I recently got a random and cool opportunity to travel to Toronto. I follow McDonald's Canada on facebook and their new ad campaign is "Your Questions, Our Food." You can ask any question about their products. So my question was, "Is the thing about the Chicken McNuggets true? That they are a pink sludge of ground up chicken mixed with chemicals?"

So then I get an email two weeks ago asking if I wanted to fly to Toronto to get filmed asking my question and then find out the answer. At first I thought it was spam, like when a Nigerian Prince emails me for my bank account info. But I looked into it, and it was legit!

So in a rare moment of generousity, Boss Cabbage Head let me screw off for a few days. Flew to Toronto solo (McDonalds was totally gung-ho to fly Jer along with me but with the building going full-speed ahead at Greenbryre, he didn't want to skip work.) They put me up in a really nice hotel, the Intercontinental Yorkville on Bloor St. Did some shopping, ate some Italian food, drank some wine. Didn't get shot at the Eaton's Centre food court.

     Daytime drinking is fun.                          Getting lost looking for the Eaton's Centre and finding the MTV

                                                                    building instead.

Woke up bright and early on my first full day in TO and was picked up by the crew. I'm not sure why I expected it to just be a small thing, McDonald's is one of the biggest companies in the world. But I was surprised that a full crew of about 12 people showed up, camera guys, directors, sound guys and more.

After filming a preamble with Nicole with McDonald's supply chain, we drove a half-hour to Mississauga, where we had to go to two separate McDonalds and pick up a dozen 10-packs of cooked McNuggets from each. (Each time the cashier looked at me like I had a severe eating disorder.)  They also filmed me going into the back at each restaurant and getting five bags of frozen McNuggets.

From there we drove to Maxxam Labratories, a huge lab that does product testing for hundreds of food companies. We submitted the nugget samples to be tested in several different ways. Those tests include finding out if there's white or dark meat in them, if there are any bone particles, if there are whitening chemicals in them, and how much fat are in them (and what types of fats.) The test results will take about two weeks, at which point I'll fly back and they will film a conclusion to my question.

I'm interested to find out what's in McNuggets, since that's pretty much my go-to item. Obviously they are still deep fried, but once in a while you can't beat them. I'm assuming that what the lab finds out will not be scandalous or surprising, otherwise McD's would not be going out on a limb with this. Not sure when my video will be completed and added to McDonald's.ca but keep checking here back, I'm thinking in early July. Will post when it's ready!

                  Souvenier for Jer