I happened upon several videos on Youtube, which tested the stability of McD’s french fries (to resist mold/decay). Most of the experiments involved placing an order of fires under a bell jar…and waiting. In one such case, the fires appeared the same after 3 months-no sign of mold growth or decay. Are the cooking these things in embalming fluid? What would explain the seeming “immortality” of fast food fries?
Second, is whatever substance responsible poisonous to humans? I find the whole thing a bit disturbing!
Don’t believe everything you see on Youtube. Or the Internet.
From McDonald’s website:
Generally the whole McDonalds food does not decay pictures are because the food is thin and thus dehydrates quickly. Since mold and other methods of decay need water, food that is dehydrated decays very slowly. There is nothing unusual in the ingredients or the cooking method, it is just the lack of water that accounts for the lack of decay.
Basically, that McDonald’s french fries are dry; mold isn’t going to grow in a dry environment.
BTW, didn’t Julia Child praise McDonald’s fries?
Cooking the fries will sterilize them and I would imagine the coating of oil and salt inhibits growth of nasties.
Also, salty food tends to last awhile. I dont know how much the external salt helps the situation in this case, but salting as a method of preservation is ancient. Having something last for months and even years hardly requires “embalming fluid.” I’m not really impressed by these “OMG, it’s been three months and the food hasn’t rotted into oblivion!” type videos, as drying and salting can make food last years.
If this is one of the videos that the OP is referring to, then they put the fries inside of a sealed container - and they still didn’t mold (the hamburgers and other fries did). Of course, this video was made in 2007, before they switched to trans fat-free cooking oil.
Eh, it just looks like McD’s fries are thinner and drier, so have less opportunity for mold to form. I really don’t see anything surprising there.
In the video you can see the moisture on the insides of the jars on all of the food, except for the McDonalds fries which have no moisture at all on the side of the glass.
The whole point of double frying french fries is to get the moisture out so that the fries are crisp. Since McDonalds has the crispiest fast food fries it stand to reason they have the driest.
This article discussed the myth about the “never decaying” Big Mac… I presume it’s the same principle as the fries (much of which has been discussed upthread).
Yes, the same trick was done in “SUpersize Me”; minus the explanation in order to make you think there was something nefarious about McFries.
they are thinner than a lot of fries, and cooked until they are fairly crunchy. (With temperature and timer controls, the results are pretty consistent.) The thick fries you get from th local greasy spoon, or wedge fries, still have a lot of wet songy potato starch inside. Considering the aim of the film, and Spurlock is not as dumb as he makes himself out to be, I would not be surprised to find that the selction of the contrasting type of fries was no coincidence. They turned to a moldy mess in a week or two.
Mold likes water. Mold does not like salt. As a result, McFries will stay “clean”. If you don’t cover them, they will dry out even further unless the atmosphere is very humid. No surprise mold doesn’t grow.
Some stores keep beef jerky in jars, unrefrigerated, by the cash register. Same idea - dry, salted. It’s meat, but it doesn’t go bad like plain raw meat.
Yes, I remember seeing that on “Supersize Me”. The burger started molding quickly - a day or two or three? - while the fries didn’t start molding until several weeks later. All the food was underneath its own domed glass cover. That’s what I remember from the movie.
I still won’t eat the ones I find under the car seat, mold or not.
You’re nuts. Seat fries are the best.
Right up there with leftover pizza a day or two later.