12 year Old Hamburger

Does a 12 year old Hamburger seemingly preserved have anything to teach us? I must have missed all the chatter about a lady that uses her hamburger she purchased from McDonald’s in 1996 as a tool for teaching nutrition. I guess it has been debated for the last 3+ years and will be for a long time.

Photo by Karen Hanrahan

I will throw this out there that I am not intending this to be a hit piece against McDonald’s I think based on some of the testing any old hamburger will do as long as it is the right size.

In the picture above the burger purchased when Clinton was in his first term in the oval office is on the left. The other burger was purchased in 2008. I think that certainly qualifies as an old hamburger.

The very interesting thing while reading about this old hamburger was the understanding of why the burger is not rotting. This happened with home-made burgers made with 100% ground beef. The general consensus is that the burger and bun are the exact right size to dehydrate before any visible decomposition begins. To think people boycotted McDonald’s over Styrofoam when their burger really lasts forever. Can you imagine pulling out a burger that is 12 years old?

To think I spend all this time learning how to preserve food via canning. I can guarantee you that I would not be eating that old hamburger. I would like to see some more testing to see how that old hamburger tastes. I am betting you want to do that in a very controlled test. I would not recommend doing that home. I think all the rules about food preservation still apply when it comes to food storage.

The ability to preserve food at home with ingredients of your choice and the ability to cater to what your family eats certainly out weighs the unintentional food preservation. This has been an interesting evening contemplating the reality of a old hamburger.

GB²