McDonald's hamburgers have garnered a reputation for their longevity, but none have achieved the notoriety of a seemingly unaltered Quarter Pounder from Australia. This particular burger, purchased nearly three decades ago, exhibits no signs of decomposition, the New York Post reported.
According to a documented claim, Casey Dean and Eduards Nits, two Australian residents, purchased the Quarter Pounder with cheese in 1995 from a McDonald's location in Adelaide. During this time, Bill Clinton served as the President of the United States. Little did they know, this seemingly ordinary purchase would propel the burger into the realm of fast-food legend.
"Being teenagers we ordered a truckload of food, and it was just way too much," Mr Dean told AFP. "It started a chain of events where we were joking 'imagine if we kept this forever.'"
Following their initial purchase, Dean and Nits opted to retain the seemingly impervious burger, affectionately naming it "their mate." Nearly three decades later, the remarkably well-preserved burger, now dubbed the "McFossil," exhibits no signs of microbial growth or discernible odour. However, it has undergone a slight reduction in size compared to its original dimensions.
The McFossil's longevity is particularly noteworthy given its storage environment. The majority of its existence has been spent within a basic cardboard and wooden container. Notably, it endured over a decade in a warm Adelaide shed, where summer temperatures routinely surpass 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).
"The rats had actually eaten through the plastic bag, heaps of clothes, got into the box and they'd left the burger," said Dean.
Dubbing it the "Senior Burger" and referring to it repeatedly as their "mate", the men have created social media profiles for the burger and even wrote a song about it.
They believe it is the oldest known McDonald's burger in the world, outranking a prominent decade-old cheeseburger displayed in a glass case in Iceland and live-streamed online to thousands of viewers.
Storage for the ancient Aussie burger has been rather less considered, though it has mostly been kept under lock and key in a box made of timber and cardboard.
That box spent about a decade jumbled up with clothing inside a shed in Adelaide, where temperatures regularly top 30 degrees Celsius in summer.
When they eventually went to check on it, Dean said even rats had turned their noses up at the morsel.
"The rats had actually eaten through the plastic bag, heaps of clothes, got into the box and they'd left the burger," he said.
"Our mate was safe."
Dean said he understood why some might be sceptical about their claim, but argues the old-school packaging -- waxy paper and a cardboard ring -- accurately dates the burger to the mid-1990s.
He is steadfast that the pair would never part with it despite fielding offers from around the world when it first came to public attention in 2015.
