Every fast-food restaurant has the meal that they're known for. McDonald's has the Big Mac, Burger King has the Whopper. Wendy's doesn't necessarily have 1 most popular meal, but they have a half dozen delicious choices that make customers come back again and again. One of those is their chili.
If you're a fan of the chili you might want to put this article down.
Wendy's has had some bad press in the past thanks to a hoax that involved a finger being found in a container of Wendy's chili. It turned out that a customer had actually planted his own severed finger in his chili in the hopes of getting a big payout from the company.
The real truth about Wendy's chili is better, but still might raise some eyebrows.
Wendy's uses their leftover burgers as their chili meat. That's something a lot of us might do at home, but isn't a common practice for a restaurant.
Wendy's insists that they do everything according to health safety procedure, and when you hear how they do it, it certainly seems safe. Cutting down on the crazy amount of food waste is also a good thing, so here's how your Wendy's Chili is actually made.
Wendy's cooks burger patties on the grill and leaves them there waiting for a customer to order a burger. When the burger is ordered they place the patty on a bun and go from there. Burgers can only spend a few minutes on the grill before they are "discarded".
A discarded burger is put into a refrigerated container and later is used for the next day's chili. Each burger is boiled down and minced before being cooked again in the chili sauce. The result is certainly overcooked, but ultimately safe to eat.
Wendy's chili is delicious, so it's hard to find a flaw in the recipe, other than the fact eating days old leftovers sounds unappetizing.
Grace Communications Foundations, an organization dedicated to raising awareness about environmental problems, says that up to 40% of our entire food supply is thrown out when unused. That's millions of tons of food, so maybe finding more uses for leftovers is a good thing.
