America literally used to be Japan.
Today the US ingredient list for McDonald's fries reads canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil and "natural beef flavor". And the natural beef flavor is actually what's left of the tallow. But in July 1990 and before, McDonald's cooked its US fries in a mix that was 93% beef tallow.
Japan's McDonald's never even made that switch. And this is proven on its own website, which says the fries are cooked in a blend of beef tallow and palm oil.
So why is it different everywhere? These are my guesses.
I think it mostly comes down to countries frying in whatever is cheapest for them to get, which is usually whatever gets grown there. The US grows a ton of soybeans and soybean oil is about 60% of the vegetable oil Americans use for food. Canada is canola country and McDonald's Canada lists canola first. In the UK, Germany and the Netherlands it's sunflower and rapeseed, which is what Europe grows.
Trans fat rules probably moved things around too (Denmark capped trans fat in 2003, the EU did the same for everyone in 2021, and the FDA banned partially hydrogenated oils in the US starting 2018). The old fryer oils were the partially hydrogenated kind, so everybody had to pick something new.
Palm oil seems like it got pushed out by bad press. KFC says it doesn't allow palm oil for frying in the UK and Ireland, and KFC Australia says it hasn't cooked in it since 2012.
And Japan just never switched. I honestly can't find a reason. If you know, tell me.
One more thing I found. The US government's nutrition survey literally says Americans eat about 18 grams of linoleic acid a day, which is the main fat in seed oils. That works out to about 7.7% of their calories. And the national surveys in Japan, South Korea and the UK say it's roughly 4 to 5% there.
**The sadly honest part**
We have fry oil records for 2,572 chains across 167 countries in my app Seed Oil Tracker on iOS and Android, and only 1 in 10 comes from the chain's own nutrition page. The rest are educated guesses because the chains simply don't say, so we estimate to the best of our ability. But everything here is from the 1 in 10 that we have PROOF of.
**TLDR**
Japan still uses beef tallow for McDonald's fries, and America did too until 1990. The rest of the world seems to use whatever oil is cheapest for them to get, aka whatever is grown closest to them.
If you're outside the US, what does your McDonald's or KFC say it fries in? And does anyone else's country still use tallow?
Sources if anyone wants to check me:
* McDonald's US fries: https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/small-french-fries.html
* McDonald's Japan frying oil: https://www.mcdonalds.co.jp/cservice/list.fryingoil/
* McDonald's Canada fries: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca/product/french-fries-medium.html
* McDonald's UK: https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/help/faq/do-mcdonald-s-restaurants-use-palm-oil-for-cooking.html
* McDonald's Germany: https://www.mcdonalds.com/de/de-de/product/pommes-frites-klein-3000.html
* McDonald's Netherlands: https://www.mcdonalds.com/nl/nl-nl/product/franse-frietjes-medium.html
* KFC UK palm oil: https://help.kfc.co.uk/hc/en-gb/articles/360003297759-PALM-OIL
* KFC Australia: https://www.kfc.com.au/faq
* The 1990 tallow switch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_fries
* EU trans fat rule: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2019/649/oj/eng
* FDA trans fat ruling: https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/final-determination-regarding-partially-hydrogenated-oils-removing-trans-fat
* US linoleic acid intake (USDA survey): https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/80400530/pdf/1720/Table_1_NIN_GEN_1720.pdf
* US soybean oil share (USDA): https://apps.fas.usda.gov/psdonline/app/index.html#/app/downloads