McDonald's Nixes Artificial Ingredients from Its Burgers

Calling all Big Mac and Quarter Pounder fans. McDonald's announced today that it has officially removed all artificial ingredients from its burgers, including regular burgers, cheeseburgers, double cheeseburgers, Big Macs, Quarter Pounders, Quater Pounders with cheese, and Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese.

All the ingredients in these burgers—that means the American Cheese, the Special Sauce, and all the buns, including plain, sesame and Big Mac—will be free of artificial preservatives, artificial flavors, and added colors. Specifically, there's no more sorbic acid in the cheese; no more potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, and calcium disodium EDTA in the Special Sauce; and no more calcium propionate in the buns, USA Today reports.

Now, McDonald's, with its 14,000 U.S. locations, says that a full two-thirds of its burgers and sandwiches are totally natural.

The remaining one-third is bad news for breakfast fans who want to "eat clean." The Egg McMuffin; Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit; and Bacon, Egg & Cheese McGriddles, among other sandwiches, still contain artifical ingredients.

In March, the McD's started using fresh beef in select burgers (we tried it, and the results were surprising), which follows other steps at improving the food standards and fast-food image of the chain, like committing to using cage-free eggs, which it announced back in 2016.

There's just one catch: One ingredient proved too dificult to content with, so it remains as the last-standing burger ingredient made with artificial stuff. You'll have to ask for a burger without it if you're going au natural. It's the pickle.

“There are different types of pickles available, but to keep the taste our customers know and love, we made no changes to our signature dill pickle,” spokeswoman Andrea Abate said in an email, according to The Chicago Tribune.

It poses the question: Do any of the other ingredients taste different? Something tells us that if the Special Sauce does, the internet will have something to say about it.