---
title: "Chicago Tribune: Fast Food Chains Add Fresh Fruit to Their Menus"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/32a78607-51f8-4f99-9711-64d9a0ea9148
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/chicago-tribune-fast-food-chains-add-fresh-fruit-to-their-menus-5532
category: "QSR"
industry: "Restaurants"
segment: "QSR"
published: 2016-08-17T18:13:00.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T13:42:17.365Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/475e34cd3d95a4809e888131e447630f5092160817093845.jpg
---

# Chicago Tribune: Fast Food Chains Add Fresh Fruit to Their Menus

**TL;DR:** Fast-food chains like Wendy's and McDonald's face challenges in incorporating fresh fruits into their menus, requiring significant time and resources to source and grow new ingredients. The process can take years and comes with a big risk if customers don't buy the new menu items.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2016-08-17. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/chicago-tribune-fast-food-chains-add-fresh-fruit-to-their-menus-5532).*

## Story

When Wendy's wanted to add blackberries — a fruit it had never used on its menu before — to a new salad, the process of finding farmers and growing enough berries took more than two years. McDonald's faced a similar challenge when rolling out a new fruit smoothie. It took the chain more than two years to find and grow enough mangoes to supply its 14,000 U.S. restaurants.

Fast-food companies are trying furiously to keep up with customers' growing appetite for fresh food. But the race toward a fresher menu can often mean big challenges for fast-food chains, which don't generally have the farm sources that are needed to feed a new fruit into the system.

Unlike grocery stores, which regularly buy a variety of fruits and vegetables in big numbers, fast-food companies like McDonald's and Wendy's for decades only had to worry about finding enough fresh lettuce or tomatoes to top a sandwich. But now the demands are much greater, and the effort that a fast-food giant puts into sourcing a fresh ingredient comes with a big risk: What if, after years of finding farms and suppliers to support a new menu item, customers don't buy it?

There have been flops before. Before trying fruit in Happy Meals, McDonald's offered baby carrots in U.S. stores. It also tried salads in a cup called "McSalad Shakers." Wendy's tried a fresh fruit bowl and Subway-esque deli-style sandwiches. None lasted.

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- Restaurants (sector)
- McDonald's (company)
- Wendy's (company)
- menu innovation (topic)
- Subway (company)
- supply chain challenges (topic)
- fresh food trend (topic)

---
Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/chicago-tribune-fast-food-chains-add-fresh-fruit-to-their-menus-5532). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/32a78607-51f8-4f99-9711-64d9a0ea9148).