There are many products that have been out of the market for a long time that McDonald’s customers in the U.S. still crave. Some of these are menu items that sold so well that they were occasionally brought back for a short time (like the McRib), while others, like the Arch Deluxe, never sold well enough to begin with. A few products actually sold well but couldn’t cover their operating costs. The Snack Wrap was one example. But there’s another: salads.

While you can’t get McDonald’s salads in most U.S. locations anymore, you can still find them in countries like the UK (and in snack wraps, for that matter). One of the reasons they’re no longer available in the U.S., however, is price. How come salads are so much more expensive than burgers? Isn’t lettuce cheaper than beef? Well, yes, but the costs involved are a little more complicated, as our old friend Chef Mike Haracz explains here. Ultimately, it comes down to two key factors: shelf life and transportation costs.

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Salad has a much shorter shelf life than beef

Chef Mike Haracz, also known as @chefmikeharacz on TikTok, is a former McDonald’s executive chef who has become a fountain of McDonald’s secrets over the past year. He’s told us things like there’s no ketchup in Big Mac sauce, clarified that McDonald’s fries are actually made from real potatoes, and told us which store-brand pickles are most similar to those at Golden Arches. He recently explained why McDonald’s salads cost so much compared to burgers.

The biggest issue, Haracz said, is shelf life. Ground beef can be frozen without issue and therefore lasts much longer, but leafy greens, not so much. Certain varieties can be frozen with care, but McDonald’s salads typically use iceberg lettuce and romaine lettuce, neither of which freeze well. When a food freezes, the water in it expands, potentially causing the food’s cell walls to rupture and adversely affecting its texture. This is less of an issue with beef, which has a relatively low water content, but the salads McDonald’s uses are mostly water, resulting in a mushy, leafy mess. As a result, fresh lettuce is more expensive because you can’t keep it as long—and that cost is passed on to the customer.

Salad is also much more expensive to transport than beef

That’s not the only reason why lettuce is more expensive. Transportation also plays a big role, because transporting lettuce in large quantities is simply much more difficult than beef. The high water content also plays a role here, as Haracz explains: The amount of lettuce needed for a salad obviously takes up significantly more space in a truck, train or ship than the meat for a burger. It’s simply more cost-effective to transport beef than lettuce.

You also have to worry about damage during transit. If ground meat gets dented or bruised, no one will notice because it’s being cooked anyway. But customers generally don’t want vegetables that look damaged, even if they’re perfectly fine. For this reason, grocery stores and other food suppliers generally reject “ugly” products.

All of this explains why the pandemic was the downfall of the McDonald’s salad and why it is unlikely to return. Sorry, fans of the McSalad Shaker, but you’re out of luck here.

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