FreeInKy - 18 June 2012 08:50 AM

TimB - 15 June 2012 10:35 AM

I wonder which would last longer thru the ages, a bronze statue, a twinkie, or a MacDonald’s french fry.

A happy meal is apparently good for at least a year.

This 1-Year-Old Happy Meal Has Aged Surprisingly Well

I’ve heard this story before and I find it hard to believe.  I may run an experiment of my own to see if I replicate the results.

I was doing a similar experiment with Chex Mix on the floor of my car.  Unfortunately, my fiancees dog ate the test sample after about three months.  However I can state with some certainty that three months old Chex Mix is not poisonous to dogs.

Jeciron - 18 June 2012 01:27 PM

I was doing a similar experiment with Chex Mix on the floor of my car.  Unfortunately, my fiancees dog ate the test sample after about three months.  However I can state with some certainty that three months old Chex Mix is not poisonous to dogs.

LOL hilarious. I’m not sure i want to be around three months into Autsin’s experiment though.

Since I posted that yesterday I’ve been weighing the pros and cons of putting it in a closed container of some sort.  I want to keep it exposed to air because that seems to be what was claimed originally, but I also don’t want my house to smell like McDonald’s for a year (fresh or rotting) and I don’t want flies.  Flies are one reason I have trouble believing this claim.  Wouldn’t bugs have been able to eat a Happy Meal over the course of a year?  Even if it didn’t rot, it should still have been consumed by pests.

Any suggestions?

That remembers me on a pyramid experiment i did with salad, back in the 90ies.
I built a aluminum foil and copper pyramid, turned the corners to north and south, and put some fresh salad beneath it.
As controll group i used Salad under aluminum foil of no special shape.
The pyramid salad did last longer (1-2 days), i dont know why, but i dont believe in some sort of unseen pyramid energy,maybe the shape helped to keep it wet, or so.

Austin Harper - 19 June 2012 08:24 AM

Since I posted that yesterday I’ve been weighing the pros and cons of putting it in a closed container of some sort.  I want to keep it exposed to air because that seems to be what was claimed originally, but I also don’t want my house to smell like McDonald’s for a year (fresh or rotting) and I don’t want flies.  Flies are one reason I have trouble believing this claim.  Wouldn’t bugs have been able to eat a Happy Meal over the course of a year?  Even if it didn’t rot, it should still have been consumed by pests.

Any suggestions?

You could put some sort of screen or mesh around the food which would keep out flies ( laying eggs>>> begetting maggots) and other large insects. You may want to put it up high enough to keep it away from the dog/cat, but the bugs you won’t be able to keep out are the bacteria and mold which will surely set up shop and rot the food since there is no way to properly sterilize it without destroying it.

As unhealthy as happy meals are to eat, they are yummy to all sorts of other organisms so any myth that it would survive for a year does not need much testing. Leave it in a sealed container at room temperature for a couple weeks and it will still be rotten.