The Copycat McDonald's Breakfast Sausages You Can Find In The Frozen Aisle

With fast food prices rivaling actual eat-in and fast-casual restaurants, it's no wonder people have returned to their own kitchens to create dupes for much less per item than they can get at the drive-thru. One case in point? McDonald's breakfast sausage patties, whose copycat version can be found in the Walmart frozen section.

That would be the Great Value Fully Cooked Original Pork Sausage Patties, which many customers say have a flavor that's practically indistinguishable from the McDonald's sausage patty. The patties also feature a similar (but not identical) ingredient make-up, as well as similar nutritional information (much like McDonald's hash browns versus Aldi's hash browns). If you were worried about the Great Value brand reheating differently from the McDonald's because they're frozen, you're in luck — they're frozen when they arrive at McDonald's stores, too.

While you can microwave the Great Value sausages and they'll heat up just fine, it has been noted that cooking them up in the frying pan provides better taste and texture; you can actually form a delicious crust on them in the skillet. Because they do tend to be a bit greasy, you can rest them on a bed of paper towels after cooking and use a paper towel to blot away some of the grease.

There are two key differences between the Great Value and McDonald's sausage patties, namely the nutritional contents and the ingredients. To be blunt about it, the Great Value sausage patties are slightly worse for you than the McDonald's type (we were shocked, too, what with fast food's terrible reputation), with the former containing 210 calories and 20 grams of fat versus the latter's 190 calories and 18 grams of fat. Also, the Great Value patties contain 320 mg of sodium (or 14% of your daily value), while the McDonald's patties only contain 280 mg, or 12% of your daily value.

The Great Value sausage patties also contain more ingredients than its fast food counterpart, including corn syrup solids, an additive defined as corn syrup with the majority of its water content removed; propyl gallate, a preservative that has been suggested may be a carcinogen; and BHA, which has been linked to cancer. In contrast, McDonald's sausage patties have surprisingly few ingredients, per its website: just pork, water, salt, spices, dextrose, sugar, rosemary extract, and natural flavors. One wonders if in addition to removing artificial preservatives and colors from its burgers, McDonald's also quietly did so with its sausage.

Unfortunately, with house brands, it can be difficult to ascertain the provenance of their products without something as serious as a food recall, where the actual manufacturer is listed as part of the announcement. And that is just what happened with Great Value breakfast sausage patties, which were part of a possible salmonella contamination recall in 2019 that revealed George's Prepared Food in Caryville, Tennessee to be the maker of these breakfast staples.

McDonald's, on the other hand, has shouted out some of its meat suppliers directly on its website: Keystone Foods, out of West Chester, PA, and Lopez Foods, based in Oklahoma City, OK. While the McDonald's website stipulates that Keystone Foods provides "the highest quality beef, chicken and fish products" to the global super-chain, it leaves out pork, which Lopez Foods specializes in. So, it is entirely possible (though unconfirmed) that Lopez Foods supplies the pork sausages for McDonald's.