More about fast food from McDonald’s Kitchen (15 Aug 2011)

  Set 1/7  

During our recent learning journey to McDonald’s in King Albert’s Park on 15 August 2011, there were many things that we learnt which are invaluable to us.

We liked this tour because we can learn how food is prepared in McDonald’s. We have come to know that food is kept for a certain amount of time before it is actually cooked. Food items like bread and dry ingredients are kept in the storeroom for some time which clearly indicates that the food prepared is not as healthy, as claimed! On the other hand, they also have dairy food and vegetables kept in chiller room, again for some time.

We were divided into three groups to visit McDonald's kitchen. That was quite interesting. We watched different machines making different kinds of food. The workers there all had a good attitude and warmly welcomed us. The guide patiently explained how to operate the various machines. We also visited the cold store in McDonald's kitchen. From asking some questions, we knew more about the food.

Firstly, we went into the store room.  The room stores boxes and Milo powder.  Secondly, we went up to the room also known as the cold storage. it was really very cold in the room.  The outer cold room is just for storing corn and bread while the inner room was even colder, at -20 Degree Celsius.  Lastly, we went into the kitchen.   After the tour, we enjoyed our lunch in McDonald’s and we continued completing our worksheets until it was time to go home.

We also saw the McDonald’s crew busy preparing the food to serve to their customers. Besides preparing the food, they were also cleaning, washing the used utensils as well as checking the temperature of the oil. Our next stop was at the freezing chamber, where most freezer-based food items were kept. In this freezer, there were milk, yogurt, and some other dairy items kept and at the other corner, there were frozen meat and vegetables, which took me by surprise, as I thought that meat and vegetables were served fresh. We also got to see how our burgers were made. After the short tour, we had to say goodbye to our kind guides.

That was our first time visiting McDonald's kitchen. Although it was such a short tour, we learnt a lot from this meaningful learning journey. We found that the bread and onions in the warehouse were not as fresh as the guide told us. Now fast food is quite popular and accepted by most people in the world, but we still need to pay attention if the fast food is healthy or not. Through some research, we find that fast food has bad effects on people's body. We should have fresh fruits and vegetables instead of having fast food very often.

I think this learning journey is meaningful and useful for us. Maybe we can change our unhealthy diet in some ways after watching the documentary about "Super Size" and after this learning journey to McDonald's kitchen.

Co-written by:
Zheng Yuezhu (Prep Course; Lower Sec)
Tantirittisak Phumisiri (Prep Course; Lower Sec)
Song Shangyun (Prep Course; Upper Sec)
Qi Zijie (Prep Course; Upper Sec)