Happy Meal Resists Decomp? Huh???

[Scuba Steve]

Quote de LubeMaster77

Someone has to try this....

They used to serve Rice Crispy Marshmallow squares for dessert at Texas A&M. If you picked up the square, the plate would come with it. Someone commented that we should forward one to NASA to use to hold the tiles on the shuttle.



Someone else got the bright idea to take 2 of them and adhere them to the underside of the table. We checked them pretty regularly and they stayed there. We would forget for a few days, then weeks, then months, until someone would say: "Hey! How are the 'Space Bricks' doing?"



This lasted from Fall of 1984 through the end of Spring 1985. I think they were gone, or at least the table was moved, by the fall of 1985. Maybe they are still there...

Probably gone because they renovated Sbisa. But 15 years after you guys did it we were up to the exact same thing. The purple pudding-like stuff they had in the salad bar made a great adhesive. It'd hold things to the bottom of the table for ages. And the rice krispie things were still made from the same recipe.

Another thing we learned there was that around mardi gras they had crawdads and small cups with bluebell ice cream. There were also helium balloons tied to the end of all the tables. 4 balloons + crawdad + empty blue bell cup = crawdad balloonist.

[RWebb]

used to have kaolinite in 'em; maybe still do

I'm sure all you roughnecks know what that is...

[Mr.Puff]

Originally Posted by RWebb

used to have kaolinite in 'em; maybe still do

I'm sure all you roughnecks know what that is...

Sure do. It's a clay mineral used to soothe the bowels. There is nothing wrong with consumption. Kaolinite is actually used in a surprising amount of things, like toothpaste. College geology pays off again.

[McLovin]

I don't get that. It's just plain ground beef and regular bread, it would decompose (or not) just the same as any hamburger from any restaurant.

McDonald's is constantly under mega scrutiny. They've always said their hamburger meat is 100% beef, with no preservatives, flavoring or additives. I'd tend to believe it, if for no reason other than if it were not true, I'm sure there'd be no shortage of lawyers lining up to file the class action suit. So it would decompose like any other ground beef. And the bread is just bread.

The "milk" shakes, on the other hand . . . well, McDonald's is upfront about what's in them.

[EdT82SC]

My wife did this. She used to put on healthy eating seminars, and this was one of her scare you into eating healthier props. The trick with the burger is get it plain, no cheese, and take it apart to dry out for a week or so. After that you can put it back together. The fries you don't need to do anything special. She used the same burger and fries for a few years before she quit doing the seminars.

[DanielDudley]

Originally Posted by LubeMaster77

They like doing things that fit in a day or two - this could take some time. Pretty easy to do, just buy a Happy Meal and leave it out. I will pick one up tomorrow and leave it in my lab. It has controlled heat and humidity. I will take pics each day/week and show progress (actually more like stasis!)

How about you leave one in the bag, all crumpled up, and throw it into the back seat of your car for a week, parked in the sun ?

You know, as a control.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

There's an incredible amount of processed and otherwise scary crap out there.

Watch "Food, Inc." sometime. That'll horrify most. Even if only half of it is true, it's still enough to scare the crap out of you regarding how badly screwed up our food supply is.

I once accidentally dropped a pop-tart into a campfire. The flames were green and blue. Nothing even remotely natural looking. That did it for me as far as those went. I stay away from all the processed/packaged crap now and am much better for it.

[M.D. Holloway]

Originally Posted by DanielDudley

How about you leave one in the bag, all crumpled up, and throw it into the back seat of your car for a week, parked in the sun ?

You know, as a control.

I call our Honda Pilot 'The Lunch-box' because it smells like one! My Volvo and Targa are keep as clean a church pew, the 'The Lunch-box' is worked like a circus mule.

I think this experiment does call for several variable to be explored. Let me work out the details...calls for an orthogonal array I do believe!

[M.D. Holloway]

To keep things fair, I got a hamburger, cheeseburger, small fries and a small vanilla shake from McDonalds and from Burger King. They are separated by a wall of corrugated cardboard. They will be in my failure lab with 8-10 hours of artificial light, 75F, ~20% RH.

Here are the specimens at 2 hours old:

[nynor]

specimens.... that is awesome.

[Pazuzu]

I want a Failure Lab! That's gotta be even cooler than a Man Cave...

[McLovin]

nice, how long are you going to let it run?

You're also missing the "control group" (I think that's what it's called). You have 2 of the "evil fast food burgers," but you need a "wholesome" burger to compare against. One made with the highest price, most grass fed, organic, etc. ground beef and bread bought from Whole Foods, etc.

[bell]

didn't read this whole thread so not sure if someone posted it.....
Do a search for "stinkymeat", a guy documented years ago what actually happens to steak and a few other meats over a long period......
The happy meal is like a twinkie.....LOL

[RWebb]

test will not be statistically valid

whut R U? some kinda clinician??

[M.D. Holloway]

Hay! Don't get your...

!

[71T Targa]

5 days in, how do the burgers look?

[s_morrison57]

trust me on this cause I know, if you store food properly it will last forever, how do I know, I have a dried food collection going back to 1974, the first peice was a Jap orange, have samwitches, cookies, KFC potato salad thats 15 yrs old, a Taco Bell burrito, apples, slice of meatloaf thats over 20 years old. Its a wierd hobby OK but I have lots of different stuff, been at it for over 35 years now. 6 months are you kidding, that's rookie material compared to what I have.

[porsche4life]

Pics or it didn't happen!


And that poor young lass has a bunching problem. I better help her remove those.

[M.D. Holloway]

Well, I am happy to announce that there is no stink finding its way through out the office building (other than the regular stench of profit and mayheim!).

Her for the pics after 5 days - no mold to be found. The shakes do not smell per se, the burgers and fries are as hard as wood.

BK:






And McD's:

[porsche4life]

Them shakes are gunna get flat out nasty!