A viral post showing a McDonald's happy meal that did not rot after six years has once again opened the discussion: are the fast food chain's meals "real" food? If so, why don't they rot?
On Feb. 3, a woman posted a photo of an ancient McDonald's Happy Meal -- complete with the receipt showing Jan. 8, 2010, four pieces of nuggets and a bunch of french fries -- on her Facebook account.
Jennifer Lovdahl said it had been six years since she bought the happy meal, and it has then remained at their office the whole time.
After inspecting the meal, Lovdahl noticed both french fries and nuggets have not molded, decomposed or rotted, and the meal smelled like cardboard.
In her post, Lovdahl implied that the "chemicals" in the meal must be the reason why the food did not chemically deteriorate.
"We did this experiment to show our patients how unhealthy this 'food' is. Especially for our growing children," said Lovdahl. "There are so many chemicals in this food!"
Lovdahl concluded her post by suggesting, "Apples, bananas, carrots, celery... those are real fast food."
Debunking The Myth
Lovdahl's experiment isn't the only one. The same year that she purchased her happy meal, a much more thorough experiment was conducted by Serious Eats writer J. Kenji López-Alt.
Instead of supporting Lovdahl's findings, López-Alt's research provides clear scientific evidence as to why Mcdonald's burgers do not rot. The culprit, apparently, is dehydration.
The truth is, bacteria or mold cannot grow on food without moisture. López-Alt said 93 percent of the burger's moisture was lost in the first three days of the experiment.
"Unless mold gets a chance to grow within that time frame, it's pretty much never going to grow," said López-Alt. He said nutrition labels show that a McDonald's burger bun does not contain excess preservatives than an average loaf of bread.
McDonald's also explained the reason on its website. Their meals can rot, but because of dehydration, there is no visible decay.
"You might have seen experiments which seem to show no decomposition in our food," McDonald's wrote in its website. "Most likely, this is because the food has dehydrated before any visible deterioration could occur."
Additionally, López-Alt said McDonald's has noted its burgers are comprised of 100 percent ground beef that has been inspected by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
In Conclusion
By the viral Facebook post's logic, it seems as if food that doesn't rot or decay shouldn't be classified as "real" food. What about honey, raisins, or jerky? These are food, but they don't rot.
If López-Alt's experiment left you unconvinced, another experiment conducted by food blog Noms and Sciunce proved that McDonald's burgers, when kept in an airtight container that kept moisture in, would definitely grow mold.
So if you want to get off the fast food diet, you have plenty of reasons to do it such as your desire to stay fit and healthy, but saying that the meals aren't "real" food is not a good enough reason.
