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What a Happy Meal Looks Like One Year Later

Those little plastic toys that come in a Happy Meal are so wasteful. You're just going to throw it away, after all, and that plastic junk will sit in a landfill for-ev-er.

But here's the thing: If you throw the Happy Meal away, it might just sit in the landfill forever too.

A year ago, Joann Bruso began a little experiment. She bought a Happy Meal and set it on the shelf on her office, just to see what it would do. Get moldy? Start to smell? Draw in pests from near and far?

Nope, nope, and uh-uh. Pictured above is Bruso's Happy Meal on day one. See what it looked like a year later below.

We all know Happy Meals and other McDonald's meals are junk. But, unlike flies and other vermin, who left Bruso's hamburger and fries alone, we eat them anyway.

In a year's time, that burger and fries look almost as unchanged as the little plastic toy they were packaged with -- no mold, no decay, not even an odor. Bruso says that after a few days, the fast food smell disappeared and then... nothing.

On her blog, BabyBites, Bruso explains why this is an ominous sign:

The next time you're tempted to purchase a Happy Meal for your child, think about these photos. Food is SUPPOSED to decompose, go bad and smell foul... eventually. When I was a kid, I remember our garbage pail for the left over food scraps was kept by our back door. After a couple of days, flies deposited their larvae (maggots) in the meat. When I would lift the lid, I would see the recently hatched maggots wiggling on the putrid mess. A fly never bothered to land on the tiny hamburger patty on my office shelf.
Food is broken down into its essential nutrients in our bodies and turned into fuel. Our children grow strong bodies, when they eat real food. Flies ignore a Happy Meal and microbes don't decompose it, then your child's body can't properly metabolize it either. Now you know why it's called "junk food."

The next time I hear "Mom! We want to go to McDonald's!" I'm going to pull these photos out for a quick nutrition lesson. You know what they say -- a picture really is worth 1,000 words.

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38 Comments

marla

you should have put a paper showing the date beside the pic so the time difference can be validated..to a degree.

Melanie Thomassian R.D.

I think you've got a good point, I suppose this experiment has been done before though with similar results. It's pretty scary, isn't it? And some people eat this stuff every day in life.

Andrew

You people are obviously not American.

staci

this is something i'm sure my mother would have appreciated bringing me up!! i friends that feed nothing but mcd's to their kids and they have potbellies and difficulty defficating... so i absolutely agree that this fast food really is more than just terrible for your weight but for your overall nutrition... how many preservatives are in that stuff to keep it looking like it did a year earlier? too much for me and my family!! i'll stick with only getting coffee from the golden arches

angie

The reason that the happy meal did not rot isn't because of some mystery preservative. It's a combination of high fat and low moisture. The high salt helps too. This is how most foods were preserved before refrigeration, canning and other preservation methods were invented. Think beef jerky, in burger format.

Cris

I agree that yes, there were methods of preserving meats using salt and removing of moisture - but bread is actually supposed to mold!

Ron

Bread will mold if left in its plastic bag(holding in moisture), if left out on the table it will dry out(think croutons, croutons are dried bread)

Justin

Actually, beef jerky must be very lean or it will go rancid.

I thought the bun would go first. Bread usually lasts just a couple weeks. There must be a preservative.

Ron

All commercially available bread has preservitives. If you bake your own bread, it will spoil in a couple of days.

Tony

Not all commercially made bread use preservatives. Perhaps were you shop, but not where I am. I do make my own bread occasionally and it does not spoil after a couple days (and thats leaving it out on the counter in a container). The reason is because I make a naturally leavened bread using sour-dough (the way bread has been made for hundreds of years).

Jackie T Ewing

Interesting experiment!
Over the years, I limited my kids to fast food once a week. Friday became Fries-day so they would stop bugging me to get it every day. 10 years on, that tradition still stands. They get to eat the junk food once a week and I get them to eat real food the rest of the week.
Maybe the preservative that kept this particular happy meal in the same condition will help preserve our kids insides?!

Michal

THAT IS SOOOOOOOOOO DUMB.....

Jackie T Ewing on 24 Mar 2010

"Maybe the preservative that kept this particular happy meal in the same condition will help preserve our kids insides?!"

Good luck with that u stupid !

Nicole

Someone did a similar experiment on YouTube, and it was absolutely gross. So you can see a timeline and a controlled variable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCfHA7AdjIY

JuliaF

That video was by Morgan Spurlock of "Super Size Me" fame. He put all his items in jars, though, and I think that's why his burgers got moldy and then liquified. The fries always seem to be impervious to any ambient conditions or lapses in time, but the burgers have to stay dry in order to mummify. This would be a great science experiment for kids to do at school. I'd be interested to see how the fries fare after they've been buried in the ground for at least a season.

Amy

That looks like some of the stuff I occasionally find in the back of my van, under the seats. Eew.

Spectra

Yeah, decomposition is an interesting process. Most food decomposes rapidly because bacteria and molds will grow on it and start liquefying it and breaking it down. McDonald's food probably has so much salt in it that it creates an unfavorable growing environment for bacteria, so the food just dries out and sort of petrifies instead of decomposing. This is part of why I never eat that stuff.

angie

If it were were stored outdoors or someplace without air conditioning in say Florida, mold would grow in it. I live in FL and we have to be very proactive about mold. anything with enough moisture will get mold growth. This lady lives in Denver, Colorado which has low humidity, that combined with even lower humidity being indoors AND having higher salt and fat content is why it dried out before it could rot. That wouldn't happen here!

Deb Froehlich

Have you tried it? Just curious.

The fact that this was carried out in Denver explains a lot. Denver is an incredibly dry city - my in-laws live there, and whenever we visit I have to use lotion every day and my skin still gets itchy. She really should have had a control (a home-made burger and fresh potato cut up and fried, for example) to show the difference.

JuliaF

The last time I was pressed to buy food at an airport, I settled for some McDonald's fries. As the server handed me the bag, she told me I could find salt to the side of the counter. I almost thought of turning back and asking, "Do people actually put more salt on these fries?!"

angie

I also noticed that she emptied out the drink too. Those wax cups will fall apart if liquid is left in them too long. It doesn't matter what type of liquid. I found this out the hard way with a cup that had water in it from another fast food place during a road trip (we had a dog with us and could only get drive through...)

Deb Froehlich

Amazing. I agree with Maria that a dated news paper would help a bit with credibility. However, I have seen other examples similar to this one. I'm with the author, if bugs and bacteria aren't interested. Shouldn't that tell us something. This stuff is killing us. Why then do we feel it's ok to feed to our kids?

Blob

Maybe we should ban McDonald's from selling this crap. Let's rid the planet of this nightmare company now.

JuliaF

People are seeming to be more and more resistant to banning certain foods. There's been a backlash, such as that burger restaurant called the Heart Attack Grill in Arizona. There's a burger on the menu that contains 8,000 calories, and the owner claims "people are tired of being told what they can eat". It may sound dramatic, but I think that's tantamount to handing out guns and telling the customers to play Russian Roulette at their tables for a little extra excitement.

Jim F.

I wonder whether it is a little unfair to single out McDonald's. Decomposition of food (as Spectra alludes to above) is not necessarily an indicator of food quality - but has far more to do with environmental conditions.

There are lots of different foods (yes even healthy ones) that when put in a dry windowsill, receiving sun every day, in a moderately dry environment - will also not decompose like the McDonald's food.

It's probably fairer to do what Morgan Spurlock did, and use sealed jars, and have other foods as controls.

JuliaF

Yes, but Morgan's fries weren't affected, either. I really wonder if the burgers have any less salt in them than the fries, though. I imagine there's a breakdown of McDonald's foods online.

Jim F.

Anything to do with the kind of oil in the fries?

Jen

It's funny not even bugs would touch this stuff.

Kellie - My Health Software

Thank you for this article and picture! I love any reminder that McDonalds is not actually real food. Don't buy it and they will start to get the message!

Alison

Happy Meal?....Tell me, is a fat kid a happy kid? Feeding this to your kid is child abuse. Give the kid a chance to be healthy. They haven't been educated yet on nutrition. They are depending on YOU to take care of them. Responsible parents do not ruin their child's health before the kid even understands what health is. This JUNK is the reason why so many children in this country are obese before they even reach adolescence. Let me repeat, DO NOT FEED YOUR KID JUNK FOOD! The need healthy food and lots of play time (physical activity...not hours in fron of the TV or playing video games.) If you have kids, TAKE CARE OF THEM! You are responsible, you brought the kid into the world and they have a right to good health.

midnight_Crusador

What type of conditions was the office in? Air quality and anything else that has access to it can make different outcomes

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