Fact Check

Food For Naught

This is not a real jar of Gerber brand "Big Mac and Fries" baby food.

Published July 13, 2015

Claim:
A photograph shows a jar of Gerber brand "Big Mac and Fries" baby food.

Back in 2008, the web site Freaking News ran a contest title "If McDonald's Ruled," in which participants were invited to "show what life would be like if McDonald's ruled the world."

One of the entries in that contest ("Fattening of Our Children"), a digitally created image of a jar of Gerber brand "Big Mac and Fries dinner" baby food, fit the theme a little too well and has been circulated online ever since with claims that it pictures a genuine new baby food product:

Older consumers might be excused for being a little confused, though, given that handful of McDonald's outlets did try offering (standard) Gerber baby food as a menu item back in the late 1980s:

So you think breakfast at McDonald's is only Egg McMuffins and other goodies for grownups?

Well, a McDonald's outlet in Allentown, Pa., has got something for young ones-the real young ones. Like baby food.

Though it is a test, one of 15 Big Macs in that market has been offering Gerber baby food not only at breakfast but at lunch and dinner.

Whether the test will be expanded to other McDonald`s units there or to regional markets could not be determined. It is not even known if the high command at McDonald's Corp. in Oak Brook is aware of the "new addition" to the menu.

"Business is all right," said the manager of the McDonald's in Allentown, when asked how parents had responded to baby food served in the jar.

When you think about it, baby food makes sense for the fast-food crowd.

"You can't stuff a baby with fries and burgers, especially at breakfast-time," observes a source.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.