Was Kangaroo meat ever substituted for Beef in any fast food restaurant?
According to snopes and wikipedia, this is just another urban legend (wherein kangaroo is replaced for worm, see bolded letters below). Claim: McDonald’s hamburgers contain worm meat. Status: False. Origins: Common sense should tell us this rumor is false. Pound for pound, earthworms cost more than beef — it doesn’t make sense to use a filler that is more expensive than what’s being replaced. Ah, but rumors don’t rely upon common sense. It’s the “yuck!” factor that gets us, and so the earthworm (sometimes KANGAROO meat) additive rumor has long bedeviled McDonald’s. (In some locales, the local Jack in the Box is fingered instead of McDonald’s.) Dating to 1978 (it might well be older — one reader recalls hearing it in 1973 or 1974) and of uncertain origin, this tale has a long tradition of being believed. By one common account, CBS’s 60 Minutes dug up the worm scandal; in fact, it never had. Adding credibility to these tales, many corporate rumors include the names of television news or
Claim: McDonald’s hamburgers contain worm meat. Status: False. Origins: Common sense should tell us this rumor is false. Pound for pound, earthworms cost more than beef — it doesn’t make sense to use a filler that is more expensive than what’s being replaced. Ah, but rumors don’t rely upon common sense. It’s the “yuck!” factor that gets us, and so the earthworm (sometimes kangaroo meat) additive rumor has long bedeviled McDonald’s. (In some locales, the local Jack in the Box is fingered instead of McDonald’s.) Dating to 1978 (it might well be older — one reader recalls hearing it in 1973 or 1974) and of uncertain origin, this tale has a long tradition of being believed. By one common account, CBS’s 60 Minutes dug up the worm scandal; in fact, it never had. Adding credibility to these tales, many corporate rumors include the names of television news or talk shows — either the rumor was investigated and found to be true by [name of investigative show] or the CEO of whichever company appe
I did a Google search and didn’t come up with anything beyond speculation, but I doubt that kangaroo meat has ever been substituted for beef for a few reasons: 1) It is far more expensive to produce than beef. 2) It tougher and gamier than beef (kangaroos are almost all muslce) and has a sweater flavor when cooked. It tastes almost nothing like beef. 3) It is harder to come by, even in Australia where kangaroos are in great numbers, much less kangaroo meat is produced than beef. So, logically and economically speaking, it’s unlikely that a fast food restaurant, which survives only because of the consistency and cheapness of its product, would compromise both the cost and flavor by substituting kangaroo for beef.
