It has long been a topic of debate among friends and family whether there is much difference between meal and large meals from McDonald's. Among the most talked conspiracies is if a large cup of fizzy pop from the popular fast food chain holds the same volume of liquid as a medium sized cup - despite the price difference.
To find out of this is indeed the case or not, Manchester Evening News reporter, Bethan Shufflebotham, headed to her local McDonald's restaurant to order a medium and large coke. But that wasn't all she was investigating - she also purchased a medium and large fries to see the exact difference between them as well.
Upon arriving at the Drive-Thru, Bethan ordered a medium six chicken McNugget meal, followed by a large, both with Coca-Cola and ketchup. The first difference between the two is the price, with the medium order totalling £5.71, while the large came in at £6.43.
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Beginning her review of the two meals, she said: "Getting the obvious out of the way, both meals come with the exact same number of nuggets, so there are no discrepancies there - but when it came to the fries and Coca-Cola, I needed to crack out the scales."
She started off weighing both sets of fries. By using the same bowl and setting to scales to zero, she weighed each portion. The medium weighed 128g and the large 167g.
"But then I went a step further - I counted them all, each and every chip", she added. "It’s worth noting that there had been around five bag chips that I eliminated from the test seeing as they could have come from either box.
"But my calculations saw 68 fries in the medium, and 97 in the large, which, with the addition of those lost to the paper bag, would round up to 70 and 100 fries in the medium and large portions respectively." Following her French fries calculations, she found there was 40g fewer fries in the medium portion - approximately 24 chips.
Onto the drinks, Bethan pulled out her largest glasses available in her kitchen, and was pretty surprised to see that the medium almost filled it to the very top. Upon pouring the large coke, Bethan said she had to locate a third matching glass to pour the remaining pop into.
"In their original cardboard cups, the medium drink weighed 493g compared to the 582g large," she said. "But having zeroed the glasses, the medium liquid weighed 439g to the large 533g - a 94g difference. And when you look at that in the glass, it’s about five sips."
That means that the difference between a medium and large McDonald’s meal, based on this order, is 72p - 24 chips and five sips of Coca-Cola. She concluded by writing: "It’s up to you to decide if it’s worth the extra cash, but it finally confirms that the idea that medium and large meals are the same is a complete myth."
It comes as McDonald's announced its Chicken Big Mac is returning to all restaurants in UK and Ireland on Wednesday, March 29. The Chicken Big Mac caused a frenzy on its debut launch in February 2022 - leading it to sell out in days.
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