...everybody and their extended family has seen the hyperbole by Morgan Spurlock, Sally Davies, Mike Adams and others, has forwarded breathless emails to their entire address book, posted links to their Facebook pages and, how could they possibly resist...? Tweeted with self righteous glee.
Well, folks, it's time for a little reality check. J. Kenji Lopez-Alt over at Serious Eats just showed that McDonald's burgers do, indeed, rot. So did a blogger in China, back in May. And so did another blogger, again, way back in May.
But... how about the fries? McDonald's fries have different types of fats, plenty of salt, and preservatives. Mike Vaughan has a nice write-up on McDonald's fry ingredients, calling for an experiment on them.
On Oct. 21, before I knew about the other experiments that had been completed or were in the process of being conducted, I set up a well-controlled experiment to find out whether McDonald's burgers and fries rot or not, and if not, why not. In particular, I was interested in the lack of decomposition of the fries, observed by so many different people.
I have 18 different jars of McDonald's and homemade burgers and fries, and it's Day 17 of my experiment. And we've finally hit the mother lode of mold! Check it out:
McMold Day 17, Part III from Monica Hughes on Vimeo.
I'll save my commentary on this issue for another post.
What about the butter and the "not butter"s, you ask? There's nothing visible growing on any of them. Check back again for another update. As for the fries and the burgers, I'll be keeping them until they're too disgusting to keep anymore. When I throw away one set of fries, I'll throw away all of them. Likewise with the burgers. I won't be throwing away parts of the experiment before it's all over, as Morgan Spurlock did.
Stay tuned for next week's "McMold" update!
Correction: I incorrectly state in the video that 1/6 c. water was added to the foods. Actually, 1/3 c. water was added to burgers and fries. 1/6 c. water was used for the butter, margarine, and spreads.
11 comments:
Love the vid! :-)
Thanks! I never thought I'd enjoy videoblogging. It's turned out to be really fun.
I'm hoping someone in the media picks up on this.
I just read yesterday--sorry, no url, maybe it was gizmodo--that what causes McDonald's burgers not to rot is their thinness yet large surface area. The large surface area creates a dehydrating effect; homemade patties of the same size were resistant as well. If you already covered this, disregard. Great stuff, fun read too.
--RussK
I think that's about right, Russ. It's all about the moisture. :) That seems to be the commonality between Serious Eats' experiment and mine.
Nice experiment. I think you've demonstrated pretty clearly that mold and bacteria growth have more to do with water than with salt, fat, or unnamed preservatives. I hadn't realized that the wettest environments would be more likely to produce bacteria than mold - so that has been interesting to see.
Now one thing you haven't commented on (at least I don't think you have) is the difference in color between the McDonald's and the homemade fries. I noticed it particularly in the dry samples. I assume that's due to oxidation or lack there of. I'm not sure that tells us anything about McDonald's that we didn't already know, but maybe worth noting for the sake of completeness.
I think the fries in water are just waterlogged. Some of the color from the fries (whatever it is) has come off into the water, as it's now yellow. Don't think the darker color on the dried out fries vs. the waterlogged fries is very revealing of anything except that.
Hey thanks for posting these tests. Fast food has enough real bad facts, I don't know why people insist on only "shining a light" on **** they just made up. I know a lot about mold and moisture is absolutely needed for it's development. Toast a regular slice of white bread and set it on your counter. It will last forever, unless it gets wet or you got bugs. I guess the McDonald's bun is "worse" somehow for doing the same thing. Also don't trust how some bloggers are saying that McNuggets are made, it is just not true. That is how Burger King nuggets, any $1 menu chicken sandwich, the chicken at most schools cafeterias but not McNuggets.
Monica, just to clarify, what I am talking about isn't due to water-logging. Like I said, it was the *dry* samples that seemed to show an obvious color difference - between the (dry) homemade and the (dry) McDonald's fries. I think McDonald's must be using something to prevent oxidation. That's not necessarily a horrible thing. I use lime to prevent oxidation of my guacamole. Of course, my guacamole will go grey eventually.
Oh I see. I wasn't paying close enough attention to what you were saying. Oh, yeah... that makes sense. Yes, McDonald's fries are very light and were much lighter compared to mine.
Awesome! I'll post this on my Facebook right with the No-Mold slide show. Nothing wrong with putting up different views. Your video blog is obviously more informative on what you did. I also think it's great exposure to more scientific processes. I'm digging the blog.
Hi, Monica. I really love your experiment. I actually found it while doing research for my high school science fair project. I started thinking about it after a family friend mentioned that nothing seemed to grow on a burger she left out. I eat Mcdonald's on a very regular basis so the difference between the decomposition of their food and homemade alternatives seemed like a project I would greatly enjoy. I was wondering if I could contact you via email or any other means during my experiment with any questions I may come up with. I'd love to use you in my project as kind of a mentor to oversee my project by means of sending pictures and my asking of questions. If you have any interest or would like a little more info on anything I've said you can email me at an email I set up for the purpose of my science fair, heatherscience@yahoo. I hope you consider it.
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