McDonnals French Fries

Executioner · Post by **Executioner** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 10:07 pm

After watching this, you might want to think twice about eating them:

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Err · Post by **Err** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 10:46 pm

mmmmmm preservatives!

peroxide8888 · Post by **peroxide8888** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:08 pm

You do know it's McDonald's, don't you?

Executioner · Post by **Executioner** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 1:13 am

peroxide8888 wrote:You do know it's McDonald's, don't you?

Yeah, but I'm not the worlds best speller.

DoPeY5007 · Post by **DoPeY5007** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 2:11 am

Kinda nasty!

nexus_7 · Post by **nexus_7** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 2:35 am

I cant even remember the last time I was at M. Granted, Wendys and BK and taco bell probably arnt any better. lol

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 7:29 am

Still, w/o a doubt they're the best tasting fast food french fries. Just don't make a habit of eating them too often.

Invisible Evil · Post by **Invisible Evil** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 10:52 am

I don't even eat at McD but how does this hold up, If you factor in stomach acid to break the food down? I am not a science major but this just makes little sense to me.

peroxide8888 · Post by **peroxide8888** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 11:59 am

If you watch closely - all the foods make contact with his hands, except the McDonald's fries. Contact with his hands potentially introduces other bacteria into the mix. *Also, burgers are touched by restaurant employees first.

Think about it this way also, the McDonald's french fries have the least amount of moisture in them. Notice there was little to no condensation in the McDonald's fries jar compared to the others. Put a bag of regular potato chips in another jar and I'll bet they won't mold/decompose either (even less moisture than McD's french fries). It really is simple science, and easily explained imho.

TheSovereign · Post by **TheSovereign** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 2:01 pm

peroxide8888 wrote:If you watch closely - all the foods make contact with his hands, except the McDonald's fries. Contact with his hands potentially introduces other bacteria into the mix. *Also, burgers are touched by restaurant employees first.

Think about it this way also, the McDonald's french fries have the least amount of moisture in them. Notice there was little to no condensation in the McDonald's fries jar compared to the others. Put a bag of regular potato chips in another jar and I'll bet they won't mold/decompose either (even less moisture than McD's french fries). It really is simple science, and easily explained imho.

w00t a critical thinker!

by taking hot fries sticking them in a sealed glass jar, he basically created a sterile environment. same process as canning a food item
however if we look at the second set of fries which he just dumped into the jar how do we explain that particular exception?
perhaps someone snuck a fry before he dumped them in?

Err · Post by **Err** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 2:41 pm

TheSovereign wrote:w00t a critical thinker!

by taking hot fries sticking them in a sealed glass jar, he basically created a sterile environment. same process as canning a food item
however if we look at the second set of fries which he just dumped into the jar how do we explain that particular exception?
perhaps someone snuck a fry before he dumped them in?

The second set of fires may not have been cook as thoroughly as the McDonalds Fries. They were much thicker and may not have achieved the temperatures in the center needed to kill all the organisms.

While an interesting experiment, it's missing controls and repetition. For instance:

The Jars were probably not sterilized.
The food items were not added to the jars aseptically.
No Positive and Negative Controls: A jar with an bacterial agar plate for the negative and food that had been subjected to mold and bacteria for the positives.
No repetition: Multiple sandwiches of the same type and multiple fries from different batches.

While the fries didn't appear to break down, he never broke one open and looked inside. The inside cou;d have been slime for all we know. My guess as to why the fries didn't show decay is the very heavy amounts of salt used on fries. Salt is a great preservative for food.

peroxide8888 · Post by **peroxide8888** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 11:22 pm

TheSovereign wrote:w00t a critical thinker!

by taking hot fries sticking them in a sealed glass jar, he basically created a sterile environment. same process as canning a food item
however if we look at the second set of fries which he just dumped into the jar how do we explain that particular exception?
perhaps someone snuck a fry before he dumped them in?

The "normal" fries are much thicker, and will therefore contain much more moisture than the thin McD's fries. Also watch the video again carefully, his thumb makes contact with at least one or two of the "normal" fries on their way into the jar.

I'd bet that if you did the same experiment by grabbing a handful of McD's fries, handful of his "normal" fries and a handful of potato chips - you'd get similar results (and the potato chips won't break down either).

More moisture in the "normal" fries = breeding ground for bacteria. McD's fries and potato chips lacking moisture = stale, but no (or little) mold.

MegaVectra · Post by **MegaVectra** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 11:42 pm

Man I could go for a couple double cheeseburgers.

TheSovereign · Post by **TheSovereign** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 12:54 am

peroxide8888 wrote:The "normal" fries are much thicker, and will therefore contain much more moisture than the thin McD's fries. Also watch the video again carefully, his thumb makes contact with at least one or two of the "normal" fries on their way into the jar.

I'd bet that if you did the same experiment by grabbing a handful of McD's fries, handful of his "normal" fries and a handful of potato chips - you'd get similar results (and the potato chips won't break down either).

More moisture in the "normal" fries = breeding ground for bacteria. McD's fries and potato chips lacking moisture = stale, but no (or little) mold.

to further your evidence in the film their was never any water vapor in the jar for the mcdonalds fries. explaining to me they were pretty much bone dry. sugars, starches and similar whatnots all have one thing in common. if they are dry they never go bad. you can store sugars for 1000 years come back open the jar and eat it with no problems. the reason is bacteria/fungii needs water to digest complex sugar.