I call BS on all "McDonalds burgers not decomposing" claims.

[Odin2005]

I was just reading a thread with a claim that a burger had no decomposition after 6 months. I also remember some time ago about a story about a un-decomposed 5yo cheeseburger. Christ, do people really fall for this obvious BS?

[HuckleB]

1. Perhaps it's time to do a DU experiment...

... something like Rebecca Watson's apple experiment.

It might be fun. Of course, one would have take things like humidity, temperature etc... into consideration. Also, it might be difficult for those who own animals to keep the food untouched. Still, perhaps this could be a winter DU science experiment!

[salvorhardin]

2. They really don't decompose much

From what I understand, as long as they're not kept in a humid or hot environment, they won't decompose that much. However, it's no special feat of Big Macs.

Ultimately, says O’Keefe, the McDonald’s haters have gotten their science wrong. "The ingredients are similar to anything you’d see in processed fast food," he says. For better or for worse, McDonald’s is no more a chemical laboratory of secret compounds designed to embalm us from the inside than any other processed food maker. A Happy Meal manages to stay unspoiled because it is fatty, salty and practically empty of nutrients -- which, really, are all good reasons to avoid it anyway.

From: http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2010/09/01/burger_that_wont_rot/index.html

In short, fast food burgers are lifeless, hygroscopic plains devoid of sustenance for bacteria or humans alike.

[Odin2005]

3. Ah, thanks!

Still doesn't make sense to me, even bacteria should make short work of any food, even processed food

[salvorhardin]

8. I agree. It's counter-intuitive.

On the other hand, look at honey. Almost totally pure sugar, it's nothing but nutrient. Yet because it's fructose sugar, which is highly hygroscopic, bacteria have a very hard time surviving in it. So we can keep honey unrefrigerated in nothing but a little plastic bear (what!? isn't that how honey is found in nature?) which isn't even especially air tight.

[Odin2005]

11. LOL, and I have just realized that my box of cane sugar cubes is almost a year old.

That reminds me of how they used to use honey as a disinfectant for wounds, pretty clever.

[salvorhardin]

15. True that with sugar cubes.

At one auto mechanic's waiting room where I used to take my car, at some point in the past, they must have purchased a pallet of those little sugar cubes for use in customers' and employees' coffee. Based on product packaging alone, I'm thinking it must have been some time in the 1970s. I'm betting 30 years later they're still using those same sugar cubes.

Using honey on wounds is a little bit different I think. IIRC, honey contains an enzyme that when exposed to body fluids and oxygen converts to hydrogen peroxide. The hygroscopic environment created by the honey does help prevent bacteria from thriving in the wound, but the hydrogen peroxide helps too. But I may well be wrong.

[PVnRT]

7. So...heavily salted foods preserve well in a cool, dry environment?

Didn't our species figure this out thousands of years ago?

[semillama]

9. As any archaeologist will tell you

the key to preservation of organic materials is a stable, dry climate. Doesn't necessarily have to be cool. Hot and dry works just fine. It seems to me from the photos of the happy meal that the burger was plain, so there was no vegetables or condiments with a high liquid content. Basically, the meal became mummified.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. I'm amazed the bun has not got mould growing on it

Normal bread gets that after a few days (and McDonald's bread is pretty spongey, so I'd think it starts off with a fairly high moisture content for bread). And I'm not convinced by the argument that high fat content prevents mould growing; I recently left a tub of spread (60% fat, the rest more or less all water) undisturbed in a fridge for about 2 months, and mould was growing on the surface by the end. That burger is in a living room, so it's open to the normal spores in the atmosphere, and it's not dry either.

Mind you, I do have a jar of peanut butter that I opened about 16 years ago, and have not touched since, and it's free of any visible spoilage. I'm not going to try tasting it, though.

[SheilaT]

4. I believe someone actually did the experiment.

Someone had a game going on with a colleague where they'd hide food in each other's offices, and the person had to locate the food by smell as it decomposed. Apparently one time one of them put a McDonald's burger in the other man's office, and several months later it still hadn't become smelly and findable.

[onager]

5. It's somewhat true of McD's French Fries.

Morgan Spurlock did that experiment in Super Size Me. After quite a long time (and after regular food looked REALLY raunchy), those damn fries still looked like they had just rolled out of the cooker. I don't remember if that was in the movie itself or in one of the DVD special features.

The fries sure weren't left out for 6 months or 5 years, though. Still, food for thought (lousy pun intended).

Usual Annoying Personal Anecdote: McDonald's is all over Egypt, but I never had much of an urge to eat there - even when I was really homesick for American food. Egyptian McDonald's deliver to the customer's door, on a fleet of motor scooters. So you can enjoy extra seasonings like Taxicab Exhaust and Diesel Smoke.

A major highlight of my life in Egypt was when Burger King finally opened in the mall food court - right smack beside McDonald's. (For those who have been to Alexandria, the mall was that whopper - heh - at San Stefano, under the Four Seasons hotel.)

[Odin2005]

12. Who would want to eat at McD when local food is SOOO much better?

[TZ]

6. also bear in mind "no decomposing" doesn't mean there's no bacterial growth

either. E.Coli flourishes just fine in living organisms like out digestive tract. LOL, I could rile the woos up and say, well if it really doesn't decompose than that means its about the safest thing you can eat...:evilgrin:

[Odin2005]

13. LOL!

[Warpy]

10. Here in the desert, it would dry out to that extent

and, while some decomposition would occur while it was drying and rendering it unsafe to rehydrate and eat, I can see a burger and bun retaining much of the same shape and color for months in this climate.

Bear in mind that New Mexico is really, really dry. Open bags of chips stay crisp. Cookies turn into hockey pucks if they're not in a sealed container. There is usually no condensation on the outside of a glass containing an iced drink.

We're talking mummification. Decomposition takes moisture, what we aint got.

[Odin2005]

14. The air was that dry here in Fargo last April, so I understand what you mean.

The temperature was 70 but the dew point was in the 20s, it was the driest April, and one of the warmest, I ever remember. Very pleasant, though, because I like low humidity.

[Orrex]

17. I absolutely call BS

I managed a Hardee's in the mid-1990s, and I can tell you for a rock-solid fact that the buns and burgers do in fact degrade significantly. If left in an area of average moisture (like anywhere in the restaurant not directly beneath a fan or a heating lamp) then the bun will be moldy within a few days, and will be dry and crusty in much less time than that. Certainly it won't be edible by that point.

Sure, you can set it up in such a way that a carefully-shot photograph will make the "months-old" burger look indistinguishable from a "fresh" one, but that's true only for the most rudimentary visual examination. Touching or (god forbid) tasting the aged burger will immediately show that the two are hardly indistinguishable.

[lazarus]

18. so I'm buying a fancy digital camera this weekend

I'll take the hit, go to McDonald's, and do the experiment myself. I'll post pics here every day, and we can see for ourselves.

Wait, I can't. I have 4 cats and a dog that would render any observations moot in a matter of seconds. Anybody critter-free who's will to do it?

Edited because articles are your friend.

[realisticphish]

19. To quote Bill Hicks

"Yeah. And. So. What?" (not to you, to the thread you mention)

It's organic food (in the true sense). It's not healthy, but neither is free-range beef served with sauteed home-grown onions, with a side of an organic baked potato filled with farm fresh butter and sour cream, and covered with hand-processed artisan cheddar cheese. Calories = calories, and I am freaking tired of hearing McDonalds, and fast food in general, treated like they are any less healthy than a high-quality equivalent. It's not about where you eat, it's about HOW you eat.

[TZ]

20. Yup.

Like the freaks who howl about HFCS but think regular sugar is okay. Or the supplement freaks who can't seem to understand the concept that its much healthier to get your vitamins and minerals from FOOD itself not from a costly pill....Same people who say doctors don't understand nutrition when they don't even grasp elementary school facts about it!

[HuckleB]

21. Steven Novella on The Burger “Experiments”

http://theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=2405#more-2405