A 14-year old hamburger has refused to comply with what we know of decomposition, according to a man in Utah.
David Whipple says he bought a burger with pickles, mustard, and ketchup from McDonald’s in July of 1999 to use as a visual aid for a presentation about enzymes and reactions. After letting it “age” for a month, he showed it to a group of students and was surprised even then at how little time had affected it.
“At the little meeting, I showed the hamburger and the pickle, which was just starting to disintegrate,” Whipple said. “There was no decomposition to the meat or bun, nor any mold, fungus or smell. It had no bad odor at all.”
After the presentation, Whipple says he stuffed the burger in a bag and ended up leaving it in his truck, forgotten, over the summer months. It eventually landed in a closet in his home, and when he discovered it he says he was amazed. Lately, it’s gotten some attention and was even featured on the show “TV Doctors”. A photo of the burger, along with its story, has since gone viral.
“This just came out in the last couple of months and it’s just been crazy,” he said.
The burger hasn’t been dehydrated or refrigerated, and Whipple says he can’t understand why it’s survived as long as it has. He is currently working on a similar experiment with burgers from different fast food chains, to see if they hold up as well as the one from McDonald’s So far, he says, they’re right on track. As for McDonald’s, they can’t offer up an explanation as to why one of their burgers would hang around this long, either.
“McDonald’s hamburger patties in the U.S. are made with 100% USDA-inspected beef. They are cooked and prepared with salt, pepper and nothing else — no preservatives — no fillers. Our hamburger buns are made from North American-grown wheat flour. These are the same foods that people buy every day in their local grocery stores,” they said in a statement.