Biting into a McDonald’s French fry should be like “walking on freshly fallen snow”.
Barbara Booth, the company’s director of sensory science, was presiding over the fast-food giant’s semi-annual French Fry Evaluation — a contest among McCain Foods, ConAgra Foods’s Lamb Weston and J.R. Simplot to cook perfect versions of McDonald’s ‘world famous fries’.
“Close your eyes,” Booth told the three executives and 11 supplier representatives as they sniffed, sampled and spit fries. “If you can’t tell what you’re eating in three seconds, there’s a problem.”