Happy Meal -- 3 weeks old. Don't believe everything to see or read on the internet.

[Emillereid]

<a href="" target="_blank"><img src="" border="0" alt="The True Saga of a McDonald's Cheeseburger"></a>

<a href="" target="_blank"><img src="" border="0" alt="Happy meal not so happy anymore."></a>

<a href="" target="_blank"><img src="" border="0" alt="Tasty cheeseburger -- NOT"></a>

[Emillereid]

1. How do I get these photos to show up in the post?

[Robb]

2. Copy the "Direct link" code from Photobucket

...just paste that in. :hi:

[Starry Messenger]

4. Under "share this image" on the left of the page

there will be a slot that is labeled "direct link". Copy that code and paste it into your post. The images will appear.

[City Lights]

3. Use the direct link...

[Emillereid]

5. What does the illegal code message mean?

[walldude]

6. Who gives a fuck?

McDonalds tastes like shit. You want to eat it eat it. You don't don't.

[Obamanaut]

9. Regarding the taste, I'll defer to your expertise rather than do my

own comparison taste test.

[Odin2005]

7. The scare-mongers FOILED again!

[SoCalDem]

8. the whole happy-meal flap is silly, really

if a mom is determined to get the kid a happy meal toy, she'll buy the damned "healthy " one and order a small fry..

and Mc D will just advertise two separate happy meals..at two prices..w/toy will be the same ole price...with fries will be priced a little more...people will pay a bit extra to get that stupid toy..

Lots of people buy the happy meals to GET the toys....people without kids:)...collectors:)

[cherokeeprogressive]

10. Anyone with half a brain knows it will grow mold. MY question is, and it's an important one...

what kind of toy came with the meal?

[A HERETIC I AM]

16. LOL....

Hopefully it was the "McPenicillin test kit"

[blondeatlast]

11. I missed this; what's it about? TIA for any responses.

I mean, food will grow mold--I just cleaned out my fridge, this I know! :shrug:

[enlightenment]

12. A month or so ago there was some

expose - a photographer presumably photographed a Happy Meal for a ridiculous period of time - six months or something - and claimed it didn't change much at all.

A lot of people (me included) figured that she had manipulated her 'experiment' for art's sake.

This photo experiment would be the rebuttal, I believe.

[Emillereid]

13. People have made claims all over the internet and youtube

purporting to show that a happy meal does not go bad after months or, in the case of one claim, even after 5 years. My husband just wanted to see for himself if it was true.

[Lucian]

14. Yeah, it's only the bun that grew mold.

Look in the middle. The burger and cheese are still intact.

FAIL.

[Hannah Bell]

18. proteins typically rot rather than mold. fail yourself.

[Lucian]

20. Nothing rotten there after three weeks.

You're still a fail.

[onenote]

21. you can tell that from the photo?

[Lucian]

22. Can you?

[onenote]

25. I can tell that I wouldn't want to eat it, even without the bun.

And I do occasionally eat McD's burgers.

I don't have kids, so its easy for me to say that I wouldn't buy them for my kids.

I think nutritional information should be provided with them and I like the idea of limiting the 'toy giveaway' unless the meals meet a particular nutritional standard. But I am not prepared to label any parent that purchases their child a happy meal a "child abuser" since such false equivalency minimizes the horrors of true child abuse.

[Hannah Bell]

27. um, being as the cheese & beef have melded, it's a good bet that there is rot present.

but believe whatever fairy tales you like. i've seen the same experiment in the laboratory of my brother's van: fast food left in moist conditions rots.

[Lucian]

28. "Moist conditions" are the key words there.

;)

Thanks for playing.

[Hannah Bell]

29. yes, because no food rots or molds in dry conditions. you seem not to understand

basic principles.

not only that, you're arrogant in your non-understanding.

[Emillereid]

37. In real life, the burger and the cheese were 'too disgusting'

to examine more closely.

[KansDem]

15. What bothers me is the amount of corporate welfare to produce a McD hamburger

Subsidies to the beef industry;
Subsidies to the corn industry (feed for cattle);
Subsidies to the petroleum industry (fertilizer for corn);
Subsidies to market McD's around the world...

If we got rid of all this corporate welfare, the McD's hamburger would be too costly to buy!

And why are we giving welfare to corporations?

Perhaps the Teapublicans, in their quest to lessen government, will do away with all corporate welfare and the McD's hamburger will die a slow, moldy death...

[Ikonoklast]

17. Every bit of food you eat has at least a partial government subsidy behind it.

It is one of the principal tenets of the government of this country that food should be plentiful and low-cost, and therefore does what it sees fit to accomplish that goal as it is in the best interests of its citizens.


The principal benefactors of this policy is...us.

[KansDem]

19. Food is one thing; McD's is another

I have no problem with subsidies for organic food production. The health of Americans is a national-security issue. But no money for crappy "food" high in fat, calories, high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, artificial colors and flavorings, and preservatives.

If you want to push this shit onto the American consumer, then do it without taxpayers' money. Be a real Capitalist!

[Ikonoklast]

23. McDonalds receives *zero* direct food subsidies from the government,

And, as far as I know, not once have they ever forced anyone to purchase their products.


McDonald's is no more guilty of accepting government money than your local grocery store.

[KansDem]

26. They don't need to "force" anyone to purchase their products...

The fact remains if we all paid the real cost of hamburger, we wouldn't be able to afford them. Then McD's would go under taking all of its officers and investors with it.

McDonalds receives *zero* direct food subsidies from the government--Consider:
Subsidies for beef production
Subsidies for corn production (feed for cattle)
Subsidies for petroleum production (fertilizer for corn)
And, ta-da!, subsidies to advertise:
Ad hawk; how Paul Newman and McDonald's get the U.S. government to push their products abroad

[Ikonoklast]

31. Ok. Lets do away with ALL subsidies.

The Dept. of Agriculture will no longer help U.S. farmers market their products overseas, one of the biggest sources of export revenue this country has.

No commodity price base flooring, let the 'free market' decide if a farmer, after having spent a couple of hundred thousand dollars on input costs, will recoup dime one of that investment, let alone a *gasp* profit after busting his butt since the snow melted.

Oh, and forget food stamps. Those are DIRECT subsidies to citizens run by Agriculture.

You realize that every.single.citizen in this country benefits from farm subsidies, not just corporations, by maintaining a stable market with a floor for commodity prices?


I get it, you hate McDonald's, but the rest of what you want to happen, is utter and complete nonsense.


And every single 'subsidy' you state that McD's gets, so does EVERY OTHER FOOD RETAILER AND RESTAURANT IN THIS COUNTRY.

[KansDem]

35. No, no need to get rid of "all subsidies"

Subsidies that benefit the common good should be permitted, even pursued. The article in my previous post includes both Newman's and McD's. I don't mind subsidies to Newman's because that corporation markets organic, healthy food and gives a percentage of its proceeds to charity.

McD's shoves crappy, shitty food on consumers. There's a difference.

As I said up-thread, health is (should be) a national security issue. That's why we need public-financed, single payer health care. But it's insane to subsidize producers of unhealthy food.

If you're endeavors help the American people, fine. But if you're in it for greed and "marketshare," then no subsidies...

[HopeHoops]

24. Wait. The LAST picture is the way it started out, right?

Feeding that shit to children is child abuse, no matter HOW it looks or HOW long it takes to decay. It is just plain child abuse.

[AnArmyVeteran]

33. LOL, I wonder which burger is better for you, the 'before' or 'after'?

[HopeHoops]

36. Sort of the difference between death and burial.

Neither.

[LostInAnomie]

30. I figured that was the case.

Some people are willing to believe anything if it fits into their worldview. Any doubters could simply go out spend about $4 and find out for themselves.

[AnArmyVeteran]

32. I made a time lapse film of a cup of coffee and it overflowed with mold...

As part of a film I created I made a time lapse of a cup of coffee over a week and it overflowed with mold. It started out a nice dark brown coffee color and turned into green and white molds. The mold grew to the top of the rim and over the sides of the cup. I didn't believe the year old happy meal story because anything made out of organic products will be taken over by molds that are flying through the air all around us.

I watched a great program years ago about molds and at the end of the film it said molds would someday eat the very film I just watched.

[sufrommich]

34. Here's another interesting experiment....

Turns out nobody thought to compare the McDonald's burger to a home made burger, results were the same for both:

http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/11/the-burger-lab-revisiting-the-myth-of-the-12-year-old-burger-testing-results.html?ref=carousel

[alarimer]

38. Whether something decays or develops mold depends on the moisture content of the air.

That is all. IF it is a damp environment, there will be mold spores, causing it to look moldy, likes these pictures. If it is dry, there will be no mold and it will dry out (desiccate) long before mold develops or decay occurs.

There is nothing inherently unusual about McDonalds hamburgers that is not in the hamburgers you cook for yourself. The meat may be a lower grade or have more or less fat it, but there is nothing unusual about it not decaying in a dry environment.
Whatever people were claiming (that McDonalds hamburgers don't rot) is utter shit. They do, in the right environment. Otherwise they will not, or at least not for a long time.

[Emillereid]

39. I started another experiment today and will follow the protocol

as closely as I can to one of them that claims no mold or rot after months. That protocol left the cheeseburger in the original wrapper and with a small order of fries -- and both inside the bag.

This time I will leave the burger in its wrapper and with the french fries -- maybe there is something in the fries that keeps it "fresh?"