While no one expects fast food products to be the pinnacle of healthy eating, there are some options at your favorite chain that are more nutritious than the alternatives.
Wendy’s, for example, offers a variety of salad and grilled chicken options while also offering notoriously unhealthy dishes such as the huge, calorie-dense Pretzel Bacon Pub Triple Cheeseburger or the Bacon Jalapeo Triple Cheeseburger.
Despite this, one popular menu item from the famed fast-food establishment is causing customers on social media to raise their heads since it contains components that have been branded “concerning,” “gross,” and “questionable.” If you’re a lover of Wendy’s chili, you’ll probably want to continue reading.
In an article for Eat This, Not That, Owen Duff points out that the recipe for Wendy’s fabled chili has been a topic of conjecture for years.
According to the creator (@mr.mawby) of a recent TikTok video released last month, he was a fictitious Wendy’s employee who appeared to provide viewers with an eye-opening inside glimpse at how their chili is prepared.
Because the video was so widely viewed and shared, even singer Lizzo made a point of mentioning it on her own Instagram account. In spite of the fact that the author has subsequently deleted it, it is still accessible on YouTube and is continuing to be distributed through other social media platforms.
In the video, the user can be seen emptying a tray of pre-cooked beef patties into a box, which appears to be old and stale. After that, water is added before the contents of the box are heated in the microwave.
The worker then drained the water from the meat and pounded it with a spatula to make it seem like the recognized beef found in a regular chili recipe. After that, the meat was placed in a plastic bag and placed in the refrigerator. “It will be kept in the fridge for a few days after this,” the caption of the photo stated.
For the 7 million people who watched the Tik Tok video, the concept that Wendy’s may use old, leftover beef patties to produce this menu item was shocking. Thousands of people flocked to the comments section to express their surprise and displeasure with the video.
Several users expressed surprise, saying, “I could’ve gone the rest of my life without knowing this,” while another said, “I just had some yesterday… “I’m not feeling well, bruh.”
Wendy’s “recycling” old patties have been known to the public since at least 1991, thanks to Dave Thomas’s memoir, Dave’s Way, which chronicles the company’s founding.
This was described by Thomas as a money-saving tactic for the business, which made sense to some of the TikTok viewers who were watching the video. In response, another remarked, “I’d honestly rather them do this than toss them all away.”
“No fast food is going to be five stars, therefore I don’t care,” added one. After reading a comment about “preserving the patties,” someone else commented that while this can help save money and meat, “it doesn’t mean I want to consume old food in my chili,” which is true.
The discussions and controversies surrounding Wendy’s chili, on the other hand, continue to rise on social media, as people using TikTok examine what exactly goes into the popular fast-food chain’s offering.