Former McDonald’s chef Mike Haracz has explained how long it takes for the chain’s burgers to go off – and what it adds to its food to help preserve them for longer
A former McDonald’s chef has revealed just how long it takes for one of the chain’s burgers to go mouldy.
Mike Haracz, known as @chefmikeharacz on TikTok, says he used to work in McDonald’s corporate office – and has been sharing ‘insider information’ about the business on social media.
After customers started to question what’s actually in McDonald’s food, he settled the debate on whether its produce ever ‘goes off’. It comes after YouTuber DebunkerSam’s video showing ‘The decomposition of McDonald’s burgers and fries’ resurfaced online after being originally uploaded 13 years ago.
In the five-minute video, he puts its fries and burgers into jars and documents how long it takes for them to decompose. After two weeks, its fries look almost identical from the day he bought them while its quarter pounder burger, chicken burger, and fish burger all start showing signs of mould.
However, he claims the Big Mac remains the same as when he put it in the jar, saying “it hasn’t even started to mould yet”. After three weeks, the lettuce in the meal starts to go mouldy but the rest of the burger appears to remain the same.
By week five, the Big Mac is completely covered in mould alongside the other burgers. But once again, the fries remain intact.
Recording his last video 10 weeks in, and speaking about the French fries, he says: “Look at that! What is wrong with that? there’s not even one spore on there, it’s not breaking down – nothing. It looks like we bought them yesterday.”
Haracz was quick to respond to the clip. In his video, he said: “In response to somebody saying McDonald’s burgers never go mouldy or go bad, buns do mould, actually. I’ve worked at multiple fast-food places and seen multiple mould-ridden buns.
“They come into the store with mould sometimes. Well, that last part, that’s not great. That means you’re being shipped old buns or they have not been stored properly. But when anyone talks about the McDonald’s burgers never going bad that is false. A lot of times, what is happened is that the bun or burgers are becoming dehydrated.”
He went on to explain how McDonald’s adds mould inhibitors to its food to prevent them from moulding for a week or two when stored in the correct environment. He added: “When everyone talks about them pulling out food from behind a seat that’s been there for a year or whatever, it’s a combination of dehydration and the fact McDonald’s cooks their burgers and its meats well done so there’s no raw protein.
“There’s a lot less moist and fat in there. The fact they salt and season after it’s cooked – so that salt is dropping the water activity. Salt absorbs any free moisture and that free moisture is what microbes and things use to grow.” The topic sparked a debate in the comments with some users claiming to have never seen a mouldy McDonald’s, while others say its food grows mould just like everything else.
One user said: “I worked for a car dealership that took a trashed car trade-in. Two years later we got around to cleaning it. Found a McDonald’s cheeseburger that looked like it was just made. Zero rot. bugs didn’t eat.”
Another user added: “Oh yeah, I’ve definitely seen mold on buns at my job – we just threw them away.” A third user said: “As someone who’s worked for McDonald’s for 10 years, I’ve never seen a moldy bun ever. People don’t realise how much safety goes into their food.”
McDonald’s has been contacted for comment.
