Manhattan artist Sally Davies bought a McDonald’s Happy Meal on April 26, 2010. She placed it on her coffee table, uncovered, and took photos every day for six months. This video shows the result.
Six months – and she says there were no worms, mould, smell or visible decomposition of any kind.
We already know how chicken nuggets are made and sterilised. What I want to know now is what kind of technology McDonald’s uses to create these things. Is a Happy Meal scientifically considered inert matter? Is it made of carbon-based polymers? Can it be recycled into jet fuel? They taste marginally better than asbestos, so it must be OKto use them to build houses.
I have no answers for you, but I hope there’s a lesson in this for all of you, dear parents, would-be-parents, and I-don’t-want-kids-but-I-like-Happy-Meals-anyway people out there. [Flickr]
I will not do anything to stop you from buying the soundtrack for this video: It’s The Fast Food Song, by the Fast Food Rockers.
MrInformative
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 8:36 AMhmmm you mean no smell asides from that horrible mcdonalds burger and chips smell, stinks out any flat
Ward Paterson
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 8:42 AMBoring……
This was done like 3 years ago, by the makers of the documentary “Super Size Me”.
At the end of the doco footage, they put a local store hamburger, big mac, and chips in individual glass jars, and watch the decay. Macdonalds burger and chips remained pretty much unchanged (chips were exactly the same as the first day!) and the local store hamburger was totally decayed….
Charles
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 9:11 AMWhat this means to me is that all the nutrients have been removed, since the bacteria in the air found nothing to live on. Presumably it’s why the bloke in “Super Size Me” got so sick – he was trying to live on something that apparently contains no nutrients.
John
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 9:19 AMI’ll eat it anyway…
and so will millions of others.
Justin
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 5:10 PMeverybody is still going to eat it. i saw how chicken nuggets were made, i still think they taste good.
MDolley
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 9:46 AMFake! Without a toy it’s just a small cheeseburger meal.
WhiteDemon
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 10:05 AMI’m really surprised that the worms decied to not touch the food. Here I was, thinking they had no taste at all. turns out I was wrong
Dan
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 10:40 AMMaybe this is an argument as to why you SHOULD eat happy meals.
The reason why happy meals don’t degrade is because they are designed to be served in different countries to an exacting standard of quality.
To ensure this exact quality is met all the ingredients have to be highly resistant to spoilage.
So you’re making a trade off here. Do you want McDonald’s which isn’t as consistent and might spoil or do you want McDonald’s that is exactly what you expect and pay for?
Stefan
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 3:27 PMmaaate completley wrong.. do you know how much preservatives are in that? If it doesnt spoil in 6th months that is a really bad thing… I’m no expert but i can guarantee you thats not natural.
Sam Timmins
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 11:05 AMThe McDonald’s competition is advertising to the right of my text. LMAO!
John Simpson
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 2:03 PMYes Sam, that’s no coincidence.
unfazed
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 4:41 PMthats not a cheeseburger, that meat and bun only. A cheeseburger has mustard, tomato sauce, onion, pickles and the most obvious ingredient….cheese. Of course not much is gonna happen to that shit there is no fuckn moisture anywhere. for all we know the girl washed and dried the meat before putting it there. shittest video ever, im off to maccas.
ben
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 4:54 PMi know a school down a few suburbs from my area has bought a a pack of chips, and/or a burger from mcdonalds and have kept it for 4 years in their technology department to show people. it looks absolutely the same!!! o.O
tsengan
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 10:03 PMMeh, it’s been done many a time before.
Also, if she just left it out, why do the fries look like they’ve been touched/adjusted between a lot of the shots?
Sar Selack
Friday, October 15, 2010 at 9:21 AMShe probably got hungry. She does mention the meal was still edible after 6 months.
Science
Thursday, November 11, 2010 at 12:35 AMI know this story is a bit stale now (pun intended) but this has been busted:
http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/11/the-burger-lab-revisiting-the-myth-of-the-12-year-old-burger-testing-results.html
WITH SCIENCE!
Basically all burgers of a similar size to a cheeseburger won’t ever decompose just because there’s no moisture, which means no bacteria which means no rot.