Happy Meals: Just Say No

For many years people have known that hamburgers from McDonald's don't decompose.

That's right - no matter how long you keep them they don't rot.  They don't decompose.  The bun's don't mold.

There's even a video...

You might guess it because of all the chemicals they use, but you'd be only partially right.

The key ingredient is sodium - that's right - good old table salt - so much so that the meat qualifies a "preserved".

In fact these burgers (and buns) are so well preserved "No normal animal will perceive a McDonald's hamburger bun as food, and as it turns out, neither will bacteria or fungi. To their senses, it's just not edible stuff. That's why these bionic burger buns just won't decompose."


As for the bun's - well, just check out the ingredients: Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, enzymes), water, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, yeast, soybean oil and/or partially hydrogenated soybean oil, contains 2% or less of the following: salt, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, wheat gluten, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, dough conditioners (sodium stearoyl lactylate, datem, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, mono- and diglycerides, ethoxylated monoglycerides, monocalcium phosphate, enzymes, guar gum, calcium peroxide, soy flour), calcium propionate and sodium propionate (preservatives), soy lecithin.

Great stuff, huh? You gotta especially love the HFCS (diabetes, anyone?), partially-hydrogenated soybean oil (anybody want heart disease?) and the long list of chemicals such as ammonium sulfate and sodium proprionate.

The author of the link concludes that these things don't rot because they are in fact not even food.


So next time little Suzy or Johnny wants "McDonald's" Just Say No...