McDonald's boss accidentally reveals fan favorite sandwich is returning

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McDonald's US president Joe Erlinger let slip this week that a sandwich with a cult following is coming back.

The McRib - seasoned boneless pork dipped in tangy BBQ sauce and topped with chopped onions and pickles -  is returning to America later this year.

The sandwich, which has been dropped and then added back to the menu dozens of times over the years, polarizes fast food fans- some love it but others hate it.

But McDonald's knows the McRib brings customers into restaurants and drive-thrus.

It's return will be its latest weapon, along with its $5 value meal deal this summer, in the battle to win customers back in 2024.

The McRib sandwich is coming back again in 2024. It was first sold in 1982

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'Bringing the McRib back for a limited time will  spur some interest and foot traffic for McDonald's at a time when performance is flagging,' retail expert Neil Saunders, managing director of Global Data, told DailyMail.com.

But he explained why McDonald's only sells it for limited times - rather than having it as a permanent fixture on the menu.

'The uplift is usually only temporary, so the chain still has work to do on areas like pricing if it wants to secure a better performance,' he added.

McRib is back again later in 2024

McRib - which has been described as the 'fast food sandwich that went viral before viral was a thing' - debuted nationally in the US in 1982.

It was discontinued in 1985 after low sales, but then returned in 1989 and was broadly available in the US and other countries until 2005.

It was then periodically reintroduced until disappearing again in 2012 for eight years. It didn't return until December 2020, when it came back for a limited time.

At the time, it was a bid to lure back customers after the pandemic left its dining rooms sparsely populated or closed.

The McRib is an elusive prize for fans, who scour the internet for reports of its surfacing at limited locations for a short amount of time.

There is even a website called the McRib Locator, created to spread the word about McDonald's restaurants that are offering it.

In the past, the McRib has been credited with bringing in customers and boosting sales for the chain.

For example, a 'farewell tour' for the cult favorite in November 2022 helped boost sales by double digits.

Bosses said that would be the last time the McRib was sold. But it did come back again in November 2023 too.

Now this week, president Joe Erlinger said: 'It's coming later this year. The McRib will be back.'

He was being interviewed on Today to promote the new $5 value meal. At the end of the main chat with the presenters, weatherman Al Roker jokingly inquired about the McRib - and that is when Erlinger gave the update.

It's not impossible to get a McRib any time you want it, but you need to travel. Germany has had on the menu year round for a while. It was returned to Canada in January this year.

It is the latest fan favorite item to return. In April, we reported how McDonald's has brought back bagels to its breakfast menu.

Fan rejoiced when the McRib came back in 2020 for the first time in eight years

McDonald's is bringing back breakfast bagels in four varieties, including the sausage variant pictured here

Facebook groups have sprung up calling for the return of bagels at McDonald's

Bagel fans have been posting memes about McDonald's bagels

Bagels are not yet nationwide but they are in at least 1,200 restaurants - and could return to all 14,300 US outlets later this year.

Bagels were first introduced to McDonald's in late 2019 but were cut  soon after when bosses simplified the menu in spring 2020 during the pandemic.

Since then, fans on Twitter, Reddit and Facebook have been calling for them to return.

They are so popular a 13,000-member Facebook group has sprung up called Where's my McDonald's Bagel?