If you habitually eat burgers, fries, etc. from fast food joints, this report from Canada should give you pause for thought.
A McDonald’s plain cheeseburger turned 1 year old Thursday on the kitchen counter of a Canadian nutritionist who says it looks much as it did hot off the grill.
. . .
She left the unwrapped burger unrefrigerated on her counter for the past year and said not much has changed, apart from the bun turning stale. She said it “still smells slightly like a burger,” although there has been no sign of mold, maggots or bacteria.
“Obviously it makes me wonder why we choose to eat food like this when even bacteria won’t eat it,” she told the Star.
There’s more at the link.
Yep. If even bugs and bacteria won’t eat it, why should I trust it in my stomach?
Peter
This isn't as bad as it appears–mold and decay need moisture, she's basically made burger jerkey. It is likely that any burger would do the same under similar conditions.
+1 to what Sevesteen said. If she lives in a clean house with working a/c, there would be little opportunity for insects to work on the food, and in a relatively dry environment the food would dessicate rather than decay normally. In short, she mummified her burger.
I wouldn't want to try this in an un-airconditioned house in Florida…
They tested this scientifically with meat etc. bought at the supermarket and cooked the same way. No chemicals were added or special processes used.
The home-made burger didn't mold either.
It turns out that so much moisture was lost from the meat in the cooking, and in the following couple of days, that the burgers practically became jerky.
Here's the link to the test:
http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/11/the-burger-lab-revisiting-the-myth-of-the-12-year-old-burger-testing-results.html
Just another reason to not trust the media without verifying first. If only they taught the scientific method to journalists, we might have some real journalism.
And you know what? Your wife still likes McD's fries.
Welcome to the USA, where scientific accuracy and truth in journalism haven't meant a damned thing since the Spanish-American War, and whatever happened to Acid Rain, the hole in the ozone, the extinction of the whales, the population bomb, the impending ice age, global warming, or the dangers of factory farming, and why would we believe anything that Michael Moore supports?
In the war of power-hungry guilt-tripping freaks against fun, tasty, tasty, fun capitalism still wins hearts and minds. And stomachs!