The real reason why McDonald's burgers don't rot (2024)
Earlier this year,a chiropractor's office in Nebraska made newsto show oneThe 2-year-old McDonald's Happy Meal hoped it would convince patients to avoid fast food. The meal appears almost intact.
And then there was a viral story last yearabout a 14 year oldMcDonald'sHamburgerthat's not bad.
David Whipple, the man who saved the burger, says he shows the artifact to his grandchildren as an example of how fast food is packed with preservatives and chemicals. Here's a photo of it.The man McDonald's Canadaoffered an alternative explanationto a customer who asked why the company's burgers don't rot.
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“The reality is that McDonald's burgers, fries and chicken are just like any other food and will rot if stored under certain conditions.”Dr. Keith Warriner, the program director of the University of Guelph's Department of Food Science and Quality Assurance told McDonald's.
"There have been many videos and photos online highlighting that when a McDonald's hamburger is left out for an extended period of time it does not rot, and that this is because they are full of chemicals. The reality is that The burgers, fries and chicken from McDonald's are like all foods and will rot if stored under certain conditions.
In short, the microbes that cause rot are very similar to ourselves in that they need water, nutrients, heat and time to grow. If we remove one or more of these elements, microbes cannot grow or spoil food.
In the example of a McDonald's hamburger, the patty loses water in the form of steam during the cooking process. The sandwich is of course made of bread. Roasting it reduces the amount of moisture. This means that the hamburger is fairly dry after cooking. When left open in the room there is additional water loss as the humidity in most buildings is around 40%. So in the absence of moisture or high humidity, the hamburger simply dries out, instead of rotting.
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When moisture is lost, we remove an element that microbes need to grow and cause spoilage. So to spoil a McDonald's hamburger we simply have to prevent the loss of moisture. You can do this by wrapping it in cling film to prevent moisture from escaping, or by storing it in a high humidity environment such as a bathroom (look for black mold on your bathroom windows, but not in your bedroom) . If you try to perform the same experiment with a homemade burger with a similar moisture content as a McDonald's burger and under similar conditions, you will probably get the same results."
“It turns out that not only do regular McDonald's burgers not rot, but...the homemade burgers don't rot either. Samples one through five had shrunk slightly (particularly the steaks), but showed no signs of degradation.”
It all comes down to water activity. See, a McDonald's hamburger is small and thin, giving it a very high ratio of surface area to volume. It is cooked well-done on a very hot griddle. These factors contribute to rapid moisture loss, resulting in a burger that dries out long before it can start to rot.
The experiment showed that none of the burgers, when left alone in a dry environment, rotted, whether they were from a drive-thru line or not. However, a McDonald's burger and a homemade burger that were stored in Ziploc bags did rot.
Cooked on an exceedingly hot griddle, it quickly loses moisture, becoming inhospitable for mould before any decay can commence. Moreover, these burgers are cooked to high temperatures in a food-safe environment, rendering them relatively free from decay-inducing agents to begin with.
The salt and lack of moisture make bacterial growth unlikely. If you just leave them in a paper bag on the counter, McDonald's fries are pretty much never going to rot. But that's true for basically all kinds of chips and french fries as well.
McDonald's fries, chicken nuggets, and burgers can all be reheated the next day as long as they are kept in the fridge, kitchen gadget expert Samantha Milne from RecipeThis recommends . However, if you've forgotten to put your food in the fridge overnight you'll need to bin it.
We keep a close eye on what we sell at different times of the day, which means that restaurants only order and prepare the amount of food that is likely to be sold. As a result, our restaurants waste less than 1% of edible food stock.
Here are the facts: All of our burger patties in the U.S. are always made with 100% USDA-inspected beef. That's the only ingredient: 100% real beef. Our patties contain no preservatives or fillers, and the only thing we ever add is a touch of salt and pepper when the patties are sizzling hot on the grill.
If it is refrigerated promptly (within two hours at room temperature; or one hour if surrounding temperature is above 90 °F), it can be safely kept for about three or four days stored in the refrigerator (40 F or less). If frozen, it should keep its quality for about four months.
Love it or hate it, McDonald's is one of the few places you can find hot, relatively fresh, and reasonably inexpensive meal options. Ultimately McDonald's, like all fast-food takeaways, is ultra-processed food that adds a lot of fat, refined carbohydrates, salt, and sugar to the diet.
In the right environment, our burgers, like most other foods, could decompose. But, in order to decompose, you need certain conditions – specifically moisture.
For one, you'll want to keep in mind how much sodium you're consuming. The daily recommended limit is 2,300 milligrams, and many burgers provide more than half of this limit. You'll also find higher levels of saturated fat, with most McDonald's burgers exceeding the recommended daily limit of 13 grams.
Ronald survived the McDonaldland purge, but his role as an advertising character meant to appeal to children became increasingly problematic. By the early 2010s, the link between overindulging in fast food and high rates of obesity was widely publicized, and there was no way to deny Ronald's role in targeted ads.
Fresh potatoes are washed, peeled, cut, and blanched to make McDonald's fries, according to a video from the company. The factory they're made in also adds chemicals to keep the potatoes a uniform light yellow color (but no, that's not behind their addictive flavor).
And for all the naysayers out there, no McDonald's fries are not chemical potato goop shaped into fries. Instead, they are made up of potatoes, vegetable oil (which contains canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, and natural beef flavor with wheat and milk derivatives), dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate, and salt.
Why does a McDonald's meal never seem to rot? A burger and fries don't rot for two reasons: They are cooked to a temperature sufficient to kill just about any harmful microorganisms hiding within. The burger and fries are thin enough that, left out in the open, they dry out too quickly for rot to set in.
Dextrose. Dextrose is a type of sugar that is very similar to glucose — meaning it's often used to replenish energy in the body. It's used in a lot of processed foods to extend shelf life. McDonald's also uses it to ensure the fries have a consistent color no matter what potato they use or what season we're in.
Introduction: My name is Geoffrey Lueilwitz, I am a zealous, encouraging, sparkling, enchanting, graceful, faithful, nice person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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