That McDonalds burger that wouldn't rot

[broberfett]

Have you read that story on the internet? Somebody buys a McDonalds burger and just sits it on a shelf and it doesn't decompose. Has anyone here tried it? I haven't been to a McDonalds as a regular customer in 20 years. It all started when I tried to feed my dog a McDonald's hamburger. This dog would eat anything. She ate flashcubes once. She ate rotten meat. She would try to eat chocolate if she could get it. The dog was an unstoppable eating machine that would eat like a shark no matter what. I offered my dog a burger and she sniffed it and refused the burger. So I won't eat there. I've eaten their McNuggets a few times in 20 years, but I don't eat anything else there.

 

[the 4th hanson bro]

This would be so much more interesting with a link, or maybe I expect too much.

 

[ToddKent]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sallydavies/sets/72157624739645253/

And the photographer's website:

http://www.sallydaviesphoto.com/

There's also a segment in the special features of the "Super Size Me" DVD where Spurlock did something similar.

 

[Marie1]

This would be so much more interesting with a link, or maybe I expect too much.

This I think.

 

[Trekker4747]

Only thing like this I can recall is an extra feature on the DVD for "Supersize Me" where the movie maker -Morgan Spurlock- is doing second-unit stuff/research for the movie (after his 30-day McDonalds diet, presumably) and he has a Big Mac and fries sitting on a desk under bell jars, separate jars (not vacuumed the jars are just there for isolation. I forget the period of time but I want to say it's somewhere around 6 weeks and the but the burger decomposes as you would expect (it is, after all still meat, vegetables and other substance that, you know, rot) but the fries remain fine and visually still edible at the end of the period. (Likely due to the high sodium content.)

Stuff like what is mentioned in the OP, to me, reeks of bullshit along the same lines of people saying KFC had to change their name since what they serve isn't "chicken" (it is.) Or that Twinkies last forever (they don't.)

The idea that a burger could survive more than even a couple weeks is preposterous for any number of reasons. It's still meat and vegetables. Organic stuff and it's not greatly protected by whatever salts are in it. It's going to rot. Unless these "20 year old burgers" are inside vacuum sealed containers (which sort of defeats the entire idea) there's no way they'd last unmolested for any meaningful length of time. And dogs eat all sorts of crap. If a dog refuses to eat a McD's burger it's either because the dog is "spoiled" on finer dog foods or some other reason. I doubt there's any "no McDonalds" instinct built into a dog's genetic code. These are, afterall, animals that lick their own crotches and sniff the asses of other dogs.

 

[SG-17]

It is quite evident by the cracking and shrinking of the bun, fries, and patty that the meal was kept in a relatively moisture free environment so it just dried out and coupled with the sodium protected it from the average decomposition rates.

McDonald's burgers are still the best fast food burgers that I have ever eaten.

 

[Teelie]

It's kind of like mummification in that sense. Their burgers aren't inherently worse than any other burger necessarily even if this were true. I can do the same thing with a vegetable and make some absurd claim.

 

[Amaris]

Only thing like this I can recall is an extra feature on the DVD for "Supersize Me" where the movie maker -Morgan Spurlock- is doing second-unit stuff/research for the movie (after his 30-day McDonalds diet, presumably) and he has a Big Mac and fries sitting on a desk under bell jars, separate jars (not vacuumed the jars are just there for isolation. I forget the period of time but I want to say it's somewhere around 6 weeks and the but the burger decomposes as you would expect (it is, after all still meat, vegetables and other substance that, you know, rot) but the fries remain fine and visually still edible at the end of the period. (Likely due to the high sodium content.)

Stuff like what is mentioned in the OP, to me, reeks of bullshit along the same lines of people saying KFC had to change their name since what they serve isn't "chicken" (it is.) Or that Twinkies last forever (they don't.)

The idea that a burger could survive more than even a couple weeks is preposterous for any number of reasons. It's still meat and vegetables. Organic stuff and it's not greatly protected by whatever salts are in it. It's going to rot. Unless these "20 year old burgers" are inside vacuum sealed containers (which sort of defeats the entire idea) there's no way they'd last unmolested for any meaningful length of time. And dogs eat all sorts of crap. If a dog refuses to eat a McD's burger it's either because the dog is "spoiled" on finer dog foods or some other reason. I doubt there's any "no McDonalds" instinct built into a dog's genetic code. These are, afterall, animals that lick their own crotches and sniff the asses of other dogs.

I have done this experiment (having watched "Supersize Me"). I did it for a month. No condiments, just a hamburger (just the burger and the bun) and a small order of fries. In one month, there was no breakdown of the "food". It was dry, but that's it.

 

[M'Sharak]

I haven't been to a McDonalds as a regular customer in 20 years. It all started when I tried to feed my dog a McDonald's hamburger. This dog would eat anything. She ate flashcubes once. She ate rotten meat. She would try to eat chocolate if she could get it. The dog was an unstoppable eating machine that would eat like a shark no matter what. I offered my dog a burger and she sniffed it and refused the burger. So I won't eat there. I've eaten their McNuggets a few times in 20 years, but I don't eat anything else there.

If you knew what was involved in the production of those McNuggets, you probably wouldn't want them, either.

I'm not particularly surprised that a thoroughly-cooked burger doesn't show signs of rotting even after six months. That's the whole reason meats traditionally were cooked or cured or salted or dried or made into products like pemmican or jerky: to preserve them and to keep them from rotting. That burger and fries may eventually become completely desiccated and the bun stale and brittle, but I wouldn't expect much else to happen.

 

[Trekker4747]

Only thing like this I can recall is an extra feature on the DVD for "Supersize Me" where the movie maker -Morgan Spurlock- is doing second-unit stuff/research for the movie (after his 30-day McDonalds diet, presumably) and he has a Big Mac and fries sitting on a desk under bell jars, separate jars (not vacuumed the jars are just there for isolation. I forget the period of time but I want to say it's somewhere around 6 weeks and the but the burger decomposes as you would expect (it is, after all still meat, vegetables and other substance that, you know, rot) but the fries remain fine and visually still edible at the end of the period. (Likely due to the high sodium content.)

Stuff like what is mentioned in the OP, to me, reeks of bullshit along the same lines of people saying KFC had to change their name since what they serve isn't "chicken" (it is.) Or that Twinkies last forever (they don't.)

The idea that a burger could survive more than even a couple weeks is preposterous for any number of reasons. It's still meat and vegetables. Organic stuff and it's not greatly protected by whatever salts are in it. It's going to rot. Unless these "20 year old burgers" are inside vacuum sealed containers (which sort of defeats the entire idea) there's no way they'd last unmolested for any meaningful length of time. And dogs eat all sorts of crap. If a dog refuses to eat a McD's burger it's either because the dog is "spoiled" on finer dog foods or some other reason. I doubt there's any "no McDonalds" instinct built into a dog's genetic code. These are, afterall, animals that lick their own crotches and sniff the asses of other dogs.

I have done this experiment (having watched "Supersize Me"). I did it for a month. No condiments, just a hamburger (just the burger and the bun) and a small order of fries. In one month, there was no breakdown of the "food". It was dry, but that's it.

Well, it's probably, again, due to the salt. FDA guidelines are pretty strict in matters like this so if McDs is calling it 100% beef then that's what it is. But if it's salted enough bacteria aren't going to want anything to do with it. This is how foodstuffs like beef-jerky was discovered 1000s of years ago. Enough salts and/or acids around bacteria will steer clear.

I've seen plenty of beef-jerky recipes out there that amount to nothing much more than soaking it in a acidic bath heavy in salts, cover it, and let it sit out on the counter for a day or two. By then its perfect, uncooked (which is what countertop dehydrators are effectively doing -cooking-), not spoiled and edible beef-jerky. Plenty of cured meat and other food stuff recipes out there operating on the same principle if the stuff is salty or acidic enough bacteria won't mess with it.

So, again, I think it's more to do with food preservation methods taking effect than the food being unspoilable.

 

[Amaris]

Well, it's probably, again, due to the salt. FDA guidelines are pretty strict in matters like this so if McDs is calling it 100% beef then that's what it is. But if it's salted enough bacteria aren't going to want anything to do with it. This is how foodstuffs like beef-jerky was discovered 1000s of years ago. Enough salts and/or acids around bacteria will steer clear.

I've seen plenty of beef-jerky recipes out there that amount to nothing much more than soaking it in a acidic bath heavy in salts, cover it, and let it sit out on the counter for a day or two. By then its perfect, uncooked (which is what countertop dehydrators are effectively doing), not spoiled and edible beef-jerky. Plenty of cured meat and other food stuff recipes out there operating on the same principle if the stuff is salty or acidic enough bacteria won't mess with it.

So, again, I think it's more to do with food preservation methods taking effect than the food being unspoilable.

Well, yeah, but I still find the experiment interesting. I'm curious to see how long the burger will remain in this current state before finally breaking down. I don't really have a quarrel with McDonalds anyway. I mean, if you eat it, you know what you're getting into, and high levels of preservatives shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. I don't eat there very often (maybe once every couple of months I might eat something if I'm in a hurry), but I just don't like the taste of the food.

 

[Gil T.Azell]

I saw this the other day
Ewww

 

[Kestra]

Introduce that thing to some moisture and it'll grow mold in no time. I'd try it here, but I wouldn't be able to watch a burger go to waste.

 

[Trekker4747]

...I wouldn't be able to watch a burger go to waste.

My kind of woman.

 

[Joshua Howard]

Have you read that story on the internet? Somebody buys a McDonalds burger and just sits it on a shelf and it doesn't decompose. Has anyone here tried it? I haven't been to a McDonalds as a regular customer in 20 years. It all started when I tried to feed my dog a McDonald's hamburger. This dog would eat anything. She ate flashcubes once. She ate rotten meat. She would try to eat chocolate if she could get it. The dog was an unstoppable eating machine that would eat like a shark no matter what. I offered my dog a burger and she sniffed it and refused the burger. So I won't eat there. I've eaten their McNuggets a few times in 20 years, but I don't eat anything else there.

Two things: #1, A saltine cracker won't ever mold for the same reason that the burger won't rot. #2, if your dog refuses to eat hamburgers, it is your dog's problem and not the burger's. When I had a dog, there was nothing that he loved more than a hamburger.

 

[Roger Wilco]

I'm not sure what that's supposed to prove. Did the author expect the burger to turn into compost in six months or what? The only thing that surprises me is that there's no visible mold anywhere.

 

[Teelie]

It's already been pointed out that the processing of the burger would prevent mold or bacterial decay. When you take meat and cook it and salt it (or any organic matter really) you remove a lot of what would allow decomposition.

 

[Roger Wilco]

But what about the bun? Bread frequently gets moldy in my home if I forget to eat it (or just ignore it after it got hard and I bought fresh bread ).

 

[Teelie]

The bun would probably mold, but then some breads are more resistent to molding as well. I've had fresh bread that started to mold in just over a day or two and I've had bread that took weeks to mold.

I've never intentionally tried to mold bread before so I can't give you exact numbers. Moisture, salt content (among others), exposure to light, temperature and other factors can really make a difference in how slow or fast bread or anything else goes bad.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Yeah, I'm not saying there's necessarily anything strange with this McDonald's bun either, it was just a bit surprising to me.