Frequently asked questions
Why it's all good

We know our customers want to eat healthier food - without compromising on taste. That's why we started using sunflower oil in our Oven Chips 18 years ago. Now we're proud to say that all our chips are prepared in sunflower oil.

Sunflower oil is one of the healthiest oils there is. It is low in the saturated fats (fats which are bad for our hearts), but high in the polyunsaturated fats.

As market leaders we have invested in this healthier oil, as the right thing to do, reducing saturated fat by 70%.

The chips are now crispier and are taste great.

No, McCain has worked hard across all our products to ensure there will be no effect on catering equipment. Caterers wanting further information on best practice in food preparation can refer to McCain's best fry guidelines.

No. Caterers will not have to change the oil they use. However, caterers should be aware that the oil they use will mean that the product's nutritional properties will change.

Cooking method is crucial when preparing products such as chips as the fat content of potato products is heavily influenced by this.

All of McCain chips are made from specially selected, 100% British potatoes for great quality, home-grown, British chips. McCain selects only the best quality potatoes to ensure the highest yield and a superior taste.

British chips, made from British potatoes means that caterers can ensure menu provenance, support British farming and offer consistently superior tasting chips to customers every time. As the UK's largest single customer of British potatoes, we are proud of this commitment to British potato sourcing.

From field to fork, McCain guarantees great quality products. Owning a British potato seed business gives McCain control of the potatoes used from seed to harvest, giving caterers the reassurance of full traceability.

McCain works with over three hundred farmers in the UK, with many of those relationships stretching back three generations. McCain farmers adopt best practice in environmental stewardship and the company is a leading supporter of the Assured Produce Scheme, promoting sustainable, environmentally responsible farming within the UK. This is why many of our products also display the Red Tractor logo.

At McCain, we love simple food. Our policy is to remove all the E numbers wherever we can. But sometimes we have to include E numbers, so where we do, we thought we'd explain what they are and why we use them in certain products.

E numbers are simply codes for standard food ingredients that have all passed strict safety tests and are considered safe to use throughout the European Union (the 'E' of an E number stands for 'Europe')*. While many additives are artificially made, some occur naturally. For example, curcumin, which comes from the turmeric root is sometimes used to colour foods.

Many of us worry about E numbers and at McCain we're no different. We believe our ingredients should be as natural as possible. We'd love to get rid of all E numbers, so that our products only contained the types of ingredients you'd find in your kitchen cupboard. Unfortunately though, some E numbers are trickier to remove than others. For example, sodium nitrite (E250) is used as a preservative in bacon and ham. This means that we can't make a ham sandwich without it! There are a few ingredients with E numbers used in most breads, too, which means our pizzas contain them, such as E471, an emulsifier which helps keep the oil and water together while cooking.

*Source, the European Food Council website

Allergens are substances that cause certain people to have allergic reactions. Some people are allergic to wheat, others to milk, others react to soya. We clearly label the most common allergens separately after our ingredients list where applicable.

If you have any queries about specific products, please contact us through the 'Contact Us' page of this site, or by calling our care line on 0800 146573.

No, but we are a leading supporter of the Assured Produce Scheme which promotes sustainable, environmentally responsible farming within the UK.

Our farmers are independently audited under the Assured Produce Scheme. In addition, we also conduct our own audits on an ongoing basis to ensure our farmers are complying with the relevant guidelines.

McCain makes good, high quality products that are simply prepared and made from simple ingredients.

To make the best chips we use four main varieties of potato: Premiere, Morene, Pentland Dell and Maris Piper.

• Premiere potatoes are an 'early' variety, planted and harvested early in the season.
• Morene is a 'second early', planted in the spring and harvested in late summer.
• Maris Piper and Pentland Dell are 'maincrops', planted in April and harvested in the autumn.

We use over 600,000 tonnes of potatoes every year and around 90% of them come from within the UK.

All of McCain chips are made from specially selected, 100% British potatoes for great quality, home-grown, British chips. McCain selects only the best quality potatoes to ensure the highest yield and a superior taste.

We believe that good chips start with top quality potatoes. That's why we carefully choose the farmers we work with. We have more than three hundred British farmers who grow our potatoes, and we've been working with some of them for over three generations.

We work closely with them on every aspect of growing the potatoes from selecting the best seed potatoes to how to care for the crop. When the potatoes come from the McCain farmer to McCain HQ, each delivery has a certificate saying where it has come from. This means that when you eat one of our Classics Best of British Chips, we can tell you exactly when the potato was harvested, where it was grown and which farmer grew it for us!

We are also a leading supporter of the Assured Produce Scheme, which promotes sustainable, environmentally responsible best farming practice within the UK.

We use sunflower oil to prepare all our potato products. Sunflower oil is low in saturated fats, and high in polyunsaturated fat.

The move to sunflower oil means that McCain potato products now have 70% less saturated fat.

No. We only use sunflower oil, which is free from hydrogenated fats. Sunflower oil is low in saturated fat, but high in polyunsaturated fat.

In order to stay healthy, we recognise how important it is to eat a well-balanced diet that meets our daily needs for calories and nutrients. It is essential that we make sure our diets are not too high in fat, saturated fats, sugars and salt and provide the right amount of calories to help us control our weight. It is also vital that we eat plenty of foods packed with vitamins, minerals and fibre. As a result, we provide our customers with as much detailed nutritional information as we can so they can see how McCain products can contribute to a balanced, healthy diet.

McCain has created the Alternatives range to help caterers meet the challenges presented by changing nutritional standards and student choice, as well as budget, operational and parental pressures.

Alternatives is our range of well balanced, tasty options which are lower in salt and fat. They're favourite foods that kids love, they're easy to prepare and they help you satisfy current guidelines.

We are also delighted to introduce Purely Potato, a range of delicious potato products unrestricted under the latest guidelines. McCain hopes the range, produced and designed to be cooked without oil, may mark a turning point for some school meal providers struggling to entice pupils to try new school meals.

Purely Potato products are part of the McCain Alternatives range. They are water blanched potato products that are a flexible and convenient addition to any menu. They can be used as an ingredient in a wide range of popular favourites as well as a great tasting accompaniment to any meal.

Detailed information on each of our products can be found on the Product pages of this site. If you have any queries about specific products, please contact us through the 'Contact Us' page of this site, or by calling our care line on 0800 146573.

McCain Foods (GB) has been working within the foodservice industry for forty years, using our potato expertise to ensure our frozen products are consistently great quality, every time. Frozen food has a vital role to play in foodservice due to the convenience and practicality it offers.

Freezing is a natural preservative, meaning it is the best way to retain the goodness of a potato, a good source of starch, vitamin C and fibre.

Texture and taste are retained through the rapid-freeze process which means that the pre-blanched and fried products stay perfect.

McCain products go into a blast freezer (at minus 36°C) as soon as they have finished being prepared. Our specially designed freezers blow air through the products, ensuring that they do not stick together. The freezing process takes between 20-40 minutes depending on the product and the food's temperature goes from 90°C to minus 12°C prior to packing. The products then cool further to below minus 18ºC in our cold stores.

The McCain preparation and freezing methods guarantee tasty, wholesome and real food, ideal for caterers across the country. They cut down on kitchen waste and significantly reduces preparation time to deliver the perfect product every time.

With increasing cost pressures, wastage is a key consideration in any establishment and each item thrown in the bin is money down the drain.

Frozen food is the caterer's solution to product consistency, portion control, quality, ease of storage food safety and profitability.