2 year old McDonalds Burger & Fries-quick help required!

[Ocean Breeze]

I have a Burger & Fries thats over 2 yrs old.

I am to do a presentation for a class, on the Reasons that it looks pretty much the same as when we first bought it. Lesson is this Afternoon!!!!!!

I was careful to tell the teacher that the preservatives arent the only reason that it hasnt rotted.. although everyone is more than prepared to jump to that conclusion.

I would really appreciate thoughts on this...
My thoughts are

That the preservatives in the bread, keep the microbes away long enough for it to dessicate, which then will prevent the bread from deteriorating.
The chips and the meat were heat treated in cooking, giving them enough breathing space to dessicate before they 'rot'

Obviously the fats are now rancid.

Its definately not just "loads of preservative" like everyone would like to believe.. consider buiscuits, breakfast cereal, dried wheat, honey etc.

I really want to do it justice and not to mislead the poor students..
I am thinking ... I will just emphasise that we need to consider carefully what we put in our mouths..
I also have some bread from another class, that has grown mould .. so that will be a comparasin.

Any ideas.. quickly??

[lizzieb]

Barbara - that's cool - what a great idea!

How/where did you keep it?

[Ocean Breeze]

I keep it in a locked , glass fronted wall cupboard in the lab.
Every yr we send out invitations to view 'it'.
It is a joint venture between the science dept and the PDHPE

I am still looking for more ideas re why it looks exactly the same and hasnt rotted.
ANYONE? Please?

[Sassi]

Hmmmm thats is weird! We have a big mac that we have kept for about 3 wks now and it is grose, how come the difference? Is you safe keeping place air tight??? Ours is kept in a tupperware container...

[Ocean Breeze]

Sassi
Ours is in the open air.. ie not airtight.
Is your intention to keep it long term? or did you just forget to eat your lunch one day!!!?

When you say "gross" is it mouldy, smelly or what?

[Sassi]

When I say gross, I mean it is all of the above plus much much more, I wouldnt touch it with a ten foot pole. And no i did not forget to eat my lunch, it was part of an experiemnt, dont know the details as teacher was unorganized and I told her to get her own stuff. I think they wanted to keep it for a few weeks and compare how diff things decompose, they also have a donut, which still looks as tasty as it did the day they put it in the container

[Ocean Breeze]

Hmm.. interesting.

I know that there's a 12 yr old Burger somewhere.
Still going strong I believe.

I hate to be the one to break the news to you.. I dont think that your burger will make it!

Could feed it to the worms in the worm farm?

[RosalieM]

Here's a link to the 12 year old burger:

http://bestwellnessconsultant.com/2008/ ... earth.aspx

I don't know why they don't go off... interesting...
Rosalie

[RosalieM]

I wonder if the recipes have changed due to society becoming more health conscious? Maybe that's why the more recent one did not last? Just a thought...

[Ocean Breeze]

My thoughts are that theres salt , sugar and preservatives in the bun. It will hold off the microbes long enough if the bun can dry out.
In the tupperware container, the moisture is held in. So cant dry out---> rots

[Sassi]

hmmm from the picture it actually only looks like they have the bun and the pattie... On our burger we kept the whole thing, sallad, pickle and dressing and what ever else they put on them these days...Maybe thats why mine has gone off. Or maybe Rosalie has a good point, one can only hope that is the reason... Another thing I thought of was that they actually cut our burger in half, one was burried (now they cant find it anymore, probably a rat got to it, heheheh) the other half kept in the container, maybe the knife was contaminated I know they used a dirty knife since I hadn't gotten to the washing up yet... It may just warrant further research and experiment into this topic... anything to keep me away from washing test tubes!!!

[RosalieM]

Here's another link... read the posts at the bottom of it for some more ideas as to why the burger still looks ok.

http://www.foodfacts.info/blog/2008/09/ ... -1996.html

I think the whole 'drying out' thing is probably the most plausible reason for it still looking like a burger.

[smiley]

As far as I know, the 12-yr-old burger is a Cheeseburger, without pickles, so you've only got bread, meat patty, and processed cheese slice, with no fresh vegetation to rot.

Go with what you've got Barbara - heat treated stuff & dryness & preservatives.

We do an experiment here with shop-bought (Home Brand) bread, Brumbies bread (no preservatives) and a Maccas roll. We put slices in ziplock bags, and observe the growth of molds. The Brumbies bread goes down first, coz its free of preservatives, the shop bread is a couple of days after that, and last year we had a Maccas roll that didn't have mold after a month on the shelf!

[sunray18]

A few years ago, a tree fell on my son's car. He had it towed to our backyard. Nearly a year later he and a mate decided they could do something with the bits .. and under the front seat was a "bit" ... A Macca's burger... it looked the same as a fresh one - no mould or anything.... the fries with it were also just the same...
makes me think - all the world is looking for an 'eternal' youth and life pil.. but macca's has already created one!

[coxy]

I cannot believe that you don't have a plague of rats, mice, ants or cockroaches trying to get to your burger. Here, you only need to drop a crumb on the floor and before you get to pick it up the cockys are after it! The only place I actually see the dead cockys is in the ChemStore - they are all on their backs on the floor. Maybe they don't eat Maccas??

[Ocean Breeze]

Coxy

I do have to keep some pest management in place.
I have the burger & fries in a locked , glass fronted wall cupboard, so not enough space for vermin to enter.
Cockroaches however could get through the 3mm air vents.
In fact , early in the piece, I noticed a tiny 'nibble' had been taken out the back of it, and suspected cockroackes had gotten in. So I placed some hidden cockroach baits nearby, but outside of the cupboards. h
Have had no problems whatsoever since.

Didnt even have any fly problems, not even when the burger was fresh.
What is that telling us??