Immortal McHorror burger is 12 years old, looks just like new

Karen Hanrahan has been using the same McDonald's hamburger as a prop in her "Healthy Choices for Children" class since 1996 -- 12 years! -- and it's hardly aged a day in all that time. McDonald's should add "immortality" to its list of Unique Selling Propositions for its burgers (unless Karen has an ornate oil painting of the burger in her living room in which it slowly ages, grows mouldy, and decomposes).

The burger on the right, off the paper is a 2008 burger. I had to buy it to get the groovy paper and bag. The meat is a tad darker, the bun a little less golden but in 12 years it will look exactly like that too. Do you find this horrifying? McDonalds fills an empty space in your belly. It does nothing to nourish the cell, it is not a nutritious food. It is not a treat. I marvel at how McDonalds has infiltrated our entire world. A hamburger here tastes exactly the same in China or some around the world place.

1996 McDonalds Hamburger

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Karen Hanrahan

I wrote a FAQ for some of the questions folks have been asking:

http://bestwellnessconsultant.com/2008/09/28/The-1996-mcdonalds-hamburger-karen-hanrahan-best-wellness-consultant.aspx

fabulous conversation going on here…
Jerril

#50, Thank you for your trolling, come again!

They’re not defending McDs, they’re collectively clutching their heads and saying “Ow, my science! You hurt me in my science!”
Hartscov

Too bad that they’re so delicious, especially the pickle bite!
Takuan

mmm! thank’s Karen!
http://bestwellnessconsultant.com/categories/recipes%20from%20the%20heart.aspx
bolamig

While I don’t want to defend McDonalds, this story looks pretty sketchy. The youtube video in #18 proves that McD burgers do decompose when left in a jar. I’m sure there are other ways of storing it that wouldn’t lead to decomposition, like freeze drying.

And McD burgers do taste different in different places around the world. I remember eating at a McD in Thailand and no question the burgers tasted different.
Takuan

just being alive
It can really hurt
And these moments given
Are a gift from time
Just let us try
To give these moments back
To those we love
To those who will survive
linenoise

#42:I regret not only thay the teacher disseminated prejudiced and inaccurate information, but that Cory passed it along uncritically.

Yeah, I agree 100%. I’m no fan of McDonalds, but such laughably bad reasoning is only ammo for the other side. This is pretty bad “journalism” by a pretty bad “educator.” Especially as the woman posting this has no formal degree or training other than her own experience. Add to that the fact that she has no idea what the word “nutrition” means, and this becomes a glaring example of absurd and easily dismissed criticism, of something that absolutely deserves criticism of the well thought out variety. This is such an awful post. How this made boingboing is beyond me.
Anonymous

Actually a McDonald’s burger DOESN’T taste exactly the same in other countries. I’ve personally eaten in Europe and Asia and found them to have a different flavor.
Axx

Oh wow. I was guessing the one on the right was the 12 year old one…
franko

say what you want about their burgers, but i LOVE their filet-o-fish sandwiches and their fries!

seriously, though, this sounds like fear mongering. #7 says it all, in my opinion.
Rathia

Would you kindly refrain from the personal attacks for a minute and address the issues raised, namely that Karen Hanrahan’s science is crap, and her scareburger means nothing in the absence of any kind of analysis?

Frankly, it wouldn’t matter if a commenter IS a shill (and fortunately my posting history clears me of that ridiculous accusation), if what they’re saying is, in fact, *accurate*.
Gaudeamus

I don’t even eat McDonald’s (not because I’m a snob- it upsets my stomach) but I figure that if the food isn’t holed up somewhere with a pile of moisture it might end up kind of like this. Who’s to know how crunchy that bun is? I can’t speak to the nutritive value of fast food but I can certainly say that I am not even a little bit surprised that something which spends a good deal of its early life under a heat lamp would weather so well. Look at those ladies who tan until they look like show leather. They never get moldy either. Might get crunchy though.
Karen Hanrahan

I appreciate your sharing this here Cory!
Gaudeamus

That’d be shoe leather.
Cicada

If longevity is a problem in a food, best avoid honey. I believe some 3000 year old samples of that from an Egyptian tomb were still in fairly good shape.
In any case, the McBurger provides a fair amount of protein and carbohydrate, both useful to the cell. The human body is not some delicate temple subject to defilement so easily, it’s an engine designed to find use in whatever gunk you might hunt or gather.
Antinous

Why are you so incredibly pissed off about this rather insignificant issue?
Jaan

#35… “Mead is an alcoholic drink made from fermented honey and water.”

Yeah, honey AND water. The low amount of water in honey is the reason it lasts so long. Just because it’s not a solid doesn’t mean it has a lot of water in it.
Sister Y

I kinda want #83 as a t-shirt.
Ryan Waddell

#49:

Hmmmm, well I just had to throw out almost half a loaf of bread (kept in a bag in a cupboard)due to it looking like Bagpuss but blue rather than pink :)

Don’t think ‘leaving it on a counter’ will make it just go stale…

This generally happens with bread that is moist, and when it’s sealed in a plastic bag the bread can’t dry out, as any evaporation is trapped inside the bag. Try leaving a couple of slices out on the counter, in the open air where they can dry out. My stepfather does this all the time to create breadcrumbs to feed to the birds in his backyard. It *never* goes moldy.

Also, I love that Karen came here to praise Cory for posting this here, yet fails to acknowledge any of the negative comments criticizing her.
FourFiveFire

Good god, I need a burger now.
Itsumishi

@15 RWGORDON –

Ever read Morgan Spurlock’s book “Don’t Eat This Book?”

There are letters from a guy that’s collected Cheeseburgers from McDonald’s and left them sitting on his heater in his lounge room. It’s just words so no one can be sure of it’s authenticity but apparently they all look pretty much the same. One a year for about 7 years if my memory is correct.

I’d say why Spurlocks experiment on the video doesn’t have the same effect is because of the jars. The moisture builds up (you can see it all over the jars) that’s what’s causing the mold.
Ryan Waddell

…Quite a few shills for McD from the looks of things. I wonder how much they’re getting paid for each post, or is it just part of their job?

Oh lord. Did you even LOOK at the posting history of these so called shills? You know that BB has that feature, right? You think that people are signing up months and years in advance, to act as sleeper agents in case somebody posts something against McDonald’s here?
- Antinous
  
  Did you even LOOK at the posting history of these so called shills?
  
  I do. And some of the most ‘eloquent’ defenders of McDonalds are first-time commenters. Companies like McDonalds really do pay people to look for stories and astroturf them.
Antinous

Someone is wrong on the internet!!!!!!!!!!!
Jake0748

Sister Y @84 – Me too, let’s make one.

Antinous, I’ve been wanting to ask this for a while now, of both you and Takuan. Do you guys ever get to comment just to comment? Or does being moderators constrain you or take up too much time for you to have any fun any more?

Seriously, just asking. Mods around here do a bang-up job AFAIC. Just wondering how “y’all” are holding up under the stress.
- Antinous
  
  Just wondering how “y’all” are holding up under the stress.
  
  I’ll be happy to be on the other side of the upcoming election.
Jaan

This just shows how out of touch most people are with food, where it comes from, and how it’s prepared…

Honey doesn’t go bad. Ever. There have been jars of honey found in Egyptian tombs that are thousands of years old and still safe to eat. Just because it doesn’t go bad doesn’t make it automatically evil.

Last Monday I had a god day at the casino and treated myself to a Rib Eye steak aged 15 days. It was the best steak I ever had. I tell people the meat was aged 15 days and they freak out. They don’t have a clue. They can’t believe it cost $58, they would have thrown it away.

This is just scare tactics, plain and simple. Next up, Blue Cheese!
Takuan

me too! And may I say how happy I am to see you, Sister mine.

McDonalds is evil. They target children, They sell unhealthy, addictive, expensive slop disguised as food. They destroy the Earth with pollution and misplaced resources. They defile cuisine. They encourage sloth of mind, heart, spirit and body. They purvey disease. They tart up their overall detriment with token charity. Death to the Empire of the Evil Clown!
Jake0748

“I’ll be happy to be on the other side of the upcoming election.”

Me too, my brother.
CommieNeko

People have been making air/salt cured meats for, oh, thousands of years. It’s not exactly news or even interesting that you can do the same with a burger. You could probably even eat it with little ill effect, though I wouldn’t recommend it. Frankly I’d be more worried about germs from being handled by teachers and students all these years.

I’ve never understood the problem people have with McDonalds food. I eat there once or twice a month if I’m in a hurry. It ain’t great, but if the place is clean and well run (some are) it’s a cheap, quick, non-horrible meal. It’s no less or more nutritious than you should expect a hamburger, fried potatoes and sugar water to be.

I’ve no problem with a teacher teaching about nutrition, but this seems like a red herring…
jonnybeer

Well done sir! Facts aside, I appreciate a Dorian Gray reference with a side of fries.
Takuan

stress`chaser! (listen to the lyrics properly)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe5p1BXNCQM
bcsizemo

I can’t believe she thinks McD’s taste the same all around the world…?

Do we have the Mc Lobster sandwich? No.
Does Japan/China? Yes. (We it might have been a promotional thing several years ago, but I have a picture of the sign).

At the same time found companies try and adapt their food somewhat to the local diet. There are more fish/seafood options in Asia than here. Do you really think a McD’s in India serves hamburgers? (Or at least ones that are from cows???)

If you know anyone in China get them to send you a package of Oreo’s. No, they aren’t double stuffed, and they certainly aren’t like any Oreo you’ve eaten state side.
anthropomorphictoast

Does this mean if I eat enough of these I’ll gain immortality by proxy?
tikal2k

Twelve pence to a shilling, and twenty shillings to a pound.
Kyle Armbruster

I am a teacher, largely because I hate teachers so much. Here’s why.

STOP LYING TO CHILDREN, YOU EVIL BITCH.

There, that probably solved the problem.
Erica Asahan

Erica Asahan wrote:

Yummy! Can I get fries and strawberry milk shake with that?
PaidMcDonaldsShill

#78 (et al.)

Yeah, I mean, crazy. Here we are in a thread *filled* with commenting mercenaries paid by McDonalds, whose most spirited defenses are things like “yes McDonalds burgers are disgusting and horrible for you BUT…well, they are broken down by the body and can nurture cells, technically speaking, so the post is perhaps lacking a bit in scientific merit and its author in scientific integrity. And really, isn’t “rottability” a poor or at least unproven metric for nutritional value?”

(more colorful, erm, and eloquent language being employed on occasion, of course). I almost hope you’re right; if these are the nicest things paid shills can say about McDonalds, it’s hilarious that they’re making money for it.
E0157H7

At the beginning of high school, I put several McDonald’s sandwiches as well as an order of fries into masonry jars for my science teacher. When I left, she still had them, and they hadn’t really decomposed, just sort of… lost their composure, as if nothing was really growing in them but their structural integrity had started to go. The fries simply dessicated. I’m tempted to go back and see if they’re still there from time to time.
OneAmp

“It does nothing to nourish the cell, it is not a nutritious food. It is not a treat.”

This woman is a teacher!? I hope not of science…

And by the way, I consider it a great treat! That’s just the point. It’s a treat, not something I enjoy every day.
Falcon_Seven

Mmmm…Imortality burger, aggggggghhhh.
Daemon

The “Ebi Fillet-o” in Japan seriously wierded me out…

Oh, interesting thing. A few people in my circle have noticed an odd thing about McD’s food. Even if you like their food, if you go a few months without eating any for some reason, and then start again, you may find yourself feeling mildly ill. We don’t know why, and it doesn’t seem to be universal.
wonderfulwishes

THis put me off my dinner!
Pam Rosengren

“Honey doesn’t go bad. Ever”. Jaan, #28

Mead is an alcoholic drink made from fermented honey and water.

Fermentation is “the chemical breakdown of a substance by bacteria, yeasts, or other microorganisms”.

You don’t need to do anything special to make mead, just leave honey to store for a while. I have done it. There is some mythology out there that bacteria never grow in honey, but that is not true. Aerobes don’t thrive in it, but anaerobic bacteria do well in honey – and can be dangerous.

So yes, honey does go bad.

Normally, meat would go bad and so would bread. This burger is pretty amazing, and doesn’t improve my estimate of McDonalds. It suggests to me that either there isn’t anything nutritious for the bugs to live on, or the preservatives are too scary, or a combination of the two.
Trvth

Incredible – I’ve heard about hot dog weenies being found in landfills after being buried for 50 years, still in good condition. What the heck are they putting in our food? Meat should look like roadkill after being left out for a few weeks – but 12 years!? Will some scientist please let us know how a burger can still look like a burger after so long.
Zergonapal

I stopped eating KFC and started going to Subway instead, one day I felt like some chicken and I got a combo, I had the runs for two days straight.
Narual

I know it’s popular and fun to bash on mcdonald’s food, but claiming that their hamburgers do nothing to nourish cells is a bit silly. It’s not a fresh green salad, but it does have nutritional values.

250 calories (12.5% DRV)
13% daily fat
16% daily saturated fat
9% daily cholestorol
22% daily sodium
10% daily carbs
6% daily fiber
24% protein
2% vitamin C
10% calcium
15% iron

But feel free to bash the french fries. More fiber and carbs, but not much else of value for the calorie count.
Doctor What

Why aren’t people asking the obvious question? Why the hell has that lady kept a burger for 12 years?!
Sirmittenz

well, i think it has more to do with it being cooked, i’m sure a raw McMeatPuck would rot just like any other meat
jimkirk

“I’m lovin’ it!”

(TM McDonald’s Corporation)
Bob Doles Communist Doppelganger

#63

…Quite a few shills for McD from the looks of things. I wonder how much they’re getting paid for each post, or is it just part of their job?

Ok, this is silly. The people who are complaining here are annoyed with the nonsensicality of the argument. For the record, I don’t generally eat at McDonald’s because their food is cheap junk, poorly prepared and served, and it tastes like meat-infused wet cardboard. Besides, as corporations go, they’re pretty scummy.

That said, going around to schools and implying to children that a certain brand of food is bad for you because it doesn’t rot once it’s dehydrated, or that it doesn’t nourish your cells, is ridiculous. Might as well tell them that they shouldn’t eat there because it makes the baby jesus cry, or because top homeopaths and phrenologists have concluded that it’s harmful to the aura.

Bad science serves no one. Doing the wrong thing in the service of a worthy cause just cheapens the cause.
Godzilla

While McDonalds food is terrible and not nutritious. You seem to be forgetting, that it tastes decent and you can buy double cheeseburgers for a dollar. Hello College students.
Joedokes

This type of stuff makes me hate my own profession. It is self righteous wacko teachers like this that make me hate how we teach our children.

Do I believe that McDonalds is the greatest most healthy food ever created. No and I certainly think we should educate our students well enough to make informed decisions about what to eat. But to ASSUME the mere APPEARANCE of a lack of spoilage somehow shows that the food is of poor quality is a a non-sequitur. Dried beef jerky from the civil war still looks good. This burger has simply become beef jerky. Her utter lack of understanding of how food behaves after cooking and drying shows her true ignorance and stupidity.

The preservation of the burger probably says more about the humidity in her classroom than anything else.

The reality is McDonalds has tight quality control that thoroughly cooks the meat. This effectively kills all the bacteria, no bacteria, no decay. It really is that simple. Further, the burger was completely plain. Including no cheese. Thus, no moisture, much harder for bacteria and other organisms to get a toe hold.

Regards

Joe Dokes
- Antinous
  
  Hmm. Looks like grass. Smells like plastic.
minamisan

I was actually eating a Big Mac when i read this; gods know why i clicked the link.

But isn’t even the most basic McDonald’s burger served with chopped onions and some kind of sauce/ketchup? These pics show just a pair of buns (heh) and a delicious-looking meat pattie. Someone has removed all the condiments.

Also, I want to know how that 90s burger tastes. No way I could keep it around for so long and talk about how it hasn’t aged without taking an experimental nibble.
soupisgoodfood

Like the other guy said — I don’t see what the big deal is here. People seem to think that this is proof that McDonald’s must use too much dangerous chemicals and preservatives. People have been preserving meat for 1000′s of years with no refrigeration or any chemicals other than salt, and sometimes you don’t even need that.

Well, I’m off to get some McDonald’s because I can’t be bothered with anything else tonight. At least they have high hygiene standards compared to other takeaways. Obviously, you can’t live off the stuff, I’ll give you that.
Anonymous

I think the saved burgers in the other video was because of moisture in the jars, they were probably still warm or hot when he put them in the jars which produced steam & moisture and that’s what made them break down like that, and those fries were the scariest looking ones because they DIDN’T break down! Interesting video though. :)
Falcon_Seven

@2 “Meat should look like roadkill after being left out for a few weeks”
Try a few days -at most. Under the right conditions -meaning the absence of bacteria, molds, and fungii- if an item were to become dessicated (essentially mummified) it could last for thousands of years.
Mmmm…Mummyburger, aggggggghhhh.
dbarak

I worked with someone who kept an Eternity Twinkie in her cubicle. Several years old from what I remember.
jaysonlorenzen

Love the Dorian Grey reference in your post for this true horror story.
Falcon_Seven

Oh! I forgot to add…I find it fascinating that both burgers -as well as the wrapping for the one on the left- cling so well to the wood paneling that serves as a backdrop for the photo.
Mmmm…clinging mummified immortality burger, aggggggghhhh.
furthur

Dried meat is quite clearly going to last and last. The bread is the scary part – packed full of preservatives.

We now take much longer to decompose when dead and buried because of all the preservatives in the diet.

It’s up to you, eat what you want to, but don’t get upset when someone doesn’t eat what you eat.
Rathia

I’m sorry – mostly for her students – but this woman is an idiot. “Does nothing to nourish the cell”? What a vague, meaningless statement. I shudder to think that this person believes she’s qualified to teach anyone anything.

She makes zero attempt to investigate and address possible causes of the phenomenon. She appears to have zero understanding of nutrition science, or indeed science *period*, if she’s this willing to base claims on a single sample. Assuming the whole thing isn’t a fake (and that’s a big assumption, considering the level of her information), she actually seems to believe that one dried-out burger proves a goddamn thing.

Her vacuous statements have already been thoroughly raked over the coals in the comments on the linked site, which should have prevented this bit of ignorance-promoting woo from spreading any further.

If I were a parent being pandered to by this self-righteous ‘Wellness Consultant’ (a title requiring no education or government-regulated certification), I’d probably take my kids out to McDonald’s afterwards in pure spite. And while we were there, I’d explain to them how nutrition works; why fast food becomes a problem when it crowds out other, more micronutrient-rich foods as a main source of dietary energy; and how to use critical thinking to identify the rampant ignorance and logical fallacies in crap like this woman is spewing.
kappuru

My problem, here, is the pandering scare tactics used to decry McDonald’s with little to no scientific or educational value.

We abhor the tactics when it’s used by the government, the same should apply here. It’s even more annoying that she responds to every positive, cheerleading comment, while simply ignoring all the ones that bring up valid criticism.
pooklord

The reason Twinkies look fine after long periods of exposure is because they are made mostly of SUGAR.
Sugar does not go bad, it does not rot. There does not have be anything scary in a twinkie to make it last a long time.

#7 Joe Dokes

You said it best–the woman seems to lack a basic understanding of what makes food look bad after time.
Rathia

Keep punching that strawman #50, you’ll beat it eventually!
charlesplatt

“Not a nutritious food.”

Nonsense; a hamburger on a bun is a good, cheap protein/carbohydrate combination.

“Doesn’t nourish the cell.”

More nonsense.

Personally I avoid McD because of the fat content, but that’s a separate issue.

I regret not only thay the teacher disseminated prejudiced and inaccurate information, but that Cory passed it along uncritically.
ivan256

#35:

You can’t have mead without adding water to the honey, or leaving it open in an very humid environment.

The concentration of sugars in honey is so high that it is hygroscopic. This alone is sufficient to kill most microorganisms that would try to live in the honey, even before you take into account the enzymes…

In a dry environment, such as a tomb in the desert, honey could last almost forever as long as it doesn’t crystallize.

This is also why Twinkies last forever, except they use highly concentrated corn syrup instead of honey to the same effect.
jackie31337

What really set off the kooky exaggeration alarm for me was this phrase: “It’s cloned.” If it were Wikipedia, I’d be busting out the citation needed tag about now.

Also, I don’t think this is a regular school teacher who happens to include nutrition in the curriculum. I got the impression that she gives courses specifically about what she considers healthy eating. She describes herself as “Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant”.
OM

“The reality is McDonalds has tight quality control that thoroughly cooks the meat. This effectively kills all the bacteria, no bacteria, no decay. It really is that simple. Further, the burger was completely plain. Including no cheese. Thus, no moisture, much harder for bacteria and other organisms to get a toe hold. “

…Two points:

1) I didn’t know a fry cook for McDonald’s could be so literate :-P

2) “Soylent Brown is made out of Earthworms!”
c0nsumer

I have something called the Doughnet Adapter, which is a 8 year old (or so) doughnut hole with a loopback adapter shoved into it, and an N drawn on in Sharpie. It still looks and somewhat tastes like new, albeit with a slightly rancid taste.
Bugs

Bullshit. It’s not exactly a health food, but “doesn’t nourish the cell”?. The bread, meat and fats will be digested just the same as anything else you eat and provide nutrition. Arguably imbalanced nutrition, but nutrition nontheless.

Oh, and “dried out food doesn’t spoil!” is hardly a shock either. Beef jerky, chorizo, salami and other cured meats rely on the drying process to preserve them. And anyone who’s ever made salt dough will know that it’s easy to make bread that will look the same for years if kept dryish.

I’m disgusted that she’s allowed to go around schools fearmongering and pedalling such blatant pseudoscience. I agree that everyone should eat much less fast food, but lying to kids isn’t the way to do it.

Finally: I’ve eaten a McDonalds burger in Beijing (I know, but it was 2am, I was exhausted and it was the only place I saw open between the airport and hotel). Despite what she says, it did taste distinctly different from the ones sold in the UK. I’ve been told that the French burgers are different again.
FoetusNail

As far as the deep cover Micky D astroturfers go, you’re not fooling me any more. bOING bOING was originally created by a secret need to know only department of the NSA to draw me out into the open. You can all deny it as much as you want, but I have reliable information indicating everyone who comments here is a civilian employee, paid by the word. I would have said something sooner, but I’m lonely and the cabin is getting cold. Please let me know if you’re coming over, so I can bath and shave, Ted was such an embarrassment.
Antinous

No one is defending McDonalds, just decrying bad science.

Never heard of a concern troll?
TEKNA2007

I Can Has Kardbord?
kingjoevii

amen Joe Dokes…

This post reeks more of anti-corporatism than genuine nutrition.

I think there are lots of people around the world who aren’t so lucky to have access to cheap and relatively nutritious food.(McD burgers contain much of the necessary nutrients we need every day, believe it or not)
Chevan

Wait, dry, cooked meat, kept away from the greater environment, doesn’t spoil?

NO FUCKING WAY. Why didn’t anyone ever think of drying people out so they don’t decompose either?

Oh, wait…
hemidemisemiquaver

@PAM ROSENGREN:

Despite the existence of mead, honey does *not* go bad. As others have pointed out, perfectly preserved honey has been found in ancient burial sites, and the honey in your cabinet would be just fine in 3,000 years, if a little crystalized. It’s not because it’s magic: honey is just fructose, which microorganisms can certainly eat with no problem. The reason is that honey has a water activity lower than the value required to support life; neither aerobic nor anaerobic bacteria can survive inside it, and any cells that land on the honey’s surface are destroyed immediately by dessication, the water is literally sucked out of them. The only living things you’ll find in honey are botulism spores, which don’t spoil the honey because they don’t reproduce or eat it, they just sit there in a dormant state until the environment becomes less hostile to them (because of this, NEVER feed an infant honey!)

To make mead, first you dilute the honey with water, which turns it back into an edible medium for yeast, at which point it’s fermentable.
hemidemisemiquaver

By the way, for all you people freaking out about how she’s lying to children, read the post more carefully.

I teach a workshop titled Healthy Choices for Children. It’s a class for parents seeking solutions to how to improve the way they eat

Not that I agree with what she says, but lying to some hippie parents that already signed up for her class isn’t nearly as bad as lying to children in school.
rwgordon

I had to sign up just so I could post on this RIDICULOUS story. First off, I don’t believe anything she says – even handling the burger for this long would leave enough germs to destroy it.

Secondly, anyone who saw the extra features for SuperSize Me knows that these burgers won’t last for that long. Even the fries, which lasted the longest and suffered the least decomposition still looked different and were marked with germ spots.

The link to the featurette is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on6BSfHlK_w

After only three weeks the burgers are approaching unrecognizable.
Rider

Any food will look like that if you let it dry out before it grows mold.
enigmagic

Yeah, this seems like a bit of sophistry to be honest. Dried meat is preserved, big deal.
Rider

Seriously take a piece of any bread out it’s bag and leave it counter to go stale, it will get hard but stay that way with out growing mold forever. Without moister no food will spoil.
Ryan Waddell

Karen, your faq conveniently fails to address the most common criticisms of your mummy burger. The fact that it’s obviously just dried out, a la beef jerky, the fact that you say “it does not nourish the cell” when it does.
ion_stasi

Concerning McDonald’s tasting the same throughout the world, I doubt this to be true – at least not for the meat. This makes sense since different countries will have different standards for food quality.

I’ve heard that Canadian McDonalds hamburgers taste better than in the US (I wouldn’t know, I’ve never had a McDonald’s burger). Has anyone noticed this?

Canadian beef quality facts:
http://www.mcdonalds.ca/en/food/index.aspx

Hard to compare with the “info” on the US version:
http://cep.mcdonalds.com/qualityfood/insideourkitchens.jsp?crewcam=bigmac
t3knomanser

McDonalds is certainly evil. I mean, they sell mediocre food at a reasonable price. THE HORROR!

I never really understood all the McDonalds hate. You don’t like it, don’t eat there. I don’t (generally). It’s awful. But some people paint it as this evil food vendor that’s pushing poisons on the public. Hysteria over nothing.

Nobody in their right mind imagines that burgers and fries are good for you. Even McDonalds, in a response to market pressure, has altered their menu to offer more healthy choices (a while back there were a pile of news stories about some woman who re-did Supersize Me but ate a balanced menu from McDonalds, instead of the worst thing she could find- she lost a bunch of weight doing it).
Secret_Life_of_Plants

I have read that after an ET UFO has mutilated a cow and returned its body to the pasture from whence it was abducted (after having removed the anus and eye etc. with “surgical precision at a molecular level”) no natural predator or scavenger will touch the carcass.

Maybe this is why no mold or fungi grows on the McDo’s patty?

Viva JosÃ© BovÃ©!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRA3LThzwps

Now that’s what I call “Deconstruction”!
anthropomorphictoast

“(unless Karen has an ornate oil painting of the burger in her living room in which it slowly ages, grows mouldy, and decomposes).”

Holy crap, painting found! :O

http://blackdahlia.deviantart.com/art/McDorian-Gray-99577140
Geoff Sebesta

Wow, what a controversy!

I think that McDonald’s is peddling beef-jerky-like chum and toast is what’s bothering the teacher. She’s not wrong, either. It probably wouldn’t kill McD’s to make a better burger.
alowishus

Ooooh, slather some Special Sauce Â® on that mother! I’d hit it.
Rathia

Is there really any point to saying that this is insignificant, other than to take a dig at me? Of course it’s insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Who cares what someone on the internet thinks? Not me, usually, which is why I rarely post. Nevertheless, we all have our hot button issues about which we just can’t keep quiet. Bad science being used to promote an agenda is mine. Since you and others are still responding to this thread as well, clearly I’m not the only one who feels there’s something worth talking about here.

Antinous, I’m pissed off because a lot of well-meaning people are willing to give silly pseudoscience a pass as long as they agree with the ultimate premise (e.g. fast food is bad). If I said you shouldn’t eat at McDonald’s because you’ll become possessed by demons, I’d hope that everyone, regardless of their feelings about McD’s, would correctly point out that I’m a kook spouting nonsense.

Everything Takuan says about McDonald’s is more or less true. I’m firmly in the anti-McD’s camp, believe it or not (though evidently that means I’m just a concern troll rather than a shill, so there’s not much point to saying it). There’s plenty of GOOD nutritional and economic evidence to support objection to the corporation. This silly burger anecdote is not good evidence. By presenting and defending such bad evidence, you alienate your allies and undermine your own cause.
zydeco100

Did everyone actually miss the bottom of the page where she shows the Tupperware container that held the burger? It’s basically mummified.
paulimb

2 things?

1) No one is defending McDonalds, just decrying bad science. I was reading this at the lab today, and my coworkers were reading it over my shoulder, and we all read the phrase “Does not nourish the cell” and we all laughed. In fact, we all started joking about how we should grind up a happy meal, add 1x PBS, and make a new medium for growing blood cells. We would call it “McD complete media”. (sorry, immunology/cell bio joke) I hardly think that comments that state that hamburgers from McDonalds contain biologically assimilable nutrients but taste like ass are the comments of shills.

2) This woman has a neat pic, but is perpetuating stupid myths about what makes food good or bad. Let’s face it, food is fuel. It makes you go. You need a lot of different ingredients to make you go. A Mickey D’s burger contains a lot of them, but not all, and a couple in excess in a bad way.

To be honest, I feel like there is this movement to promote a holistic view of nutrition, rather than a scientific view – all to charge a premium for free range, “organic”, or other similar labels of dubious value or characterization.

In the end, this woman is just trying to mess with people so she can sell her worthless services, which really sucks. I aint no mcd promoter, but I dont believe in using non-science to scare people into buying expensive food, or lame books about expensive food.
Secret_Life_of_Plants

@14 kingjoevii

The reason that “lots of people around the world [ ] aren’t so lucky to have access to cheap and relatively nutritious food” is because 33% of the arable land on the planet is used to grow grains to feed to cows to produce beef mostly for Americans.

If that land were planted with non-Monsanto-esque crops to be used to feed people, maybe then more people would have access to cheap and relatively nutritious food.

I am sorry that you see McD’s as the solution to anything.
FoetusNail

A hamburger here tastes exactly the same in China or some around the world place.

Other than being inexpensive and fast, this is precisely why fast food has been so successful, for better or worse, wherever you go, you know what you are getting.
Chas44

I simply don’t believe this story. Bread molds after a while. Meat deterioriates, unless it’s jerkied and sealed. The “1996″ hamburger, presumably, is exposed to light and open air all day (I’m assuming it’s displayed in a classroom environment.) Somebody has an agenda here, and the story smells worse than a rotting hamburger.
OM

“gee, I wonder if we have a few McDonald’s employees lurking in the thread today. How defensive you people are getting is unbelievable. You’re acting like she kicked a puppy or something.”

…Quite a few shills for McD from the looks of things. I wonder how much they’re getting paid for each post, or is it just part of their job?

“I had to register just to respond to this post.”
…No, you didn’t. There’s an anon feature. It just takes longer for your post to see the light of day.
sazzamook

#48

Hmmmm, well I just had to throw out almost half a loaf of bread (kept in a bag in a cupboard)due to it looking like Bagpuss but blue rather than pink :)

Don’t think ‘leaving it on a counter’ will make it just go stale…
Talia

gee, I wonder if we have a few McDonald’s employees lurking in the thread today. How defensive you people are getting is unbelievable. You’re acting like she kicked a puppy or something.

I know, horribly mean of her picking on poor, innocent McDonalds, a wonderful organization that is surely a bastion of goodness and light in all regards.

*eyeroll*
edosan

Congratulations to Ms. Hanrahan for discovering what all early cultures discovered thousands of years ago: dried food products do not spoil and can be stored for a very long time.

Perhaps next she’ll discover how to make alcohol from fermented beverages or perhaps pottery.

“It does nothing to nourish the cell…” that phrase alone should clue you in to the fact that she knows nothing about food or nutrition.