distinctive yellow hue, also known as the same color as if you just used
02:42plain ol' whole eggs. None of these ingredients are overly concerning. Triglycerides, for instance,
02:46crop up a lot in fast food eggs and sound much more alarming than they really are. In essence,
02:51medium-chain triglycerides are just fats made from coconut and palm kernel oils and have actually
02:55been linked to weight loss in the past. On the other hand, kernel oil and coconut oil are also
03:00notably high in saturated fats, which doesn't exactly work wonders on each breakfast sandwich's
03:04nutritional profile. Still, it is disappointing to see flavors added to eggs — a food that is
03:09already packed with plenty of natural flavor — in what seems to be an attempt to make these meals as
03:13cheaply and quickly as possible. Not only does Jack-in-the-Box serve breakfast all day long,
03:18but it also uses real whole eggs in multiple menu items. The likes of its Sausage Egg and
03:22Cheese Biscuit, Supreme Sourdough Breakfast Sandwich, and the Sausage Breakfast Jack all
03:26currently use freshly cracked USDA-grade AA eggs. Admittedly, these are fried in a butter-flavored
03:31vegetable oil, which does inevitably end up in the egg once it's all cooked, but that's a pretty
03:36minor addition.
03:37Isn't this the kind of breakfast you just dream of?
03:40Given the opportunity.
03:43What isn't quite as wholesome is any Jack-in-the-Box breakfast item that contains
03:46scrambled eggs. While the first ingredient in this concoction is whole eggs, the rest of each
03:50portion is bulked out with water, which makes up 19% of each serving, egg whites, salt, xanthan gum,
03:56citric acid, annatto for color, and butter flavor, consisting of sunflower oil, natural flavors,
04:02and medium-chain triglycerides. You'll find these altered eggs in menu items such as the
04:06French Toast Sticks Platter and the Meat Lovers Breakfast Burrito.
04:09As of 2021, Subway is no longer the biggest restaurant chain in the world,
04:13a title it held since 2011, having been pipped by McDonald's. Second place is no small feat,
04:18though, with nearly 37,000 locations dotted across the globe to feed your carb cravings at any time
04:23of day, including breakfast. But before you dash to your nearest Subway for some eggs,
04:27it's useful to note that in 2012, Forbes compared eggs at various fast food restaurants and found
04:32that Subway's contained the most non-egg ingredients. Fast forward over a decade,
04:36and things haven't gotten much better. While the eggs served at Subway restaurants no longer
04:40contain the likes of TPHQ, propylene glycol, or isolated pea product like they did in the past,
04:46they still contain a multitude of additives and preservatives that you may wish to avoid.
04:49If you order one of the three breakfast sandwiches that contain eggs, you'll be chowing down on a mix
04:54of egg whites, egg yolks, soybean oil, water, unmodified cornstarch, liquid butter alternative,
04:59aka liquid and hydrogenated soybean oil, salt, soy lecithin, natural flavor, tocopherols,
05:05salt, black pepper, xanthan gum, cellulose gum, and citric acid. None of these are particularly
05:09out of the ordinary or dangerous, but it's still strange to see something as simple as an egg made
05:13with so many ingredients. Panera Bread has been pretty vocal about its passion for real eggs in
05:18the past. In 2018, it petitioned the FDA to officially define the term egg so other outlets
05:23couldn't list eggs made with additives, preservatives, or colors as such. Conveniently, this came just as
05:28Panera Bread launched its own line of breakfast sandwiches, which, you guessed it, were proudly
05:33marketed as containing real whole eggs. Our view is if you ask for an egg, you should get an egg.
05:39Sarah Burnett, Panera Bread's then-director of wellness and food policy, said at the time in a
05:44Panera and our competitors use the FDA definitions to guide our product descriptions and names,
05:49but in the case of eggs, we have no guidance. Brands can say they offer an egg sandwich,
05:53but sell an egg product that contains multiple additives. At Panera, consumers can be assured
05:57that when they order eggs, that's exactly what they're getting. But while that may have been
06:00the case in 2018, it's not necessarily the case in 2024. Several Panera Bread menu items do use
06:06real whole eggs, but others contain scrambled eggs that are actually made with liquid eggs,
06:10which includes citric acid and canola oil, in addition to the actual whole eggs. Compared to
06:15many fast food chains, that's still pretty good, but it's not quite the real whole eggs Panera
06:19Bread advocated for in the past. The Starbucks breakfast menu currently contains an impressive
06:24array of nine different sandwiches, none of which contain real whole eggs. Depending on the sandwich
06:28you pick, you'll be treated to an egg patty containing varyingly long lists of ingredients.
06:32For example, the egg pesto and mozzarella sandwich uses an egg frittata patty that deploys eggs
06:38mixed with the likes of unmodified cornstarch, mirin, rice wine, natural ginger flavor, and soy
06:43type flavor. If you opt for the bacon gouda and egg sandwich, you'll get an egg frittata patty
06:47with cheese, which contains too many ingredients to list thanks to the addition of cheese as well
06:51as egg. Meanwhile, the chicken maple butter and egg sandwich uses a puffed scrambled egg patty
06:56that contains ingredients such as nonfat milk, soybean oil, dicalcium phosphate, salt, sodium
07:02bicarbonate, and butter flavor. If you're really determined to find something as close to whole
07:06eggs as you can get at Starbucks, a slightly less complicated choice is one of the Starbucks
07:10protein boxes. These contain hard-boiled eggs, with citric acid being the only other ingredient
07:14besides eggs. Both the kale and mushroom egg bites and bacon and gruyere egg bites are also
07:19made with a relatively simple egg concoction of eggs, water, and citric acid. Del Taco has a
07:24stellar lineup of burritos, tacos, and wraps that deliver the carbs and copious amounts of cheese
07:29you want in an indulgent breakfast. No matter which item you choose, every option on Del Taco's
07:33breakfast menu uses scrambled eggs as the base for all this cheesy goodness. However, this is
07:38another fast food chain that doesn't use straight-up eggs in any of its dishes. Instead, it uses our
07:43old friend liquid eggs. This time around, a hefty 19 percent of each liquid egg serving is made up
07:49of water. The rest of the mixture consists of whole eggs, egg whites, salt, xanthan gum, citric
07:54acid, annatto, and butter flavor, which is made from sunflower oil, natural flavors, and medium
07:59chain triglycerides. Burger King was an early adopter of the fast food breakfast, introducing
08:04its Croissan'wich in 1983 as a very transparent attempt to compete with the McDonald's McMuffin.
08:09Heck, one of its most famous ads from the 1980s even saw a group of children
08:13creepily singing their apologies that the Croissan'wich beat the stuffin' out of Egg McMuffin.
08:18In a nationwide test, our flaky Croissan'wich with golden eggs and melted cheese, sausage,
08:23bacon, or ham beat the stuffin' out of Egg McMuffin."
08:26The Croissan'wich lives on to this day, with the Burger King breakfast menu also expanded to
08:30include the likes of biscuits and breakfast burritos, most of which are stacked with eggs.
08:34Or in this case, something eerily similar to eggs. Burger King uses a liquid egg pasteurized
08:39mixture for its morning meals. The ingredients list starts with whole eggs, then goes on to
08:44add the usual suspects such as water, xanthan gum, citric acid, and medium chain triglycerides.
08:49It's not the longest list of ingredients for a fast food egg, but it's definitely a stretch to
08:53say that these are real whole eggs. These eggs have caused some commotion in the past,
08:56with customers flocking to Reddit and other parts of the internet to complain about the rather
09:00gross-looking air pockets that form when the mixture is cooked. However, as others have pointed
09:05out, these bubbles are hard to avoid when cooking liquid eggs, which is another good reason to use
09:09real whole eggs instead. McDonald's is widely recognized as the fast food breakfast king.
09:14Whether you're pulling up at the drive-thru for a bacon, egg, and cheese McGriddle, or punching
09:18in a DoorDash order for a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit, Mickey D's has got your back
09:22when you wake up craving a greasy, carby, indulgent morning meal. And sadly, it has to
09:26be in the morning, as McDonald's has discontinued their all-day breakfast service.
09:30We crack so many eggs every single day that our crew members have become real experts at it.
09:36McDonald's is extremely loud and proud about the fact that it uses real eggs for its breakfast
09:40items. While it's true that some items, like the chain's McMuffins, use freshly cracked eggs that
09:45are cooked in a metal ring to match the shape of the bread, others do not. For example, if you
09:49order the bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit, you'll be getting a folded egg made of eggs, nonfat milk,
09:54modified food starch, and citric acid. These are pre-cooked, folded, and flash-frozen by the
09:58supplier before being re-cooked on each restaurant's grill. The same is true for any biscuit and
10:02McGriddle containing eggs. Any dish containing scrambled eggs, such as the Big Breakfast,
10:07also bends the definition of real eggs. These are made with liquid eggs containing citric acid.
10:12Likewise, the eggs in the sausage burrito are pre-cooked liquid eggs mixed with a mix of sausage
10:17and vegetables, as well as additives such as dextrose, calcium chloride, and xanthan gum.