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They used to taste a lot better as a result.

Was it changed for health reasons or because of vegetarians not wanting to consume animal byproducts?

I remember it was one guy who had heart problems waged a PR war against McDonalds and made them change their cooking oil.

It was over health not vegetarianism. McDonalds adopted a little bit of the cholesterol war and a little bit of styrofoam reduction in that time period and that's about it.

It definitely wasn't due to vegetarians as to try to keep the flavor they started adding beef flavoring to the fries, which AFAIK they refused to remove once vegetarians--who had thought they might be the intended audience of the vegetable oil--noticed and complained.

I see where I got confused — I misread the tense: I thought they were talking about a present/recent push to change the oil used in the fries, not the one from the 1980s (which resulted in replacing the beef tallow around 1990 or so).

Thanks for the clarification.