Editorial Policy: How We Research, Write and Review

Source hierarchy

Each kind of claim has one source we accept as the authority. A source that is good for one kind of claim is not used for another.

Product identity, nutrition, ingredients and allergens

Item names, descriptions, nutrition figures, ingredient lists and allergen disclosures come only from current official U.S. McDonald's pages. That means the official U.S. full menu and the product pages it links to. Program and availability statements, such as breakfast timing, come from official FAQ pages like the U.S. breakfast FAQ. Each figure is stored with the page it came from and the date it was checked.

If we have not taken a figure from an official page, the site shows Not verified. We do not estimate calories, and we do not fill gaps with figures from other countries. We never infer allergen status from an ingredient list. Missing allergen information is shown as unknown. It is never shown as "allergen-free".

Prices

Current prices come from a single documented dataset of DoorDash delivery-menu listings. It covers 393 listings at sampled U.S. restaurants, observed Aug 19–Sep 29, 2026. Each figure averages the latest listing at each sampled location, with every location weighted equally. Sizes are averaged separately. These are delivery prices. They are not in-store, official or national prices, and the site says so next to the numbers. The full method, including its limitations, is on the pricing methodology page.

Restaurant-specific observations from official ordering channels may be added later. If so, each will be recorded with its location, channel, tax basis and date. A price from one restaurant is never presented as a nationwide price.

What we do not treat as an authority

• Other menu-price websites, including the site we reviewed for topic coverage. We used it only to see which questions readers ask. We did not take prices, calories, hours, promotions or text from it.
• Unattributed social posts, screenshots or forum claims about deals and prices.
• Official pages from markets outside the United States.

How fact, calculation and interpretation are labelled

Readers should be able to tell where a statement comes from at a glance. Data pages use three labelled callout types.

Calculations follow these rules:

• We compare only figures from the same channel and observation window.
• Prices are handled in whole cents. Rounding is stated wherever it happens.
• A missing value makes a total incomplete. It is never counted as zero.
• A sum of separately priced items is labelled an estimate. It is not presented as an official combo or bundle price.

Anomalies are flagged, not smoothed over

Some dataset values look wrong, and we leave them in place with a flag. One example is Reduced Sugar Berry Blast with Sprite Zero Sugar. One location listed it at $99.00, which pushes its averages far above similar drinks. Another is the 40 pc. McNuggets & 2 Medium Fries listing, which averaged less than the 40 pc. box alone. We do not edit these figures quietly to make them look plausible.

Writing standards

• Every page answers a specific question and adds something of its own, such as a size comparison, a meal definition, a per-unit calculation or an explanation of uncertainty.
• We write all text ourselves. We do not rework other sites' paragraphs or copy their FAQ order.
• We do not publish tasting notes, popularity rankings, reviews or quotes from customers.
• We do not attribute pages to expert identities or credentials that do not exist.
• We do not call a food healthy because of a single nutrient.
• Statements are about the U.S. menu only. We avoid blanket claims about all restaurants.

Review status wording

Collecting data and checking it are separate steps, and the site uses different words for each.

• Retrieved means the figure was collected from the named source on the stated date. No person has necessarily compared it against anything else.
• Reviewed means a person checked the published figure or statement against its source. We use this word only where that check is recorded.
• Verified appears only in the narrow cases our records support. One example is a nutrition figure confirmed against the official product page on a recorded date. We do not use "expert reviewed" anywhere.

Tables use status badges to make the same distinctions:

"Observed" means a listing appeared on sampled delivery menus. It does not mean the item is sold at every restaurant, or that a store charges that price at the counter. Promotions are shown as current only when an official source confirms their terms and dates. An offer past its end date is never shown as current.

Dates and drafts

When dates change

Each page records the date it was first published and the date of its last substantive update. A substantive update is a change to the facts, figures or guidance on the page. Rebuilding the site, fixing a typo or adjusting the layout does not change these dates. Neither does the start of a new month. Titles do not include the current year unless the page holds reviewed information for that period.

Every price shows its observation window. When newer price data is added, we will not mix it with older observations to produce a single "current" range.

Drafts

Some pages lack the evidence they need, such as a verified current status or a source for a key figure. These pages stay as drafts. Drafts are left out of site navigation, the XML sitemap and production output until the evidence exists. A thin placeholder page is never published to fill a gap.

Independence and corrections

Mac Menu Prices is an independent reference. It is not a McDonald's restaurant, seller or ordering service. Analytics and advertising are off by default. If they are ever turned on, ads will sit in labelled slots, separate from the tables, and will have no effect on what we write. See about Mac Menu Prices and the non-affiliation disclaimer for details.

If you find an error, the corrections policy and log explains how to report it. That page also lists substantive corrections, and it shows an empty log rather than invented entries.