Sales of apples cut to look like fries are split 50-50 between a la carte orders and kids-meal orders.

Burger King has sold 5.7 million orders of BK Fresh Apple Fries since it launched July 30—half a la carte, the rest in kids meals. Cut and peeled to look like french fries, the apples are bagged in plastic with calcium and vitamin C to prevent browning, and packed in red french fry cartons with low-fat caramel squirt packs. At $1.49 per 2-ounce bag, the apples cost the same as a medium fries.

John Schaufelberger, senior vice president of global product marketing and innovation at the Miami-based chain, won't say exactly which rock-star apples are firm and sweet enough to become BK Fresh Apple Fries. But he says there are about five varieties of red-skinned apples that rotate in and out of the seasonal supply chain.

Ada Duque, a food scientist and assistant product innovation manager at Burger King, led the product-marketing team credited with the idea. The eureka moment came during a group session Burger King held in April 2007. The 11,400-unit company had just taken the Better Business Bureau Kids Pledge to restrict kid-targeted national ads to nutritional foods.

Burger King tested apple fries in Orlando, Fla.; Mobile, Ala; Louisville, Ky.; Albany, N.Y.; and Las Vegas in November and December 2007. Sales were hampered by one thing: “During the test, we did not have the word 'fresh' included in the title, so people were confused, thinking the apples were actually fried,” says Schaufelberger. After adding the “fresh” descriptor, BK Fresh Apple Fries sales markedly improved. About one-third of all kids-meal customers now ask for apples instead of french fries.

And with half of the sales attributable to adults ordering a la carte, Schaufelberger says offering apples in substitution for fries is a serious option. “But not in 2008,” he says.