7 Fast-Food Burgers Made With 100% Pure Ingredients
Fast food gets a bad reputation for being unhealthy. To serve food quickly and affordably, many chains opt for using less expensive ingredients, chemicals, and preservatives to keep food fresh, tasty, and delicious. However, as people have become more educated about nutrition and the impact that additives, preservatives, and hormones can have on the body, there has been a demand for more wholesome fast food options. Here are 7 fast-food burgers made with 100% pure ingredients.
In-N-Out Burger’s Protein Style Double-Double
If you stay away from gluten, In-N-Out’s Protein Style Double-Double is as clean as you can get. The lettuce-wrapped favorite is made from 100% USDA ground chuck with no additives, fillers, or preservatives. The meat is cooked fresh and served with hand-leafed lettuce, vine-ripened tomatoes, and their signature spread. The brand only uses “always serve only fresh – never frozen – high quality products,” the brand shared in a recent Instagram post. “In fact, we don’t even own a microwave or a freezer. We have always made our hamburger patties ourselves starting with fresh, high quality front-quarter beef chucks – no additives, fillers, or preservatives.” Even their iceberg lettuce is “hand-leafed” and buns “are baked using old-fashioned, slow-rising sponge dough.” And, burgers are made “one at a time, cooked fresh to order. ”
Culver’s ButterBurger
Culver’s, a chain originating in Wisconsin, uses “fresh, never frozen beef” for its famous ButterBurger, according to its website, including real butter. “It’s a promise that begins with sourcing the best ingredients and continues through to the way we prepare your meal: fresh, just for you.” Every ButterBurger is cooked to order and topped with a lightly buttered, toasted bun.
Five Guys’ Cheeseburger
Five Guys uses fresh, never frozen ground beef with no preservatives or fillers. Their simple approach to clean ingredients also applies to the buns, which are made without high-fructose corn syrup.
According to the Five Guys website, all five locations use fresh ground beef, hand-cut potatoes for fries, and “fresh ingredients hand-prepared.” Additionally, their buns, a “proprietary item,” are “baked fresh at bakeries five days a week.” There are no freezers in any of their restaurants.
Whataburger
Whataburger is so “committed to freshness” that they have a manifesto page on their website. “We don’t just tell our customers it’s fresh, we prove it every day, 24/7. Your Whataburger doesn’t hit the grill until you order it,” they write. Additionally, they use only “100% fresh, never-frozen American beef” and fresh vegetables, “chopped in-house daily.”
Smashburger’s Classic Smash
Made with 100% Certified Angus Beef, “gourmet” Smashburger patty is “expertly crafted with Certified Angus Beef,” the brand maintains on its website. “We take great pride in using only the finest beef for our burgers, which is sourced from family-owned farms and ranches throughout the United States, such as Walter Angus located near our Colorado headquarters.”
Shake Shack’s ShackBurger
Crafted with 100% Angus beef that’s hormone- and antibiotic-free, Shake Shack’s ShackBurger is made with a non-GMO potato bun and American cheese without artificial ingredients. “No hormones and no antibiotics ever,” it declares on the website. “Our proprietary Shack blend is freshly ground and served on a non-GMO potato bun.”
Wendy’s Dave’s Single
Wendy’s uses 100% fresh, never frozen North American beef. “A burger is only as good as its patty — that’s why ours are made with fresh, never frozen beef, cooked hot & juicy when you order,” the fast food restaurant writes on its website. While not as strictly clean-label as others on this list, its beef is free from fillers or preservatives, so if you stick to a burger patty, you are good.
