The last McDonald’s cheeseburger in Iceland made headlines last week as it turned 10 years old with no sign of rot. That burger spent several years at the National Museum of Iceland before being moved to a hotel, where it continues to be on public display. Australians laugh at this burger’s supposedly impressive life span—because they’re in possession of a quarter-century-old Quarter Pounder.
In 1995, Adelaide residents Casey Dean and Eduard Nitz visited a McDonald’s with an out-of-town friend, who found himself unable to finish his meal. The friend, named Johnno, asked his friends to look after his Quarter Pounder with Cheese until his next visit. Nitz told Australia’s 7 News that when he got home, he threw the burger in its original box into a cabinet and then promptly forgot about it.
When Nitz made plans to move overseas, he passed the incorrupt burger to his sister. She went on to live in many places across the continent, and the Quarter Pounder made each move with her. In 2015, Casey Dean was given full custody of the burger.
To celebrate the Quarter Pounder’s 20th anniversary in 2015, Dean created a Facebook page called Can This 20 Year Old Burger Get More Likes than Kanye West? (So far, it hasn’t.) He also recorded a tribute song called “Free The Burger” and made an accompanying music video.
Nitz says that over time the burger has dried out and shrunken a bit, but it doesn’t smell, nor has it grown mould. There’s a perfectly rational scientific reason for this phenomenon, though, so if you’re interested in creating your own McDonald’s mummy, there’s never a bad time to get started.