They did not “always” fry them in tallow. They stopped doing so in the early 90s (except in the Chinese/Hong Kong market: the subject of other corporate non-apologies to Muslims, Hindis, and Buddhists) and heavily marketed this switch.
In the 8 years after the switch to vegetable oil, some stores sold a McDonalds veggie burger, with official corporate signage. This was sold in a meal deal with fries, and was marketed towards vegetarian groups.
I asked a number of store managers after becoming vegetarian of the fries were vegetarian, and was told by different franchise owners that they were. Some stores even had a veggie menu (“grilled cheese”), that was prepared separate from the meat.
I’m sorry that the fries don’t taste the same to you now, but this move had much greater repercussions for millions who don’t eat beef products and were directly lied to.
