By Alex Formuzis, EWG Communications Director
A Denver grandmother of eight, who happens to be a trained nutritionist, decided to see for herself just how effective the preservatives used in large segments of the U.S. food system actually are.
She left an untouched McDonald's Happy Meal on a shelf in her kitchen for 12 months and has just released photos of the result. As some might expect, the year-old meal of beef, bun and French fries looks hardly different a year after it was first purchased. Hollywood note: Those of you looking to dial back the years may want look into this a little more.
Even the flies didn't want it The most revealing and somewhat scary part of this experiment was that she said the left-out food didn't attract a single fly or any other insect over the entire year. Flies swarm almost anything with an odor. They turn out in droves to hover over a dog pile but apparently had no interest in the kids' meal.
"I had the windows open many times, but flies and other insects just ignored the Happy Meal," said Joann Burso. "What does that tell you, if they can't be bothered with it?" She conceded to the website Mail Online that the arid climate where she lives in Colorado might have something to do with the Happy Meal's long "shelf life," but still...
A closer look inside that Happy Meal So, what exactly is in the preservatives that make the Happy Meal the Dean Clark of fast food? Let's take a look.
The bun: High fructose corn syrup - of course. Sugar Soybean oil Calcium sulphate Calcium carbonate Wheat gluten Ammonium sulphate Ammonium chloride Dough conditioners (whatever those are) Stearoyl lactylate Datem (again, no idea) Ascorbic acid Stearoyl lactylate Azodicarbonamide Mono- and diglycerides (not even going to try) Ethoxylated monoglycerides Monocalcium phosphate Enzymes Guar gum Calcium peroxide Calcium propionate and sodium propionate Soy lecithin
The fries: Hydrogenated soybean oil Natural beef flavor (Don't ask) Citric acid Dextrose Sodium acid pyrophosphate (to maintain color) Dimethylpolysiloxane (added as an anti-foaming agent)
The "beef": Supposedly 100 percent beef. Of course, it's undoubtedly not grass-fed beef, so much of it is actually corn. Almost half the corn grown in the United States goes to feeding cows and chickens.
I don't know about you, but I think I'll grab something with fewer than 29 ingredients for lunch today.
[Thanks to Flickr CC & Xurble for the smilin' meal]
