How McDonald's Ensures Your Filet-O-Fish Has A Perfectly Golden Color

The Filet-O-Fish is a sleeper success story for McDonald's. While it has never quite received the status and attention of products like the Big Mac, Quarter Pounder, and McNuggets, it's a consistently popular product for the fast-food giant with a loyal customer base — especially during Lent.

The famous Filet-o-Fish is not stacked high with toppings or embellished with powerful seasonings. It's an exercise in simplicity: A steamed bun, half a slice of cheese, and a brush of tartar sauce are the only accompaniments to the perfectly tender breaded filet of Alaskan pollock. Thanks to this, the filet's flavors and textures can truly be the star, which was especially relevant considering the original Fillet-o-Fish was made with a tender, pricier catch. One signature feature of the sandwich is its crispy, golden exterior. But how does a massive chain like McDonald's consistently achieve the perfect color for its fried fish filets?

The answer is simple and, perhaps surprisingly, all natural: A mix of turmeric and paprika. These powdered spices double as powerful dyes, and their addition to the Filet-o-Fish breading mix ensures that mouthwatering golden-brown hue.

While both paprika and turmeric are spice rack staples for the flavor they bring to dishes, they have an equally long history as natural dyes in the culinary world and beyond. Turmeric is particularly powerful; many home cooks have learned the hard way that turmeric stains everything, from countertops to cookware to clothes. 

So what makes paprika and turmeric such powerful color aids? Both have high concentrations of oil-soluble pigments. These high concentrations mean that even small amounts are effective as dye, so their flavor may not necessarily be detected in use cases like the Filet-O-Fish. Turmeric and paprika are widely as food colorants, and their use is only expanding as companies move away from artificial dyes. Thank turmeric and paprika for enhancing the cheesy golden color of iconic foods like Kraft Mac and Cheese and Cheez-Its. Paprika is even added to chicken feed to deepen the color of hens' egg yolks.

So while a Filet-O-Fish may not taste like paprika and turmeric, they are an important part of what makes it so delicious; after all, we eat with our eyes first.