Two Australians claim to possess ‘the oldest burger on planet Earth,’ and they have shared its current appearance nearly three decades after purchasing it from McDonald’s.
The saying “nothing lasts forever” might not apply to Eduard Nitz and Cacey Dean’s ‘Senior Burger,’ which seems to defy time itself.
Back in 1995, Nitz and Dean, both 14 at the time, went out for an evening with some friends. During their outing, they stopped at a McDonald’s restaurant.
During the outing, someone in the group ordered more food than they could eat. Unable to finish the meal, the person allegedly asked Nitz to keep hold of their Quarter Pounder until they reunited in Adelaide.
“He said to me: ‘Eduard, hold on to this burger until the next time I come and visit’. And he hasn’t been to visit,” Nitz mentioned recently on Australia’s Channel 9 Today Show.
Now, 29 years on, Nitz has honored his commitment, initially storing the old fast food item on his desk, and later moving it into a special box that has been passed around family members since 1995.
Curious about what a 29-year-old McDonald’s Quarter Pounder looks like? Take a look at the images below.
Surprisingly, the so-called Senior Burger has not developed any mold, which commonly occurs with other aging food items. Nitz and Dean noted it was ‘too old for mold.’
“We get a lot of questions and one of them is ‘Did you do anything to it?’,” Dean said. “We didn’t touch it. We did nothing.”
Although the Senior Burger appears the same, it’s no longer as soft and juicy as it would have been if consumed nearly 30 years ago.
In reality, it has become rock hard, with Dean illustrating this by bouncing the artifact off its keepsake box.
A decade ago, their Senior Burger gained online attention for the first time when they created a Facebook page titled: ‘Can this 20-year-old burger get more likes than Kanye West?’
“Then, of course, it exploded, and we ended up all over everything…We get sent fan art so we got right into it.”
Now, there’s a single on Spotify, and Dean and Nitz have hinted at an album release soon.
The duo is also working on an Artificial Intelligence-powered ChatBot that will allow fans to converse with the Senior Burger.
“One of my neighbours, turns out he’s right into AI so we’re actually coding him up a personality so you’ll be able to talk to the burger as a therapist.”
“The whole thing is pretty crazy, but it’s a legitimately old burger, so why not?,” Dean added.
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The Senior Burger has been a topic on Reddit for years. One user commented, “Surprise no mold even with preservative. Can’t imagine what it do inside your body.”
“I can see this burger is going to grave with 1 of them,” another user replied.
A third user reminisced: “Woah I totally forgot about the cardboard rings which used to come around the burgers! That triggered a deep long lost memory. I wonder when that stopped.”
When asked if McDonald’s had ever acknowledged the Senior Burger, Nitz and Dean stated: “Yes. For any mainstream media television show to cover our burger they must first let McDonald’s know.”
Tim Crowe, an Australian nutrition scientist and accredited practicing dietitian, previously explained to ABC that the high salt content in McDonald’s burgers makes them particularly resistant to decay.
“There is nothing insidious about the content of McDonald’s food here,” he mentioned.
“There are many better food choices for their nutrition than fast-food burgers and fries, but there is nothing to be alarmed about such food standing the test of time and staying well-preserved.”