McDonald's Hamburgers Do Not Decompose, Latest Photos Claim

You may have heard of Karen Hanrahan, the wellness educator who kept a McDonald's hamburger for 12 years. She recorded little change, and you can read about that here on Serious Eats. The 2008 picture is there that compares the 1996 burger with a fresh burger, and there is little difference!

In case there was any non-scientific aspect to this claim, New York photographer and vegetarian, Sally Davies, undertook daily and later weekly photographs for six months in order to document the changes(or lack thereof) in her McDonald's Hamburger Happy Meal. You can see those pictures here. Davies tells Dailymail.com that the food has taken on an acrylic sheen, and it is hard to the touch. According to Dailymail,

"When asked if their food was not biodegradable, McDonald's spokeswoman Danya Proud said: 'This is nothing more than an outlandish claim and is completely false.' "

Wow, what do they put in the food? Last week's homemade chicken casserole usually looks and smells horrible in the refrigerator! This food has been left out at room temperature, and there is very little change? There is not even any mold forming on the bread? Watch the video to the left of this article for some more experiments with McDonald's food.

Did you know that October is National Vegetarian Month? You can read an article about veggie burgers here, which includes a great recipe video for vegetarian hamburgers made out of nuts and lentils. (Maybe some of those people who are always talking about natural foods are not such nuts themselves, after all.)
This article was originally published on my Social Media Column on the Knoxville Examiner.