McDonald’s Happy Meal resists decomposition for six months

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McDonald’s Happy Meal resists decomposition for six months | The Upshot Yahoo! News - Yahoo! News

Vladimir Lenin, King Tut and the McDonald's Happy Meal: What do they all have in common? A shocking resistance to Mother Nature's cycle of decomposition and biodegradability, apparently.

That's the disturbing point brought home by the latest project of New York City-based artist and photographer Sally Davies, who bought a McDonald's Happy Meal back in April and left it out in her kitchen to see how well it would hold up over time.

The results? "The only change that I can see is that it has become hard as a rock," Davies told the U.K. Daily Mail.

She proceeded to photograph the Happy Meal each week and posted the pictures to Flickr to record the results of her experiment. Now, just over six months later, the Happy Meal has yet to even grow mold. She told the Daily Mail that "the food is plastic to the touch and has an acrylic sheen to it."

Davies -- whose art has been featured in numerous films and television shows and is collected by several celebrities -- told The Upshot that she initiated the project to prove a friend wrong. He believed that any burger would mold or rot within two or three days of being left on a counter. Thus began what's become known as "The Happy Meal Art Project."

"I told my friend about a schoolteacher who's kept a McDonald's burger for 12 years that hasn't changed at all, and he didn't believe me when I told him about it," Davies told us. "He thought I was crazy and said I shouldn't believe everything that I read, so I decided to try it myself."

Some observers of the photo series have noted that the burger's bun appears at different angles, and therefore aired suspicions that the Happy Meal may not in fact be as "untouched" as the project's groundrules stipulate. Davies says there's a simple explanation for the mobile-bun effect. "The meal is on a plate in my apartment on a shelf," she says, "and when I take it down to shoot it, the food slides around. It's hard as rock on a glass plate, so sure, the food is moving."

Davies' friend was the person who should have done the additional research. Wellness and nutrition educator Karen Hanrahan has indeed kept a McDonald's hamburger since 1996 to show clients and students how resistant fast food can be to decomposition.

As for Davies, she said that she might just keep her burger and fries hanging around for a while as well.

"It's sitting on a bookshelf right now, so it's not really taking up any space, so why not?" she said. It ceased giving off any sort of odor after 24 hours, she said, adding: "You have to see this thing."

In response to Davies' project, McDonald's spokeswoman Theresa Riley emailed The Upshot a statement defending the quality of the chain's food. Riley's email also blasted Davies' "completely unsubstantiated" work as something out of "the realm of urban legends."

"McDonald's hamburger patties in the United States are made with 100% USDA-inspected ground beef," Riley wrote. "Our hamburgers are cooked and prepared with salt, pepper and nothing else -- no preservatives, no fillers. Our hamburger buns are baked locally, are made from North American-grown wheat flour and include common government-approved ingredients designed to assure food quality and safety. ... According to Dr. Michael Doyle, Director, Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia, 'From a scientific perspective, I can safely say that the way McDonald's hamburgers are freshly processed, no hamburger would look like this after one year unless it was tampered with or held frozen.'"

(Photos via Sally Davies' Flickr)

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Photo courtesy of Sally Davies
Click to expand...
 
Great! If I eat Happy Meals they will preserve me and I can live forever.
 
The only way to find the truth to this story is to do it yourself. Anyone volunteer to do what women in this story did and report back to alldeaf?

I haven't been to McDonald for almost 4 months and ain't going there anytime soon.
 
I think the last time I was at a Mc Donald's was two years ago just above my audi's old office. I prefer Wendy's but I don't think I've been there since shortly after I moved to Lynchburg.
 
I've heard that if you eat a lot of fast food, your body will take longer to decompose than it would for a person who eat mostly natural foods if you die.
 
Wonder if it does the same thing in our stomach. You gotta love McNasties.
 
Oh boy!

It seems that there's lack of education on food preservatives and how food age.

Just think... six months later, the meal still looks the same. It doesn't mean they're gonna taste the same - they will taste stale. But appearance wise it looks the same.

However, we consume a lot of food that has been aged for months. Examples?

Cheese. Vinegar. Pickles. Jerky beef. Premium aged steaks. Oil. Sugar. Spices. Salt. Dried foods.

When you fry fries, you kill bacteria that may grow and seal with oil that is naturally antibacterial. The same is true with patties - cook them thoroughly with a little oil and it takes moisture out enough to retard spoilage. Bread treated with preservatives can last for weeks and still be edible.
 
McDonald's issued a response and it was correct:

"Bacteria and mold only grow under certain conditions. For example, without sufficient moisture – either in the food itself or the environment in which it is held – bacteria and mold and associated decomposition, is unlikely. If food is/or becomes dry enough, it won’t grow mold or bacteria. In fact, any food purchased from a restaurant or grocery store or prepared at home that lacks moisture would also dehydrate and see similar results if left in the same environment."

Response to McDonald's Happy Meal Food "Experiment" - About McDonald's

Should have added, "and you eat cheese that's been aged for months.. and moldy? Think blue cheese." :)

You have to have plenty of moisture to encourage mold or bacteria. That's why you see mildew in bathroom and not in living room. Produce rot easily because of moisture. Freeze-dry takes water out of produce and they'll have long life.

It's unfortunate that McDonald's had to deal with that misinformation. Try it WITH any restaurants, not just McDonald's. And funny how the anti-McDonald's people left out the part about salads... if you leave them and come back in six months, they'll be totally decomposited. Why not bash restaurants that serve salads and say, "look how they rot easily! Image how they'll rot in your tummy!!! EW! "

Serious. Think.
 
netrox said:
Oh boy!

It seems that there's lack of education on food preservatives and how food age.

Just think... six months later, the meal still looks the same. It doesn't mean they're gonna taste the same - they will taste stale. But appearance wise it looks the same.

However, we consume a lot of food that has been aged for months. Examples?

Cheese. Vinegar. Pickles. Jerky beef. Premium aged steaks. Oil. Sugar. Spices. Salt. Dried foods.

When you fry fries, you kill bacteria that may grow and seal with oil that is naturally antibacterial. The same is true with patties - cook them thoroughly with a little oil and it takes moisture out enough to retard spoilage. Bread treated with preservatives can last for weeks and still be edible.
Click to expand...

netrox said:
McDonald's issued a response and it was correct:

"Bacteria and mold only grow under certain conditions. For example, without sufficient moisture – either in the food itself or the environment in which it is held – bacteria and mold and associated decomposition, is unlikely. If food is/or becomes dry enough, it won’t grow mold or bacteria. In fact, any food purchased from a restaurant or grocery store or prepared at home that lacks moisture would also dehydrate and see similar results if left in the same environment."

Response to McDonald's Happy Meal Food "Experiment" - About McDonald's

Should have added, "and you eat cheese that's been aged for months.. and moldy? Think blue cheese." :)

You have to have plenty of moisture to encourage mold or bacteria. That's why you see mildew in bathroom and not in living room. Produce rot easily because of moisture. Freeze-dry takes water out of produce and they'll have long life.

It's unfortunate that McDonald's had to deal with that misinformation. Try it WITH any restaurants, not just McDonald's. And funny how the anti-McDonald's people left out the part about salads... if you leave them and come back in six months, they'll be totally decomposited. Why not bash restaurants that serve salads and say, "look how they rot easily! Image how they'll rot in your tummy!!! EW! "

Serious. Think.
Click to expand...

Oh okay, I'm going buy a Happy Meal for you. :aw:
HappyMeal.jpg
 
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYyDXH1amic[/ame]


Gee, we knew for YEARS that fast food is junk. Do we really need the media to tell us it is so? :roll:
 
Wirelessly posted

Beowulf said:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYyDXH1amic[/ame]


Gee, we knew for YEARS that fast food is junk. Do we really need the media to tell us it is so? :roll:
Click to expand...

Gross.
 
That's nothing! Here is a picture of a McDonald's hamburger, purchased in 1996. The one on the left is the 2008 fresh model; the right is from 1996. Virtually unchanged! :iobarf:
Source: McDonald's burger story
23l4b7.jpg
 
Wirelessly posted

I visit McD a few times a year. Not much change. But I prefer homemade better. :)
 
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