A picture of a McDonald's meal from six years ago that hasn't decomposed has gone viral on the Internet - but it doesn't appear to be cause for concern.
A woman from Alaska, Jennifer Lovdahl, has shared a picture she claimed she took recently, of a McDonald's Happy Meal purchased on the Jan 8, 2010. The picture shows four McNuggets and a packet of French Fries. The six year old meal does not look too different from when it must have been bought, except for looking a bit dried out.
In her Facebook post, one that that has now been shared over 250,000 times, Lovdahl says this is proof of all the chemicals that fast food companies people use.
The mother and owner of a chiropractic office, from Anchorage, writes in her post, "It's been six years since I bought this 'Happy Meal' at McDonald's. It's been sitting at our office this whole time and has not rotted, molded, or decomposed at all."
Lovedahl also encourages people to "choose real food" - that is, foods like apples, bananas, carrots and celery.
McDonald's has not commented on the six year old McDonald's meal, but it might not need to. It would appear that this is not the first time McDonald's has been questioned on why its food doesn't rot. In fact, they have included a section on the FAQ page about it.
In this section, they explain that food needs air moisture for the formation of mold. Since McDonald's food dehydrates before any decomposition occurs, McDonald's food isn't prone to rotting. Citing experiments that people might have heard of where McDonald's food doesn't rot, they compare it to bread. It is "sort of like bread left out on a counter overnight to make croutons for stuffing," they write.
Lovdahl isn't the first to try this; studies like Buzzfeed'sBurger Decay have put fast food to the test of decay before. The studies, which compare decay rates of different burgers, have found that McDonald's burgers don't rot because they are small in size and have a small surface area - and so they lose moisture very fast.
McDonald's also claims that its food is freshly prepared, and that the chicken is cooked and placed in packaging that lets moisture escape, to retain crispiness.
