Weird News Files

Morgan Spurlock did this in Super Size Me, for about a year. But Karen Hanrahan has kept a McDonald’s hamburger since 1996.

Yup, she’s had this burger for 12 years!

And it still looks ready to eat. That’s frightening!

McDonald’s (and other factory fast food joints) use a lot of preservatives to keep their food fresh-looking (note: ‘fresh-looking,’ not ‘fresh’) during it’s production, transportation, and storage. This keeps their food looking good a lot longer than is natural. (See the end of this post for the current ingredients in a McDonald’s Hamburger bun.)

Under regular circumstances, if you grilled a burger and put it on a bun and put it in a container for a month, you’d have to scrape the mold off just to see it.

As Karen says, “Ladies, Gentleman, and children alike – this is a chemical food. There is absolutely no nutrition here.”

Karen is a wellness consultant and uses the 12 year old burger as a prop in her talks. See all the photos and read Karen’s description on her blog, “Best of Mother Earth ~ Creating Healthier Lives”.

NOTE: Regarding the hamburger wrapper in the photo that is clearly a more current wrapper with the “I’m lovin’ it” slogan, Karen explains this in her post: “The paper and bag in the backround is circa 2008 – to add decor to the photo. My friend Robyn’s idea.”

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McDonald’s Hamburger Bun ingredients (as of 2008):

Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, high fructose corn syrup, yeast, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, soybean oil, canola oil, contains 2% or less of each of the following: salt, wheat gluten, calcium sulfate, soy flour, ammonium sulfate, calcium carbonate, calcium phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, ammonium chloride, baking soda, sorbic acid, deactivated dry yeast, dough conditioners (may contain one or more the following: distilled monoglycerides, DATEM, sodium stearoyl lactylate, calcium peroxide, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, mono- and diglycerides, enzymes, guar gum), calcium propionate & sodium propionate (preservatives), soy lecithin.

Note: Calcium and Sodium Propionate are ‘mold inhibitors,’ hence the fresh looking 12 year old bun!

Late one evening last September, Caryl Jones ordered an iced tea at the drive-through of the McDonald’s near her Northwest Baltimore home. But that’s not what she got, according to her lawsuit in Baltimore City Circuit Court.

What Jones got was another sort of “T”: Triazinetrione — Dichloro-s-Triazinetrione Dihydrate, to be exact — better known as “McD Sanitizer,” a cleaning chemical intended for use on kitchen equipment and surfaces, according to her lawyer.

“She took a sip, it burned her mouth and she spit it out,” said Patricia S. Steiger, of the Law Offices of Seymour Goldstein.

Jones, an administrative assistant, convinced the restaurant employees to open the closed interior of the restaurant in the 4200 block of Mortimer Ave., Steiger said. The workers gave her some milk — and a sample of what she unwittingly put in her mouth, the lawyer said.

“They gave her a packet like the one that had been in there — as a matter of knowing what it was — to take with her and then she went to the emergency room” at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Steiger said.

There, doctors determined Jones had “a mild or moderate chemical reaction,” Steiger said, and eventually diagnosed her with chemical pharyngitis and tonsillitis. By mid-November, she had made a full recovery, according to Steiger.

In the suit filed last week, Jones seeks $100,000 on counts of negligence and breach of warranty.

Franchise owner Cynthia Brown declined to comment on the pending litigation, instead issuing an e-mailed statement through a McDonald’s spokeswoman.

“Nothing is more important to me than the well-being of my customers,” the e-mail said. “Rest assured, we take this matter seriously.”

According to label information from the Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency, a packet of “McD Sanitizer,” produced by Greensboro, N.C.-based Kay Chemical International Inc. exclusively for McDonald’s, is meant to be combined with gallons of water to clean “shake/soft serve machines, kitchen utensils, kitchen equipment, counter tops and tables.”

At this point, Steiger said, she does not know “who mixed it, when they mixed it or how they mixed it.”

The chemical is a skin irritant and swallowing it could result in mucosal damage, according to the PMRA report. Jones did not swallow the solution, Steiger said.

Asked where this suit fits among others against fast-food chains for defective products — scalding hot coffee, for example — Steiger said her case is “much simpler.”

“It wasn’t iced tea; it was cleaning solution,” she said. “It’s not a matter of degrees. She was given something that was not meant to be consumed.”

Source: MDRecord  Link Filed under Weird US News

VERO BEACH, FL — A McDonald’s cashier called 911 after a Vero Beach drive-thru customer allegedly offered to pay for his meal with marijuana. The Indian River County Sheriff’s Office said the cashier called Monday with a description of the vehicle the suspect had been riding in.

A deputy spotted the vehicle, found marijuana in the car and arrested its occupant, 27-year-old Shawn Alexander Pannullo.

Pannullo was charged with possession of cannabis and posted $500 bail. It was unclear if he had an attorney.

A Sheriff’s report did not say what the suspect ordered at McDonald’s or if he ultimately purchased the meal using something other than marijuana.  (A Happy Meal, perhaps?)
Source: TCPalm News Link  filed under Weird US News