McDonald’s Snack Wrap is coming back in 2025, says president

On December 6, 2024By Littum

Upper line

The fan-favorite Snack Wrap from McDonald’s — which disappeared from most menus nearly a decade ago — is making a comeback, returning as an option for customers in 2025.

McDonald’s chicken wraps in 2008.

Getty Images

Key facts

McDonald’s president Joe Erlinger on Thursday told “Good Morning America” item, which featured different flavors of chicken, lettuce and cheese wrapped in a warm tortilla, will return next year after years of fan petitions.

Erlinger said Snack Wrap has a “cult following” and he gets “so many emails in my inbox about this product,” but would not specify exactly when next year it will return.

Snack Wraps varieties still available at international menus includes spicy veggie and grilled and crispy chicken versions of sweet chili, BBQ and bacon and Caesar and bacon flavors.

Since the Snack Wrap was removed from most menus in 2016, fans have launched an intermittent but dedicated campaign to bring it back, including dozens of petitions– including one signed by more than 18,800 people, and a social media campaign that saw the official Slim Jim account ask about the item.

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Surprising facts

Snack Wrap fans asked rapper Doja Cat to join their cause after a video she made about Taco Bell Mexican pizza led the fast food chain to put the item back on the menu (and put her in a Super Bowl ad).

Key background

Snack Wraps first launched in 2006 and later became available with beef protein options as well as chicken. The initial McDonald’s marketing campaign for the product included supermodel Heidi Klum. The beef versions of the Snack Wrap were dropped in 2013 and the original Snack Wrap was removed from most menus in 2016 (all individual franchises that originally carried the item had dropped it by 2020). The menu items were partially removed because they didn’t sell as well as the company hoped, according to Business Insiderand partly because they took too long to make. Franchisees complained about the time it took to steam the tortilla, chop the chicken and fill the wraps, which were sold in nine varieties. The complex item doubled the time company policy allotted to serve each customer, and as a result, “was a nightmare,” one manager told Bloomberg.

supermodel Heidi Klum poses with three newly designed McDonald’s chicken wraps during a press … (+) conference at Munich’s inner city McDonald’s Restaurant ‘Im Tal’ on May 29, 2008 in Munich, Germany.

Getty Images

What other McDonald’s menu items have returned?

McDonald’s is no stranger to bringing back axed items by popular demand. It was announced that the McRib, for example, a barbecue-flavored pork sandwich, would be interrupted in 2005, but several “McRib Farewell Tours” kept it on the menu until 2008. The item returned periodically for special events such as London 2012 Olympicsand McDonald’s announced it would return nationwide again in 2020. It has returned seasonally since. In 2022, the fast food giant brought back – for a limited time – Danish cheesea menu item not seen since the 1980s. McDonald’s said this year it would bring back its holiday pie, which first debuted in 1999 as a promotional item for the movie “Toy Story 2.” The fan-favorite dessert is made of a custard inside a crust that is then glazed with sugar and topped with rainbow sprinkles, and is available for a limited time in markets such as Seattle, Los Angeles, St. Louis, New York City, Cleveland and Dallas.

big number

Approximately 14,300. It is how many restaurants McDonald’s has in the United States. The chain has 36,500 restaurants in more than 100 countries.

Key

Erlinger too apologized Thursday for an E. coli outbreak linked to the onions used on McDonald’s Quarter Pounders that sickened more than 100 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The outbreak halted sales of Quarter Pounders for a week before resuming without the onions, prompting supplier Taylor Farms to initiate a voluntary recall of its yellow onions. Thursday, Erlinger said the fast food chain “failed people” and that he was sorry “to all of our customers who were harmed by this incident.” The CDC has since said the outbreak is over and there is no continued concern about the food safety of McDonald’s products.