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Cast your mind back to the year 1995: Bill Clinton was the US President, the first verdict in the OJ Simpson trial was delivered and we met Woody and Buzz Lightyear for the first time as Toy Story was released.
Now, imagine buying a McDonald's quarter pounder in the same year from a chain in Adelaide, Australia and keeping it for nearly three decades.
Well, Casey Dean and Eduards Nits claim to have done just that as teenagers all in a bid to see how it would degrade over time.
As it turns out, 30 years later, it’s looking more youthful than many of the human beings who’ve duly aged over that time.
The burger, dubbed the men’s ‘mate’, has done a Bilbo Baggins and barely aged a day.
AFP reported that the burger had shrunk down a little bit, but it was free of mould and hadn’t picked up any unpleasant smells.
"Being teenagers we ordered a truckload of food, and it was just way too much," Dean explained.
"It started a chain of events where we were joking 'imagine if we kept this forever', and here we are."
The burger has outlived its contemporaries to see all manner of historical events: 9/11, the 2008 financial crash, the Bratz live-action movie, the inauguration of Donald Trump, the impeachment of Donald Trump, the Sex and the City reunion, and the second inauguration of Donald Trump.
Who knows how many more era-defining events it will exist alongside?
Dean said that the quarter pounder is kept in his shed where it had survived many scorching summers and even a rat infestation. While the rodents ate through the packaging, they curiously didn’t fancy wolfing into the burger itself.
A McDonald’s spokesperson came to the fore to explain why this quarter pounder has stood the test of time, saying that cooked burgers left at room temperature would lack the necessary moisture for bacterial growth.
McDonald’s rival Burger King has previously played to the urban legends around Ronald’s burgers being impervious to decomposition.
Back in 2020, it ran a timelapse video campaign showing one of its burgers rotting as food generally ought to.
Not easy viewing? Sure.
A clever way to show that their burgers are made with a minimum of preservatives? Yes.
Kerri-Ann Roper