(NEXSTAR) — It’s not uncommon for fast food restaurants to change their menus or recipes, but a new change from Chick-fil-A seems to be receiving some heat.
Chick-fil-A previously announced it would make “a slight adjustment” to its Waffle Potato Fries by adding pea starch to the coating. The move is meant to keep them “crispier, longer” while maintaining the “same great taste.”
Some customers, however, seemingly disagree.
“The new waffle fries are horrible,” one Reddit user wrote. “They are stale, dry, and hardened! My whole family hates them. I’m still in disbelief that this has happened.”
“The fries were already good. Why mess with it??” a comment left on a Chick-fil-A Instagram post read. Other comments called the new fries “awful” and “terrible,” with many asking for the old fries to come back.
Chick-fil-A fan-favorite menu items returning
Some users also noted that while pea starch is not a major allergen, those with a peanut allergy may also have a reaction to the starch. There have been cases in which people who are allergic to peanuts or other legume seed-derived foods experience allergic reactions to pea protein and other pea products, according to the Michigan State University Center for Research on Ingredient Safety.
However, the chances of experiencing a severe reaction are “expected to be low,” Health Canada notes.
NewsNation’s parent company Nexstar reached out to Chick-fil-A for comment on the response to its new Waffle Fries outside of business hours and did not immediately hear back. Chick-fil-A said in a statement to NBC’s Today and Southern Living that it has been testing the new fries for over a year.
As early as October 2023, users on Reddit were noticing a change in the fries, describing them as “super salty,” “starchier” and “stale.”
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Daryl-Ann Denner, a Chick-fil-A enthusiast and founder and CEO of clothing brand Nuuds, recently told Southern Living that she noticed the change in November, but thought she had “a bad batch” of waffle fries. Then, she had a similar experience while visiting her mom.
“They are dry, grainy and have no flavor anymore,” Denner added, noting she no longer orders fries with her meal.
Not including the return of fan-favorite items, Chick-fil-A has made big changes to its menu before. Early last year, Chick-fil-A changed its chicken when it switched from purchasing chicken that had No Antibiotics Ever to No Antibiotics Important To Human Medicine (NAIHM).
