Sally Davis a New York-based photographer — and decades-long vegetarian — took a McDonald’s Happy Meal home six months ago to see if what she had read online about a school teacher with a 12-year-old McDonald’s burger could possibly be true (spoiler alert: it is). Davies’ friend claimed the food would mold or rot within 2-3 days and that the story of the 12-year-old burger was nothing more than a tall tale.
Davies described it from there to the Huffington Post:
I planned to photograph the decomposing burger every day to monitor the process, and send to my friend! I started a page on Facebook called “McDonalds Happy Meal Project” and also on Flickr posting all the photographs. After a week or two, the photographs were very boring, as nothing was happening. at all. So I only photograph them every week or two after that. Not much has changed since April 10, 2010 on Day one. The top bun is very dry and a small part snapped off. The burger shrank as it dried out, but nothing much else. …
As Refinery29 wrote when they covered the project at the 137-day mark, “the results are remarkable in the fact that they’re really unremarkable.” The Daily Mail referred to the “seemingly indestructible fast food meal’s progress as it refuses to yield to the forces of nature.” The Happy Meal stopped smelling of anything after only a couple days, and the only change that really seemed to occur was that it essentially plasticized. “At six months old, the food is plastic to the touch and has an acrylic sheen to it. The only change that I can see is that it has become hard as a rock,” Davies told the Mail.
Hmmmm… Ronald McDonald looks exactly the same as when I was a kid. Coincidence? I think not!
Make a burger at home and stick it in a closet for a year or two. Same thing will happen – if you do it right. Ground beef is 25-35% fat – commercial meat probably higher and that means less water in the meat. Additionally, in order to cook fast, most chain burger patties are pretty thin and often pressed on the grill. This helps them dehydrate. The buns are dry and have been toasted. I.E. sterilized. Please notice these “immortal” burgers do not include things like lettuce and tomato. Those would rot and lead to meat degradation, too. What they do have is a lot of salt. A preservative. There is no big mystery here. I’m not saying the food is healthy (or even palatable) but the fact some sandwiches do not rot is no indicator of chemical use.
More FUD, and I don’t mean Elmer.
“Sally Davis a New York-based photographer — and decades-long vegetarian” … sez’ it all.
All burger, no onions or ketchup?
To a food scientist (and not the food zealot), it’s all about available water.
And there’s not enough of it a hamburger/fries happy meal, left open in the air, to support microbes.
Now… pour that soft drink on the burger and fries, and you’d have a fermenting soup in a day or so.
If you leave bread out in the open…it dries up to make croutons. If kept in a wrapper it gets moldy. If this burger and fries were put in a plastic bag for the 6 months…I am sure it would rot. We need to see that test done sooner than later.
That said, the product — just look at it — is crap.
i’m so happy i was never brought up on this crap.
-s
#6 Dvorak said:
We need to see that test done sooner than later.
it has been..and with the results you expected, -7 samples put in glass jars with an unexpected outcome on the least likely suspect..
-s
I might try that next I make burgers, chips and homemade buns …. leave all out in the open air for 180 days and see what happens ….
#8: Deep fried potatoes with a very small cross section = very little or no water retention, thus no mold. This is why the Mc D’s fries were still “ok”. The diner fries have a much larger cross section, thus holding more water (not to mention that diner fries are usually fried for a shorter time, leaving more moisture in the fry).
At any rate, the entire experiment is bogus. Whether food decomposes or not has nothing to do with the quality of the ingredients. As #5 said, it’s all about available water.
Propaganda is only as effective as the stupidity and laziness of its audience.
What is the point of this video? Does this woman actually believe in the medieval theory that maggots spawn like magic from rotten meat? Remember that experiment with the two jars of rotten meat, and one was left exposed and the other covered… Also, why would there be worms in the meat? Worms are found in meat because they are often a parasite that get ingested by livestock, but that is the primary reason we COOK meat. Does she think that McDonald’s uses raw hamburg? What a moron.
I still vote for twinkies. Twinkies anyone? *pukes*
Even so, the fries taste bad if they’ve been out of the grease more than about five minutes.
McDonald’s food is designed for convenience while travelling with kids. I have found months old petrified pieces of burgers and fries in between the back seat cushions of the car and there is no smell or grease stain on the upholstery.
I love you McD’s.
I find this extraordinary. Just to reiterate what other people have already made. It’s down to available water, fat content, method of cooking and so on.
I just don’t understand the clip from “Super Size Me” because that’s NOT how food is absorbed into the human body. Like we don’t have enzymes, bacteria and acid to break it down. I just find that very bizarre. What point is he trying to make? Or the person who posted the clip.
Somewhere someone writing about this display made by Sally Davis, the NY photographer, mentions that there was a similar demonstration made in the 1990s and carried forward ten years with similar results.
#6 John C. Dvorak – I think that the earlier demonstration was started about the time that someone tried to see how long it would take a Hostess Twinkie to spoil when kept in its packaging. If I remember correctly, the Twinkie didn’t spoil after 6 months. This was probably due to preservatives and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil used to increase shelf life. I knew a guy who left a closed container of Libby’s Juicy Juice out for an entire school year and nothing grew. Maybe it was due to the acidic pH.
Also, back then, I bought a container of white milk that had not been homogonized although it had been pasteurized. I skimmed off what rose to the top (the fat or cream), put it in a measuring cup and left it out on my kitchen table. Nothing changed for weeks – no growth or discolorations of what was skimmed. I think it was due to fat molecules that were too complex to break down.
#14 Red Delta – In hot and humid Florida, fries left in a car WILL DISCOLOR after 15 days or so. McDonalds used to use beef tallow but switched to vegetable oil years ago to make their fries.
Michael Douglas FTW!!!
“Propaganda is only as effective as the stupidity and laziness of its audience.”
This is partially true. Add to the mix the propagandist’s desire to deceive, and there you go.
I’ve got the same “test” running here in Germany with cheeseburgers from Mc Donald’s and Burger King. No change in three weeks so far 🙂
See for yourself
German: http://derzornigemarkus.de/wp/?page_id=144
Google translation: http://is.gd/g5yIN
The propagandist’s desire is always to deceive. That’s what propaganda means.
If you’re telling the truth, then you’re not engaged in propaganda.
Late to the dance here, but I must point out that beef suet is pretty close to immortal – can be kept at room temperature or outside in the heat for the birds, and it never goes bad.
#8 Soundwash – The host of your posted video is Morgan Spurlock, the creator of the documentary “Supersize Me”. That documentary was critical of McDonalds. I don’t know if that video is from that documentary however.