4 ms·
A McDonald's burger - 14 years on
- vitaminc 14y ago> In 2009, nutritionist Joann Bruso decide to keep a McDonald's Happy Meal uncovered on a shelf for a year. Apart from a few cracks in the bun, it remained unchanged. "Food is supposed to decompose, go bad and smell foul eventually," she wrote on her blog. > "The fact that it has not decomposed shows you how unhealthy it is for children." How does that show it's unhealthy for children? I'm not saying that a burger from McDonald's isn't unhealthy, but why is this evidence of it? Also, beware if you copy and paste from that page—a "Read More" link is appended to your clipboard.
- derefr 14y agoIndeed; it's the most basic form of "begging the question." The fact that it has not decomposed shows that A. it is made with preservatives, and that B. the ingredients were manufactured to dessicate before they decompose. (The burger mummified, basically.) To write a proper article, you must take those two premises, and explain how either of them entails "bad for children." It's not hard, but you actually have to do it if you want to write an article that properly convinces people of something; you can't just go "look, it still exists, that means something something biology!"
- stevek 14y ago>> "The fact that it has not decomposed shows you how unhealthy it is for children." > How does that show it's unhealthy for children? I'm not saying that a burger from McDonald's isn't unhealthy, but why is this evidence of it? When something differs from the natural order, I think it's fair to treat it with a large dose of suspicion (even horror!) and put the onus on the unnatural to justify itself as safe.
- Lazare 14y agoYou're right, it doesn't. But it's great for pageviews, and that's the important thing.
- molecule 14y agohttp://skepticalteacher.wordpress.com/2010/11/14/the-myth-of-the-non-decomposing-mcdonalds-hamburger/ http://skepticalteacher.wordpress.com/2010/11/14/the-myth-of...
- tonteldoos 14y agoGood read...but not conclusive either way, based on the comments?
- leoh 14y agoGross, weird, surprising. I don't eat McDonald's. But could someone do this with a non-fast food burger for a control? Some things are not so likely to decompose, say, because of salt content or because of cooking.
- Lazare 14y agoIt's been done, repeatedly. And the answer is there's no difference between McDonald patties and homeade patties. Any small cooked ground beef patty is unlikely to mold; it dries out too fast. Larger burger patties will mold, as will smaller ones if kept in the right conditions.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- AjithAntony 14y agoProbably just dried out before anything could grow on it.
- xk_id 14y agoExactly, and this can happen to any food.