Fake Fries...

Large order of Wendy's Natural -Cut Fries

There is a buzz out there about Wendy's new "Natural-Cut" fries.  They imply yumminess but the word "Natural-Cut" refers to the way they are cut, literally, not the fry itself.   The fries are factory cut, leaving their skins on which is why they are called "Natural-Cut" fries. They are then treated with chemicals (dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate, citric acid & dimethylpolysiloxane) and oil before they are flash frozen.  The fries are then stored, for who knows how long, and then shipped to your local Wendy's (where they are stored for even longer) and fried, at convenient intervals throughout the day, and kept warm with lamps until you go in and order.

When your local Wendy's fries their frozen "Natural-Cut" fries there's another situation all together: cross-contamination. Their fries are, "Cooked in the same oil as menu items that contain Wheat, Egg, Milk, and Fish."  This cross-contamination leaves you with fries that could taste like yesterday's fish and are no longer Gluten-free as potatoes are naturally!

When you order fries at RaeRae's we take 2 hand washed russet potatoes and we cut them (whenever possible our potatoes are from local farms & organic.) We coat them with ..um...NOTHING and we fry them (in trans fat free vegetable oil) in a separate fryer used only for our fries; our fries are Glueten free! When your fries are perfectly golden we ask you if you would like salt & pepper and, if so, we sprinkle them with sea salt and pepper, that we grind ourselves!  Of course, you can also order your fries with RaeRae's Angus Chili, RaeRae's Quinoa Chili, Cheese and/or Jalapenos! Here is what a regular order of fries from RaeRae's looks like.

RaeRae's Order of Fries with Sea Salt & Fresh Cracked Pepper! click to enlarge.

After reading all of that you may be wondering, "What's the price difference?"

click to enlarge

Let's take a look...here is the receipt from my Large Natural-Cut Fry purchase from Wendy's... $1.99 for a large order of fries (and you can see from the picture at the top of the blog exactly what I got for that price...not a single fry was removed or left in the bag for that picture!) after tax your Wendy's fries comes to $2.15.  RaeRae's Fries are $2.25 and after tax come out to $2.43.  $0.28 cents difference..you decide, is it worth it?








Think some of you reading this may have expected that I would do some type of taste test to their fries but I won't. I will leave that up to you, the customers.  You know the facts - you see the visual difference, now come out this spring and taste an order or RaeRae's and if you dare to compare...feel free to post your results as a comment to this blog post.

I found the Wendy's nutritional information on their website www.wendys.com, clicked on "food" then "nutritional facts" then in the drop down selected "fries & sides" then "natural-cut french-fries." Here is one of the paragraphs from page that those steps populated, "Large Fries Potatoes, Vegetable Oil (contains one or more of the following oils: canola, soybean, cottonseed, sunflower, corn), Dextrose, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate (to maintain natural color). Cooked in Vegetable Oil (soybean oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural flavor [vegetable], citric acid [preservative], dimethylpolysiloxane [anti-foaming agent]). Cooked in the same oil as menu items that contain Wheat, Egg, Milk, and Fish (where available). Seasoned with Sea Salt."