Ex-McDonald's chef settles debate on whether burgers go mouldy after eye-opening video

A former McDonald's chef has spilled the beans on how long it actually takes for a McDonald's burger to go mouldy.

Mike Haracz, who goes by @chefmikeharacz on TikTok, claims he previously worked at McDonald's corporate office and has been dishing out 'insider information' about the fast-food giant on the social media platform.

Customers have long been curious about what's actually in McDonald's food - and now Mike has settled the debate on whether the chain's produce ever 'goes off'. This was sparked by a resurfaced video from YouTuber DebunkerSam titled 'The decomposition of McDonald's burgers and fries', which was originally posted 13 years ago.

In his five-minute experiment, DebunkerSam places McDonald's fries and various burgers into jars to observe their rate of decomposition. After a fortnight, the fries seem unchanged, while the quarter pounder, chicken, and fish burgers begin to show mould growth.

Surprisingly, he notes that the Big Mac looks untouched, stating "it hasn't even started to mould yet". Three weeks in, only the lettuce in the Big Mac shows signs of mould, with the rest of the burger looking much the same.

By the fifth week, mould has engulfed the Big Mac, mirroring the fate of the other burgers, yet the fries still look pristine.

Ten weeks into the experiment, DebunkerSam is astounded by the condition of the fries, exclaiming: "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 swift to react to the video clip. He stated in his own video: "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 further explained how McDonald's incorporates mould inhibitors into its food to prevent them from moulding for a week or two when kept in the right conditions. 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."

This topic ignited a debate in the comments section, with some users claiming they've never seen a mouldy McDonald's, while others argue its food grows mould just like everything else.

One user recounted: "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 chimed in with: "Oh yeah, I've definitely seen mold on buns at my job we just threw them away."

Meanwhile, a third user shared their experience: "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 approached for a statement.