Macdonald’s Responses To Food Experiment
A few days ago a scandal involving the well-known MacDonald’s restaurants burst. Sally Davies, a photographer from New York, bought on April the 10th a Happy Meal and photographed it every day for six months. After 94 days, she found out that the hamburger and the French fries seemed never to decompose and that the smell was no so bad, as one would expect.
Davies said that she wanted to see how the food would react with the passage of time and that she chose MacDonald’s only because the restaurant was close to her home. “The first thing that shocked me was that the food lost its smell after only a day on the shelf, my dog stopped roaring around it”, told Sally Davies. She also mentioned that she is a vegetarian and that she bought the meal only for the experiment.
Six months later Davies observed that the food did not change its appearance and that it only hardened and lost its smell. The response of the MacDonald’s official came a few days later. In a media statement, they said that “McDonald’s menu items are freshly prepared in our restaurants. It is not possible to provide a detailed explanation regarding these claims without knowing the conditions in which these food items were kept. That said, we strongly caution anyone from jumping to conclusions”.
The company also explained that the mold only appears in humid conditions and that the dehydration of the food is a natural reaction. „Bacteria and mold only grow under certain conditions. For example, without sufficient moisture — either in the food itself or the environment in which it is held — bacteria and mold and associated decomposition, is unlikely. If food becomes dry enough, it won’t grow mold or bacteria. Dehydration is in fact a natural preservation method” it is shown in MacDonald’s statement.
The company’s officials also said that MacDonald’s food is produced with 100% USDA- inspected products and without any preservatives. Moreover, “McDonald’s food safety and quality standards are among the highest in the industry. McDonald’s sources its ingredients from approved suppliers that adhere to strict standards for food safety and quality, including a controlled, well-maintained and clean environment throughout our entire supply chain”, says the quoted media statement.
