The Fast Food Joints That Secretly Have Non-Vegan French Fries

Because they're basically just potatoes with a makeover, fries shouldn't pose a problem for vegans — unless the potato used to make them happens to be Mr. Potato Head, but he's so old he's bound to have gone moldy by now. However, it seems that not all French fries are born equally.

This makes sense considering that restaurants have to try to make their products tastier than their competitors, but different ingredients and cooking methods mean that some French fries aren't actually vegan at all.

Many of America's biggest fast food chains are affected by this. McDonald's fries are made with natural beef flavor (containing milk), with milk inclusion also being the problem at Checkers. Elsewhere, brands including Burger King, Popeyes, Wendy's, and White Castle all serve non-vegan fries due to cross-contamination with meat and dairy products. To help you with your vegan fast food choices, we'll explain exactly why cross-contamination is a problem and how to avoid eating non-vegan fries.

Although the inclusion of dairy French fries makes them a pretty clear no-no for anyone eating a vegan diet, the concept of cross-contamination is a little less obvious. Put simply, cross-contamination is when French fries are cooked in oil that could contain non-vegan ingredients. For Popeyes and Burger King, this relates to fries sharing the same oil as chicken items; at Wendy's and White Castle, fries might share oil with food containing milk. Such circumstances could prevent these French fries from achieving vegan accreditation.

A straightforward way to avoid fries containing non-vegan ingredients or that have been tarnished through cross-contamination is to get them from a chain where they appear to be legitimately vegan, such as Chick-fil-A and Five Guys. If you're ordering on a website, the best way to avoid non-vegan foods is to look at the allergen information of the company to see if any incompatible ingredients are listed. If you're in a store, employees should be able to tell you how menu items are prepared — especially if vegan snacks are cooked in the same oil as meats.