Two Aussies claim they have kept McDonald’s burger for 24 years

An Icelandic man’s burger and fries went viral last week after he celebrated its 10th birthday. But two Aussie blokes may have upstaged him with their 24-year-old Quarter Pounder that has barely aged a day. SEE THE PHOTOS.

Casey Dean inspects a McDonald's burger bought in 1995 and kept in an Australian shed for years which has never decomposed.

A McDonald’s burger ­allegedly bought in 1995 and kept in an Australian shed for years has never decomposed, according to two men who now refer to the quarter-­century Quarter Pounder as their “mate”.

Casey Dean, 39, and Eduards Nits, 38, claim they ordered the Quarter Pounder with cheese from a McDonald’s outlet in Adelaide as teenagers — and have hung on to it ever since.

Mr Dean said he understood why some might be sceptical about their claim, but argued the packaging — waxy paper and a cardboard ring — accurately dated the burger to the mid-1990s.

The Macca’s burger that was allegedly bought in 1995.

“Being teenagers we ordered a truckload of food and it was just way too much,” Mr Dean said.

“It started a chain of events where we were joking, ­‘Imagine if we kept this ­forever.’ And here we are.”

Although the burger has shrunk, its shape is intact, there are no signs of mould and it does not smell.

The men said their relationship with the Quarter Pounder would span 25 years by November 2020.

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 can surpass 40C in summer.

The owners say the packaging accurately dated the burger to the mid-1990s.

Although the burger has shrunk, its shape is intact, there are no signs of mould and it does not smell.

“The rats had actually eaten through the plastic bag, heaps of clothes, got into the box and they’d left the burger,” Mr Dean said.

He said the pair would never part with it despite ­fielding offers from around the world when it first came to public attention in 2015. ­A McDonald’s spokeswoman did not dispute their assertion, saying the question of why some of its burgers did not decay came up “from time to time” but there was a “simple explanation”.

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“The reason why our ­burgers sometimes don’t go mouldy when left out at room temperature, in a dry environment, is that once the food is cooked there isn’t enough moisture to support bacterial growth to break it down,” she said. “Instead, it simply dries out.”

Australian nutrition scientist and accredited practising dietitian Tim Crowe said high salt content made McDonald’s burgers particularly resistant to decay.

“There is nothing insidious about the content of McDonald’s food here,” he told the ABC. “It is simply a matter of low moisture and high salt content of the food.”