Big Mac Fast Food Facts: How Many Cows Does It Take To Make A Burger?

'It Takes 1,000 Cows To Make A Big Mac' And Other Burger Facts

The latest installment to ruin your fast food fun is an insightful video from Hidden Costs about what really goes into your McDonald's Big Mac burger.

Don't worry - it's not something horrible like small children or sawdust - but the facts are pretty stark.

On average, says the voiceover in the video, a Big Mac contains about 540 calories and out of that, nearly half of it (43%) is salt. It has 29 grams of fat - which is about half your daily allowance. So far, so usual.

But then comes the maths. If you ate a Big Mac every day for a year, you'd accrue a whopping 197,000 calories.

Big Macs are also big business for Maccy Ds. They sell 2.5 million of those burgers a day, 900 million a year, across 36 countries.

But here's the fact that sat uncomfortably in our stomachs (much like a Big Mac enroute home after the pub). Each burger patty can contain the meat of up to 1,000 different cows from across five countries.

We're not lovin' it.

Close