They’re fried before they’re packaged and sent to the franchises who do the actual end frying

Blanching is the same as frying but instead of an oil you use water and then also sink or rinse it in cold water to quickly halt the cooking. Doing that with fries would ruin them, but I don’t think it’s wrong enough if a term to care. If someone knows what blanching is and you say you did it to your fries with oil they’ll get what you mean