Of Mushrooms, Molds, and McDonald's: Day Nine

Have you heard about the Unhappy Happy Meal that just won’t decompose over the course of a few months... or over a decade? Have you seen Morgan Spurlock’s McDonald’s burgers that decompose, but the McDonald’s fries that don’t?

While I never much studied mold during my graduate career as a mycologist, I decided that I had to know if this was real! So I set up my own little experiment to test a few simple hypotheses about this supposed lack of decomposition. I hypothesized that the lack of moisture, presence of salt, or presence of certain types of fats might be responsible for the lack of decay.

For those of you who want all the details, here are the initial posts in which I describe the experimental design and motivation for the study.

Of Mushrooms, Molds, and McDonald’s: Day One
Of Mushrooms, Molds and McDonald’s: Day Two
Of Mushrooms, Molds, and McDonald’s: Day Three

Well, it’s been over 9 days now. In fact, Day 9 was Friday, and.... We’ve Got Mold!! BUT... Is it on McDonald's?? For those of you interested in the nitty gritty results, I recommend jumping to 8:20 of the first video and then finishing up with the second. To those of you who haven’t followed the experiment, the entire two videos may be of interest.

McMold Day 9, Part I from Monica Hughes on Vimeo.

McMold Day 9, Part II from Monica Hughes on Vimeo.

Further Comments on the Experiments

One thing I forgot to photograph was the rice. The rice with water looks like it’s fermenting: no filamentous fungi. The rice with a lid doesn’t have any visible mold. The rice without the lid does have some green mold and a zygomycete growing at the base.

One other note. The decay that Morgan Spurlock sees in his big “regular restaurant” wedge-shaped fries? I highly suspect this is due to their much lower surface area to volume ratio, which prevented the fries from drying out as quickly. Who knows what other variables weren't controlled for in Spurlock's experiment. There aren't a whole lot of details in his video.

Cultural Context and Commentary

Because those of you who know me know I can't resist.

Isn’t it odd that tests of Burger King, Wendy’s, Popeye’s, or Taco Bell meals never make headlines? What magical, mystical thing is it about McDonald’s that makes it so much worse than every other fast food chain? That it’s a big and profitable corporation? It seems that ever since Morgan Spurlock released his documentary Supersize Me, McDonald’s is the poster child for all of the supposed evils of fast food. Yet Spurlock has already been shown by Tom Naughton to be “full of bologna”. This is a lot kinder way of saying it than I would say it.

We live in an intellectual wasteland. Really, Sally Davies, how original is it to put a Happy Meal on top of a fridge and then publish the results to Flickr? What does it say about our culture when this type of “experiment” with no variables draws massive amounts of media and blogger attention? What does it say when the vast majority of people in our culture don’t even have enough imagination or creativity to set up a decent fourth grade science experiment, for the most part? What does it say about the mainstream media, who are more interested in “he said, she said” hearsay bullcrap than being bothered to set up a few jars of food on a desk to settle the matter, once and for all?

Will this make headlines? Probably not. You see, there are few people in modern culture today that can interest themselves, due to being raised in a two-second-attention-span-theater-of-the-absurd. People would rather fall for bullshit hook, line, and sinker, if it’s sensationalistic, without being bothered to think a little. Pathetic.

Let me just get this out of the way. Full disclosure. I don’t own stock in McDonald’s, and I don’t eat at McDonald’s on a regular basis because their food mostly consists of sugar-, grain-, and seed oil-laden food. In my opinion, the meat is not the problem. If McDonald’s went back to frying their French fries in beef tallow, I might eat some on occasion. Yes, I have stopped there occasionally for a bunless burger or salad, and I try to keep the dressing minimal. But snowballs will freeze in hell before that is more popular or socially acceptable than grabbing some sugary, organic, dried fruit from Whole Foods (which, because of its low water activity, probably also wouldn’t rot for decades if you set it out on on a plate on the top of your refrigerator).

It’s sad that I have to offer that paragraph of a disclaimer above. But, we live in an era of simpletons where everyone is either “for” or “against” something and we all feel compelled to cover our asses and apologize for everything rather than just, simply, call out bullshit immediately when and where we see it.

Despite my claims to the contrary, I fully expect that if my experiment makes its rounds among the blogosphere that grandiose rationalizations will emerge, because everyone has to believe that everyone else has an agenda. And honestly, I’m going to secretly enjoy reading conspiracy theories about how I’ve gotten paid by McDonald’s to have set up the experiment, or that I have a McDonald’s “connection” by virtue of my third cousin, twice-removed, having worked there 19 years ago as a teenager, or some other such bullshit.

Really, I am just a mycologist interested in seeing whether McDonald’s rots, and if it doesn’t, why it doesn’t. That was the primary reason for this experiment. Of course, I will admit it is always fun to piss off some people, and demonstrate that others are idiots. I expected that the results of this experiment would do both those two things, and it has at least done the latter, so far.

Whether margarine, Smart Balance “healthy spread”, and butter foster microbial growth equally is a remaining question. This latter claim that microbes won’t touch margarine is yet another claim in the foodie/paleo community -- a claim for which I have seen very scant documentation indeed, apart from some personal pictures of someone’s backyard that look like they date back to the 80s.

I’m sure some people are disappointed because they want McDonald’s to be so lacking in nutrition and so full of preservatives that it doesn’t rot. But this is science and truth we’re talking about. Anyway, who cares about whether McDonald’s rots? All this nonsense floating around the foodie community about how food should rot is just silly. A lot people in the paleo-ish food community think fermented grains are just fine to eat, and guess what... it’s very difficult to get grains and beans to rot under dry conditions, too. Whether something rots is certainly a poor indication of whether you should eat it. Think about it. Rocket fuel and compact discs can be broken down by fungi, too.

As the World Turns

Please link to my posts the next time you see some nonsense in the media about how McDonald's doesn't rot. Also, I think more independent experimentation is necessary to combat this silly myth that McDonald's doesn't rot, so consider setting up your own experiment.

Stay tuned for next week's McMold update!