Big Mac
Nutritional value per 1 sandwich 7.6 oz (220 g)
Energy580 kcal (2,400 kJ)
Carbohydrates45 g (16%)
Sugars7 g
Dietary fiber3 g (10%)
Fat34 g (43%)
Saturated11 g (56%)
Trans1 g
Protein25 g
Vitamins and minerals
MineralsQuantity %DV†
Calcium9% 120 mg
Iron22% 4 mg
Potassium12% 370 mg
Sodium46% 1060 mg
Other constituentsQuantity
Salt equivalent2,650 mg
Energy from fat306 kcal (1,280 kJ)
Cholesterol85 mg (28%)
Values may be different outside US market.
†Percentages estimated using US recommendations for adults,[1] except for potassium, which is estimated based on expert recommendation from the National Academies.[2]
Source: McDonald's US Product Nutrition

The Big Mac is a brand of hamburger sold by the international fast food restaurant chain McDonald's. It was introduced by a Greater Pittsburgh area franchisee in 1967 and expanded nationwide in 1968, and is widely regarded as the company's flagship product.

The hamburger features a three-slice sesame-seed bun containing two beef patties, one slice of cheese, shredded lettuce, pickles, minced onions, and a thousand island-type dressing advertised as "special sauce". Seasonal and regional variants have been offered, including chicken versions.

The Big Mac is known worldwide and often used as a symbol of American capitalism and decadence. The Economist has used it as a reference point for comparing the cost of living in different countries – the Big Mac Index – as it is so widely available and is comparable across markets.[3]

History

The Big Mac was created by Jim Delligatti,[4] who stated later he did not invent the Big Mac but merely copied the double deck hamburger marketed by the Big Boy hamburger chain since the 1940s.[5] Mr. Delligatti operated several McDonald's restaurants in the Pittsburgh area. It was created in the kitchen of Delligatti's first McDonald's franchise, located on McKnight Road in suburban Ross Township.[6]

The Big Mac debuted at the McDonald's owned by Delligatti in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, on April 22, 1967,[7] selling for US$0.45 (equivalent to $4.35 in 2025).[7][8]

It was designed to compete with Big Boy Restaurants' Big Boy hamburger. Eat'n Park was the Pittsburgh area's Big Boy franchisee at the time.[9] The Big Mac proved popular and it was added to the menu of all U.S. McDonald's restaurants in 1968.[8]

The Big Mac had two previous names, both of which failed in the marketplace: the Aristocrat and the Blue Ribbon Burger. The third name, Big Mac, was created by Esther Glickstein Rose, a 21-year-old advertising secretary who worked at McDonald's corporate headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois.[10]

Product

The Big Mac is made with two 1.6 oz (45 g) beef patties, a "special sauce" (similar to Thousand Island dressing),[11] shredded iceberg lettuce, one processed American cheese slice, two slices of dill pickle, and minced onions, served on a three slice sesame seed bun.[12] In October 2014, McDonald's released a behind-the-scenes video as part of its "Our Food. Your Questions." transparency campaign, with former MythBusters co-host Grant Imahara touring a Cargill facility to explain how the company's U.S. beef patties are made.[13][14] On October 1, 2018, McDonald's announced that it would remove all artificial preservatives, flavors, and coloring from the Big Mac.[15][16]

Sauce

In the past, Big Mac Sauce was delivered to McDonald's restaurants in sealed canisters designed by Sealright, from which it was directly dispensed using a calibrated "sauce gun" that would dispense a specified amount of the sauce for each pull of the trigger.[17] In 2023, McDonald's introduced a new "next gen" sauce dispenser that uses soft bags of sauce and a plunger to compress the bag with a ratchet system. The new sauce dispenser is also used for McChicken Sauce and Tartare Sauce.[18][19]

In 2012 McDonald's executive chef Dan Coudreaut released a YouTube video revealing the recipe of the sauce. It consists of store-bought mayonnaise, sweet pickle relish and yellow mustard whisked together with vinegar, garlic powder, onion powder and paprika.[20][21]

In 2018 McDonald's revamped the sauce by removing potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, and calcium disodium EDTA.[15][16]

The sauce is occasionally available for purchase on its own for a limited time. The first time was in 2015. A 25 ml (0.85 U.S. fl oz) tube was available for purchase but only in restaurants in Australia.[22] It was available again in 2020. A 50 ml (1.7 U.S. fl oz) pot was available for purchase but only in restaurants in the UK and Ireland.[23] In 2023 and early 2024 it was available in Hungary.[24] McDonald's Australia offers a "portion cup" of Big Mac Sauce as part of its regular menu.[25]

Packaging

The Big Mac was first served inside a collapsible square cardboard container with a circular piece of cardboard placed around the hamburger to hold it together. The cardboard container that was changed to a "clamshell" style, polystyrene foam container in the late 1970s. Polystyrene foam containers were phased out beginning in 1990, due to environmental concerns.[26]

Advertising

"Two all-beef patties" jingle

In 1974 McDonald's commissioned an advertising jingle which popularized the list of ingredients of the Big Mac: "Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame-seed bun."[27]

In 2008 McDonald's restaurants in Malaysia revived the slogan. The revival included the original prize of a free Big Mac if the customer was able to recite the slogan in under four seconds. It was released in May, along with the promotional Mega Mac, which had four beef patties instead of two.[28]

McDonaldland character

McDonald's began a television advertising campaign appealing to children in 1971 featuring a fantasy world populated by Ronald McDonald and various mascots promoting McDonald's products. Some characters were also modeled in McDonald's store playground equipment. The Big Mac was represented by Officer Big Mac, a Keystone Cops-style policeman with a giant Big Mac sandwich for a head. The characters were revised after a 1973 plagiarism lawsuit brought by television puppeteers Sid and Marty Krofft because of similarities to their H.R. Pufnstuf characters. A modified Officer Big Mac continued in the commercials until 1985.

Hip-hop product placement

In 2005 McDonald's began offering product placement rewards to hip hop artists who namechecked the Big Mac in their music, giving US$5 to the artist for every time a song mentioning the hamburger was played on the radio.[29]

EU trademark revocation

McDonald's sued the Irish fast-food chain Supermac's for trademark infringement and claimed the name would confuse consumers in European markets.[30] On 11 January 2019, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) ruled in Supermac's favor in what has been called a "David vs. Goliath" victory.[30] McDonald's submitted a copy of the Wikipedia article about the Big Mac as part of its evidence, but the court found the Wikipedia page was not acceptable as "independent evidence".[30][31]

In 2023, the EUIPO Board of Appeal annulled the decision after McDonald's filed 700 pages of additional evidence, despite objections.[32]

Supermac's responded by bringing the case to the European Court of Justice, which finally ruled in 2024 that McDonald's had not proven use of the Big Mac trademark when it came to poultry products or operating restaurants.[33] The ruling does not affect the trademark with respect to the Big Mac burger product.

US sales

In 2007 Danya Proud, a McDonald's spokeswoman, said that in the United States alone 560 million Big Macs are sold each year. This would mean that approximately 17 Big Macs are sold every second.[34][35]

Variants

Museum

On August 22, 2007, McDonald's opened the Big Mac Museum in North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania to celebrate the Big Mac's 40th anniversary. The museum features the world's largest Big Mac statue (measuring 14 feet high and 12 feet wide) and has hundreds of historical artifacts and exhibits that celebrate the Big Mac.[56][57]

Some Uniontown residents were unhappy with the selected location.[58]

Nutritional values per geographical location

The Big Mac is a geographically localized product. In the United States, the Big Mac has 580 kcal (2,400 kJ), 34 grams of fat and 25 grams of protein. In Australia, the burger is slightly smaller with 559 kcal (2,340 kJ) and 26.9 grams of fat, but similar amounts of protein with 25.2 grams,[59] while the Japanese burger tops out the scales at 557 kcal and 30.5 grams of fat. Several McDonald's subsidiaries adapt the standard features of the Big Mac (from the US) to regional requirements.[60]

Comparisons of the Big Mac standard nutritional values in different countries – Sodium values converted to their salt equivalents, rounded and in bold
Country Energy kcal Carbohydrates g Protein g Fat (total) g Dietary fiber g Salt equivalent mg Serving
size
(weight) g 		Reference
 Argentina 485 40 24 26 3.3 2005 .ar
 Australia 559 43.8 25.9 30.3 2725 231.7 .au
 Austria 495 40 27 25 3 2300 219 .at
 Belgium 495 40 27 25 2300 .be Archived September 13, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
 Bosnia and Herzegovina 510 41 27 26 3 2200 .ba (Halted operations.)
 Brazil 491 40 26 26 3.8 2033 .br
 Canada 520 45 23 28 3 2413 209 .ca
 Chile 562 49 27 30 4 1009 213 .cl
 China 520 46 26 26 .cn
 Croatia 526 42.6 26.7 26.9 3.4 2200 .hr
 Czech Republic 510 41 27 26 2200 .cz
 Denmark 510 41 27 26.1 3 2200 .info
 Egypt 522 52 28.235 30 2 1190 234 .eg
 Finland 510 41 27 26 3 2200 .fi
 France 508 42 27 26 3.1 2300 221 .info
 Germany 510 41 27 26 3 2200 221 .de
 Greece 495 40 27 25 3 2300 221 .gr
 Hong Kong 497 43.1 26.4 24.2 2003 .hk
 Hungary 510 41 27 26 3 2200 .info
 Ireland 490 41 28 24 4 2100 .ie
 Italy 510 42 27 26 3 2200 .it
 Japan 557 45.2 25.5 30.5 2800 .jp
 Lithuania 509 42 27 26 3.1 2300 219 .lt
 Malaysia 484 46 26 23 1825 209 .my
 Mexico 540 52 25 27 3.28 2300 212 .mx
 Netherlands 524 43 27 27 3.4 2300 229 .com
 New Zealand 494 36.8 26.4 25.9 2415 202 .nz
 Norway 510 41 27 26 3 2200 .no
 Poland 510 41 27 26 3 2200 .info
 Portugal 509 42 27 26 3.2 2300 219 .pt
 Romania 510 41 27 26 3 2200 .info
 Russia 495 40 27 25 3 2300 .info
 Serbia 503 40 28 25 3 2300 219 .rs
 Singapore 522 43 28 25 3 970 .sg
 Slovenia 503 41.2 26 26 3 217 .si
 South Africa 496 39 24.3 26 3.2 2433 .za
 South Korea 510 26 2533 213 .kr
 Sweden 505 42 26 26 3 2300 219 .se
  Switzerland 510 41 27 26 3 2200 .info
 Taiwan 530 45 27 26 .tw
 Turkey 480 43 28 22 2100 .tr
 Ukraine 509 42 27 26 2300 .ua
 United Kingdom 494 42 26 24 3.2 2200 .gb
 United States 580 45 25 34 3 2650 220 .us

See also

Similar products by other restaurant chains

References

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Further reading

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