Endangered French Fries

The New York Times has a remarkably balanced article on the challenges facing the food industry as it moves away from transfatty oils. The main obstacle isn't industry greed; it's consumers who are used to their favorite products tasting a certain way.

The cycles of nutritional fads has had an unfortunate impact on many great American foods. Take the classic McDonald's french fry:

McDonald's replaced beef tallow with partially hydrogenated soybean oil in 1990. In September 2002, the company vowed it would use healthier oil in its 13,000 stores in the United States by February 2003.

The new fries are probably healthier than those fried in beef tallow, but boy I'd love to be able to taste those pre-1990 fries again.

It's not to be, though, since the advantages of mass marketing make it impractical for McDonald's to produce them again, and trademark laws (and probably more than a few trade secrets) doubtlessly make it impossible for a competitor to create and advertise "McDonald's fries like you remember them."

As the digital age makes it exponentially cheaper to store all sorts of information practically forever, I think we'll more and more feel the loss of experiences we can't save and savor.