No matter what fast food chains tells you, their secret recipes aren't really secrets..

An article in Live Science notes that fast food secrets can be cracked using laboratory analysis - and in some cases, consumer protection laws even require restaurants to reveal what they're serving. Case in point? Kentucky Fried Chicken.

In his book "Big Secrets," William Poundstone revealed a laboratory analysis of Kentucky Fried Chicken: "The sample of coating mix was found to contain four and only four ingredients: flour, salt, monosodium glutamate, and black pepper. There were no eleven herbs and spices - no herbs at all in fact... Nothing was found in the sample that couldn't be identified." So much for the "secret."

In fact, the chicken's ingredient statement is available on KFC's Web site!