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‘Nobody thought y’all was back there cutting up strawberries’: McDonald’s employee exposes strawberry banana smoothie as not having either ingredient

‘It’s called fast food for a reason.’

Photo of Tricia Crimmins

Tricia Crimmins

machine dispensing pink and white spray filling McDonald's cup caption 'Strawberry Banana Smoothie' (l) McDonald's worker pressing 'SMOOTHIE button on machine touch screen caption 'what you actually eat at McDonald's' (c) McDonald's worker holding finished strawberry smoothie caption 'Strawberry Banana Smoothie' (r)

A McDonald’s employee shows what allegedly goes into the fast-food restaurant’s strawberry banana smoothie in a viral TikTok—and it isn’t exactly strawberry or banana.

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Heydi Macias (@heydij01) posted a now-deleted video of a strawberry banana smoothie being made at McDonald’s on August 3. In it, she hand-selects the type of smoothie and size on a machine (not a blender) via a touch screen.

Then, pink and yellow liquid is poured into a plastic McDonald’s cup before being covered with crushed ice. Macias blends the mixture and shakes it vigorously to show the end result of the “strawberry banana” smoothie.

“What you actually eat at McDonald’s,” Macias wrote in the video’s overlay text. Her video had almost 5.2 million views before it was deleted.

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Macias has posted many videos showing the ingredients and steps to make many popular McDonald’s items such as sweet tea, frappes, slushies, and other types of smoothies.

Many commenters assured Macias that they weren’t under the impression that cut-up fruit went into McDonald’s smoothies.

“None of us were thinking it’s a nutrition bar,” one user commented.

“Nobody thought y’all was back there cutting up strawberries,” another agreed.

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“No way!! I thought you guys grew organic fruits cut them in store and then blended them,” a user wrote sarcastically.

Other commenters identified themselves as McDonald’s employees—and some said the locations they work at don’t make strawberry banana smoothies the same way.

“At my McDonald’s we just have a smoothie mix already done and it gets blended in a blender,” one user commented, such as in this video.

@kallme.yaniii This how we make the strawberry banana smoothie at #mcdonalds #saw💩 #fyp #viral #trending #tiktok #foryou #fypシ ♬ Aesthetic – Tollan Kim
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“At mines we got everything new,” another commented. “So it does it for us.”

“I watch [these videos] all the way through as if I don’t work at Mcdonald’s,” another wrote.

Is the strawberry banana smoothie from McDonald’s healthy?

A medium Strawberry Banana Smoothie from McDonalds contains 240 calories, 55 grams of carbs, and 49 grams of sugar. According to the restaurant chain’s website, the recipe contains the “perfect combination of fruit purees and fruit juices, such as strawberry and banana, blended with creamy low fat yogurt and ice.”

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While it’s certainly healthier than a medium Coke, customers can order less sugary and carb-heavy options, such as unsweetened iced tea or water.

The Daily Dot has reached out to Macias via TikTok comment and McDonald’s via email.


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