A story has been making its way around the Web the past couple of weeks regarding a nondecomposing McDonald’s Happy Meal.
Sally Davies, a New York-based photographer, and artist, bought a Happy Meal back in April 2010 and left it out on a plate in her kitchen ever since to see what would happen.
The upshot of this homegrown experiment? Other than an acrylic sheen, plastic-like texture and becoming hard as a rock, no other discernible changes have occurred!
Davies’ science project has been photographed weekly and the results posted on Flickr for all to see and wonder about. Should children really be given food that doesn’t decompose?
If bugs, mold, and bacteria don’t want this stuff, how could this be counted as any sort of nourishment for children other than just empty calories and toxic chemicals?
What may be even more surprising, however, is that the lack of decomposition of McDonald’s fast food is not unique in the processed foods industry.
Oh no, not by a long shot. Hold onto your hats, everyone!
How about adding supermarket cupcakes (and other baked goods) to the list of foods that neither bugs nor bacteria want anything to do with!
You know what I’m talking about – the supermarket birthday cake that is served at just about every kids’ birthday party you’ve ever attended. How about that cake you ate at your cousin’s wedding last summer? Yes, even those delightfully decorated Halloween cupcakes you saw the other day in the supermarket bakery that seemed just perfect for the Trick or Treat get together this coming weekend!
Yes, all of it.
This stuff doesn’t decompose either! It doesn’t even get moldy!
Best of all, I’ve got pictures!!
You see, many years back when I first began eating real food, I met Dennis Stoltzfoos, a local grass-based farmer who had a curious box of cupcakes sitting in his kitchen.
He explained that these cupcakes were from a party back in December 1995.
The box with the 3 remaining cupcakes never got thrown out, so it just kind of stayed in his kitchen for weeks, then months, now over TWENTY YEARS later.
After seeing this story about the nondecomposing Happy Meal, I emailed Dennis and his wife Alicia to see if they still had this box of supermarket cupcakes. They did, and Alicia snapped these photos taken only last week of the now 20+ YEAR OLD cupcakes that now practically have artifact status!
Check it out!
In this photo, you can still just make out the “1996” on the cupcake box label which indicated the expiration date for the cupcakes (it originally said “January 1996”). The cupcakes were purchased in December 1995.
Kash n’ Karry, the supermarket where these cupcakes were purchased, no longer exists. Kash n’ Karry supermarkets are now called Sweetbay Supermarkets. Update: Sweetbay is now gone too! They were bought by Winn Dixie.
Alicia Stoltzfoos told me that the sticky, sweet, artificial smell of the cupcakes was still very much evident when she opened the box to take this picture!
My hope is that parents who see this blog are motivated to never again buy supermarket bakery goods and to take the time to make a wholesome, homemade birthday cake/cupcakes with REAL ingredients for their children.
If it’s not good enough for bugs, mold, and bacteria, it’s most certainly not good enough for your children!
Source
Many thanks to Dennis and Alicia Stoltzfoos of Full Circle Farm for the pictures and story behind this blog. Dennis, Alicia, and their four healthy, beautiful children own a leading-edge, grass-based dairy farm in Live Oak, FL. To contact them to find out more about nutrient-dense, healing foods, email them at [email protected].
I know I will show my ignorance, sorry. If you made homemade cupcakes with “regular” (all purpose flour, cane sugar) wouldn’t it do the same as the store bought stuff? I’ve only been attempting the real food journey for a year @ right now I’m struggling. I feel like almost everything has bad stuff. My kids aren’t eating my real food & complain a lot. It really breaks me down because I’m trying so hard & spending so much more time & money on food to eventually be thrown out because no one will eat it. I have noticed that some things I used to love just don’t taste as good. However, I still really miss cereal, muffins, & waffles. We have found a soaked recipe that’s pretty good. I’ve tried so many things with coconut flour & they don’t go over we’ll at all. We use coconut & olive oil. Still trying to find a good olive oil. Any suggestions or encouragement would be helpful because I feel very close to throwing in the towel right now! Sorry for any typos/grammar mistakes, I’m not retreading this! 🙂
Gross! My homemade cupcakes go stale after a few days and need to be thrown away after about a week. No cupcake should look like that after fifteen years. Just think about the effect it must have on your insides when you ingest something like that. No thank you. It doesn’t take that long to whip up a batch of homemade cupcakes. I can’t believe that our society has gotten so lazy and used to convienience food that we’d rather eat a batch of pre-made cupcakes that look like plastic so many years later instead of spending twenty minutes making our own.
I read your blog all the time…thank you for the great info. I have a friend who is a personal trainer for a corporation and has the opportunity to share nutrition with many people. She has a 2 year-old dried-up McDonald’s hamburger she sets out by the scale as a fun prop to prompt conversation. One of her clients sent her this website with a guy who de-bunked the reason why it wasn’t rotting. It’s worth the read…do you have any thoughts?
http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/11/the-burger-lab-revisiting-the-myth-of-the-12-year-old-burger-testing-results.html
Thanks for your stand and information! I LOVE reading your posts, and I would definitely choose homemade ANY day of the week! Wish we had a co- op close to us, but we dont, and they also have that silly law about selling raw milk here in Ohio 🙁
Keep up the good work!
In one state I lived in and had my boys attend one year of public school, we were allowed to bring home-baked treats but not the frosting. Frosting had to be from a can. (Yuck) The current state I lived in required store bought treats or have a “food handlers card” if they were home made. My daughter’s teacher allowed me to bring home baked goods one Valentine’s Day, even though I didn’t have a food handler card. I have taken the test for one since then, and it makes certain that food safety is known.
Food borne illness will cause a lot of sick days! A kids party at school is little excuse to let our kids eat junk, but if it’s that over being sickened by poorly handled food in dirty conditions, it is hard to decide which is worse! I had home schooled my kids a total of ten years, and was able to avoid issues such as these, most of the time. At least every day I knew what my kids were eating and learning.
I’m not saying that I want to eat those cupcakes, but this experiment doesn’t really prove much. The human body can be mummified under the right conditions so, of course, cupcakes can be too.
Actually, whether or not cupcakes mold just depends on how much moisture is in them. Last year on my son’s birthday I made him a little cake from scratch out of organic ingredients. He never actually ate. I still have it, it is exactly one year old and no mold or other signs of decay.
can i offer to come clean your kitchen for you? what is it with people keeping old food around?
My store bought bread will mold sometimes and not mold other times. When it doesn’t mold it gets a very strong paint-like smell. ( i have a couple of sandwich holdouts – I must confess, I love my BLT’s to be all smooshy 😛 ). I don’t use a loaf of it before it gets scary.
Sarah,
This anonymous poster is one of the reasons so many people are oblivious about real health and nutrition. I don’t understand why this person feels the need to defend processed, industrialized foods. I’m 28, but if you knew me, you would think I was much older because I don’t do things like most people I know. When my daughter was 2 years old, I heard about organic milk and I was intrigued by it and wondered what the difference was between organic and conventional. I used to be one of those people who believed “health” experts, but I didn’t know any better at the time. I’ve taken the time and effort to research real foods and I’ll never go back to eating junk.
People have gotten lazy and are always looking for an easy way out when it comes to food. I’m poor and my food budget is tight, but that doesn’t stop me from buying natural and organic meats, and other real foods to feed my family, nor does it stop me from taking the time to cook from scratch. I will no longer be a blind sheep who listens to these so-called health experts. I’m taking my health into my own hands. By the way, your site is great.