Snack Wrap unwrapped: Here's why McDonald's is bringing back a fan favorite on July 10

If McDonald’s ever doubted it needed to bring back the Snack Wrap, consider this: Nine years after the fast-food powerhouse discontinued the item in the U.S., customers have continued to order it at drive-thrus.

Those customers won't have to leave empty-handed for long. On Tuesday, McDonald's announced that a new version of the Snack Wrap will go on sale July 10.

McDonald's invented the Snack Wrap — a tortilla full of chicken, lettuce, shredded cheese and sauce — almost two decades ago to make it easier to eat its chicken on the go. But it was too complicated for its kitchens to prepare, so the burger giant abandoned the Snack Wrap in the U.S. in 2016.

The decision devastated fans like Alicia Force, a musician and administrative assistant at a high school in Missouri. Force tried to make Snack Wraps at home and sampled alternatives from Arby’s and other restaurants, but nothing was the same. So she started a Facebook group with 86 members urging McDonald's to resurrect the Snack Wrap.

Other loyal noshers weighed in too. A Change.org petition asking McDonald’s to bring back the Snack Wrap has nearly 19,000 signatures. A TikTok video showing a U.S. food reviewer eating Snack Wraps in Ireland — where they're still sold — racked up more than 1.4 million views.

It had an impact. McDonald's began teasing a Snack Wrap reappearance earlier this year.

“We listen to our fans, and the Snack Wrap’s return is a testament to that,” McDonald’s U.S. President Joe Erlinger told The Associated Press.

But McDonald's has other reasons for the reboot. The Snack Wrap's lower price point could lure back inflation-weary customers, who have been eating fewer fast-food meals in recent months. The wraps' smaller size and tortilla casing also appeal to the health-conscious.

Steve Davis, a mental health counselor in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, used to buy six grilled chicken Snack Wraps at a time and keep them in his fridge as a grab-and-go snack.

“I’m not actually a fast-food fan, but Snack Wraps felt different, like I was eating an actual ‘wrap.’ I felt like I was being healthier," Davis said.

Snack Wraps will also help McDonald’s compete with a growing number of rivals. Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen introduced its own chicken wraps on Monday, while Burger King and Wendy’s have sold them since 2023. Even the convenience store chain Wawa sells a chicken wrap.

“There’s so much opportunity in the chicken category,” Erlinger said. Fast-food chicken sales are nearly twice the size of beef and are growing more quickly across the globe, Erlinger said.

Reviving the Snack Wrap was a years-long process, Erlinger said. First, McDonald's wanted to develop a better fried chicken strip. After several years of testing, the Chicago-based company debuted its peppery McCrispy Strips in early May.

McDonald’s also had to update its Snack Wrap tools, simplify the preparation process and train workers at its 13,500 U.S. restaurants, Erlinger said.

“With this being one of our most highly anticipated menu items, we knew we had one chance to knock it out of the park. It had to be easy for crew to execute,” Erlinger said.

For the U.S. comeback, McDonald’s is offering fewer kinds of Snack Wraps to ensure faster service. It used to have both grilled and fried chicken options, but it’s only offering fried chicken in the U.S. for now. And the relaunched Snack Wraps will only come in two flavors: Ranch or Spicy. The company used to offer additional sauces like honey mustard and sweet chili.

That could disappoint some fans. Force was partial to a Snack Wrap with honey mustard sauce, for example. Davis always got grilled chicken on his Snack Wraps, and he rarely went to McDonald's after they disappeared.

McDonald's continues to have a wider range of options in some other markets where Snack Wraps never went away. Canada still offers grilled or fried chicken in its Snack Wraps, for example, as well as chicken, fish and breakfast versions of full-sized wraps. McDonald's wouldn't say if it plans to add more Snack Wrap varieties in the U.S.

"We’ll continue listening to our fans when it comes to menu innovations," the company said.

Snack Wraps are returning at a sluggish period for fast-food restaurants. From January through April, U.S. fast-food traffic was down 1% compared to the same period a year ago, said David Portalatin, a senior vice president and industry advisor for food service at market research firm Circana.

McDonald’s same-store sales – or sales at locations open at least a year – were down 3.6% in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period last year. Its same-store sales grew less than 1% in 2024.

Inflation is the main culprit, Portalatin said. In the first quarter of this year, the average check at a U.S. fast-food restaurant was up 41% from the same period in 2019, he said. The higher prices have led many Americans – especially middle- to lower-income families – to eat at home instead of going out.

McDonald’s has tried to counter that with a limited McValue menu and increased deals. But less expensive options like a Snack Wrap may also help.

The company won’t say how much the Snack Wrap will cost in the U.S. because prices will vary by location. But Burger King's prices may give a clue. At a Michigan restaurant this week, Burger King charged $2.99 for its Royal Crispy Wrap, the 310-calorie equivalent of a Snack Wrap. Burger King's Royal Crispy Chicken sandwich, with a bun, a larger chicken breast and nearly twice the calories, cost $5.49.

Portalatin said snack-sized options from McDonald’s and others also reflect Americans’ changing dining habits. More people are choosing to eat smaller meals throughout the day instead of having having breakfast, lunch and dinner at their traditional times.

“The consumer doesn’t think about things in the neat buckets that we as marketers like to think about them," Portalatin said. "We like to say, ‘This occasion is lunch and these are lunch foods.’ The consumer simply says, ‘I’m hungry. What time is it? Where am I?’”

That was certainly true for Force, who said she has fond memories of picking up a Snack Wrap after school as a teenager. She's looking forward to making that part of her routine once more.

“Hopefully, they come back and they taste the same, and they don’t break my heart again, quite frankly,” she said.

Wayne Kuhl, a McDonald's chef, wraps a snack wrap at McDonald's Headquarter in Chicago, Thursday, May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Charles L. Krumsiek, a McDonald's chef, puts a chicken on a tortilla to make a snack wrap at McDonald's Headquarter in Chicago, Thursday, May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Wayne Kuhl, left, and Charles L. Krumsieka, McDonald's chefs look at each other after made snack wraps at McDonald's Headquarter in Chicago, Thursday, May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Charles L. Krumsiek, a McDonald's chef, puts cheese on a tortilla to make a snack wrap at McDonald's Headquarter in Chicago, Thursday, May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Charles L. Krumsiek, a McDonald's chef, makes a snack wrap (ranch) at McDonald's Headquarter in Chicago, Thursday, May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

NAIVASHA, Kenya (AP) — When Dickson Ngome first leased his farm at Lake Naivasha in Kenya’s Rift Valley in 2008, it was over 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from shore. The farm was on 1.5 acres (0.6 hectares) of fertile land where he grew vegetables to sell at local markets.

At the time, the lake was receding and people were worried that it might dry up altogether. But since 2011, the shore has crept ever closer. The rains started early this year, in September, and didn't let up for months.

One morning in late October, Ngome and his family woke up to find their home and farm inside the lake. The lake levels had risen overnight and about a foot of water covered everything.

“It seemed as if the lake was far from our homes,” Ngome’s wife, Rose Wafula, told The Associated Press. “And then one night we were shocked to find our houses flooded. The water came from nowhere.”

The couple and their four children have had to leave home and are camping out on the first floor of an abandoned school nearby.

Some 5,000 people were displaced by the rise in Lake Naivasha’s levels this year. Some scientists attribute the higher levels to increased rains caused by climate change, although there may be other factors causing the lake’s steady rise over the past decade.

The lake is a tourism hot spot and surrounded by farms, mostly growing flowers, which have gradually been disappearing into the water as the lake levels rise.

Rising levels have not been isolated to Naivasha: Kenya’s Lake Baringo, Lake Nakuru and Lake Turkana — all in the Rift Valley — have been steadily rising for 15 years.

“The lakes have risen almost beyond the highest level they have ever reached,” said Simon Onywere, who teaches environmental planning at Kenyatta University in Kenya’s capital Nairobi.

A study in the Journal of Hydrology last year found that lake areas in East Africa increased by 71,822 square kilometers (27,730 square miles) between 2011 and 2023. That affects a lot of people: By 2021, more than 75,000 households had been displaced across the Rift Valley, according to a study commissioned that year by the Kenyan Environment Ministry and the United Nations Development Program.

In Baringo, the submerged buildings that made headlines in 2020 and 2021 are still underwater.

“In Lake Baringo, the water rose almost 14 meters,” Onywere said. “Everything went under, completely under. Buildings will never be seen again, like the Block Hotels of Lake Baringo.”

Lake Naivasha has risen steadily too, “engulfing three quarters of some flower farms,” Onywere said.

Horticulture is a major economic sector in Kenya, generating just over a billion U.S. dollars in revenue in 2024 and providing 40% of the volume of roses sold in the European Union, according to Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Significant research has gone into the reasons behind the rising lakes phenomenon: A 2021 study on the rise of Kenya’s Rift Valley lakes was coauthored by Kenyan meteorologist Richard Muita, who is now acting assistant director of the Kenya Meteorological Department.

“There are researchers who come up with drivers that are geological, others with reasons like planetary factors,” Muita said. “The Kenya Meteorological Department found that the water level rises are associated with rainfall patterns and temperature changes. When the rains are plentiful, it aligns with the increase in the levels of the Rift Valley lake waters.”

Sedimentation is also a factor. “From the research I have read, there’s a lot of sediment, especially from agricultural related activities, that flows into these lakes,” says Muita.

Naivasha’s official high water mark was demarcated at 1,892.8 meters (6,210 feet) above sea level by the Riparian Association in 1906, and is still used by surveyors today. That means this year’s flooding was still almost a meter (3 feet) below the high mark.

It also means that the community of Kihoto on Lake Naivasha where the Ngomes lived lies on riparian land — land that falls below the high water mark, and can only be owned by the government.

“It’s a mess established by the government … towards the late 1960s,” said Silas Wanjala, general manager of the Lake Naivasha Riparian Association, which was founded some 120 years ago and has been keeping meticulous records of the lake’s water levels since.

Back then, a farmer was given a “temporary agricultural lease” on Kihoto, said Wanjala. When it later flooded and the farmer packed up and left, the farmworkers stayed on the land and later applied for subdivisions, which were approved. In the 60-odd years since, a whole settlement has grown on land that is officially not for lease or sale.

This also isn’t the first time it’s been flooded, said Wanjala. It's just very rare that the water comes up this high. That’s little consolation for the people who have been displaced by this year’s floods and now cannot go home without risking confrontations with hippopotamuses.

To support those people, the county is focusing its efforts on where the need is greatest.

“We are tackling this as an emergency," says Joyce Ncece, chief officer for disaster management in Nakuru County, which oversees Lake Naivasha. “The county government has provided trucks to help families relocate. We have been helping to pay rent for those who lack the finances.”

Scientists like Onywere and Muita are hoping for longer-term solutions. “Could we have predicted this so that we could have done better infrastructure in less risk-prone areas?” Onywere said.

Muita wants to see a more concerted global effort to combat climate change, as well as local, nature-based solutions centered on Indigenous knowledge, such as “conservation agriculture, where there is very limited disturbance of the land,” to reduce sedimentation of the lakes.

But all of this is of little help to Ngome and Wafula, who are still living at the school with their children. As the rest of the world looks forward to the holidays and new year, their future is uncertain. Lake Naivasha’s continuous rise over the past 15 years does not bode well: They have no idea when, or if, their farm will ever be back on dry land.

For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

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Residential buildings are submerged after Lake Naivasha swelled and flooded homes, in Kihoto Village, in Naivasha, Kenya's Rift Valley region, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

People use a boat to cross floodwaters as residential buildings remain submerged after Lake Naivasha swelled and inundated homes, displacing people in Kihoto Village, in Naivasha, Kenya's Rift Valley region, on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

A man salvages his belongings after Lake Naivasha swelled and inundated homes, displacing hundreds in Kihoto Village, in Naivasha, Kenya's Rift Valley region, on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

Residential buildings are submerged after Lake Naivasha swelled and flooded homes, displacing hundreds in Kihoto Village, in Naivasha, Kenya's Rift Valley region, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

A man paddles a boat next to flooded buildings after Lake Naivasha swelled and inundated homes, displacing hundreds in Kihoto Village in Naivasha, Kenya's Rift Valley region, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)