My uncle swore the McDLT was killed off by a lettuce shortage, and I believed him for like 15 years

Drew Hart · 2026-10-09T01:55:05.309943+00:00

So my uncle Ray worked at a McDonald's in Toledo back in the late 80s, and he always swore up and down that the McDLT got pulled because the little styrofoam clamshell kept the hot side hot and the cold side cold so well that it was 'basically a fire hazard.' I repeated this to people for years like it was gospel. Then one night I fell down a wiki hole and found out the real story, it was the styrofoam ban in 1990 that did it, nothing to do with fires at all. Ray had a whole fake story with details and everything, and the worst part is the McDLT was actually a pretty clever design for its time. The hot and cold sides never touched until you slapped it together yourself, which honestly sounds great compared to a soggy burger sitting in a bag for 10 minutes. I called Ray to give him a hard time and he just laughed and said he 'heard it from a guy.' Now I want to know, what recalled food item have you heard a totally made up reason for? I feel like every dead fast food item has at least one uncle out there with a fake backstory.

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My uncle swore the McDLT was killed off by a lettuce shortage, and I believed him for like 15 years | Banned Product Heroes - Free To Speak