In 2009, the last McDonald’s in Iceland shut down forever. But Hjörtur Smárason, walked into those golden doors hours before it shut and purchased a burger and fries. Now, 10 years later, the burger is still intact and has a live stream of its own.
I had heard something about McDonald’s never decaying, so I just wanted to find out for myself whether this was true or not.
-Hjörtur Smárason
The burger was given by Hjörtur to the National Museum of Iceland in 2012, but after kids tried to steal stale fries from the exhibit, the museum decided to remove it. After Hjörtur protested, the last McDonalds meal in Iceland was passed on to Snotra House, a hostel in Þykkvibær.
The hostel told BBC that people from around the world come to visit this burger, which they claim, hasn’t aged at all. Their live stream on the website grabs 400,000 views every day, where people watch this perfect looking burger, in awe.
This isn’t the first time people have decided to establish a timeline on how McDonald’s burger ages. In 1996 Karen Hanrahan bought a burger and claimed that even 14 years later, it looked no different than how she had bought it. To which, McDonald’s commented in 2013.
In the right environment, our burgers, like most other foods, could decompose but that without moisture in the environment, they were unlikely to grow mould or bacteria or decompose.
-McDonald’s
Rumours suggest that the burgers don’t have any nutrients that would attract the microbes, thus the burgers do not decay.