‘Mine isn’t food’: TikTok experiment comparing a 30-day-old US Big Mac to a Japanese one is the stuff of nightmares

A new viral TikTok experiment just compared a 30-day-old Big Mac from McDonald’s in the United States to one from Japan, and while the Japanese burger was “all moldy and hairy,” the American one still looked practically new. The TikTok creator, Joe Orton, was so shocked by the lack of decay in his burger that he straight-up concluded, “Mine isn’t food. This is industrialized. This is engineered to last forever, not to feed you.”

That’s right, a month after purchase, the US version looked like it had just been made, which is honestly the stuff of nightmares when you think about what we’re consuming here. This experiment is just the latest in a long line of viral food comparisons that really make you stop and think about the fast food we eat. No thanks to an adult happy meal after this.

It sounds like something from a low-budget horror flick, but you can see the results for yourself in the video Orton made with a Japanese creator named @ttsuchiya686. They bought their Big Macs on the same day and let them sit out for 30 days to see what would happen. The comparison is honestly night and day. On one hand, you have the Japanese Big Mac, which went the way all food should: it molded, it smelled bad, and it looked, to quote the Japanese creator, “hairy” and “stinks.”

McDonald’s food doesn’t seem to rot

On the other hand, you have the American Big Mac, which Orton said looked like it “got Botox”—it just sat there, frozen in time, looking suspiciously fresh. Orton asked, “Why does Japan’s look like Hagrid and mine looks like it got Botox?” and honestly, I’m right there with him. The sheer contrast between a decaying burger and one that’s seemingly immune to time makes you seriously question what the heck is going on with our food here in the US, and I don’t mean the grimace shake.

The visual is unsettling, and it’s no wonder the video went viral. It plays right into the long-standing theories about fast food being laced with chemicals. To be fair, though, the two creators did follow up their shocking reveal with a sales pitch, advertising a “protocol” they’re selling that claims to make it “easier to be healthy.” While that definitely brings the sincerity of the experiment into question, the core mystery of the decay difference is still worth digging into.

To be fair, this isn’t the first time McDonald’s food has been at the center of this kind of decay mystery. You probably remember the whole thing blowing up after the 2004 documentary Super Size Me, where the director, Morgan Spurlock, did a similar experiment and noticed that his McDonald’s items didn’t rot, even after months.

This led to a bunch of different theories floating around the internet about the company using some kind of chemical cocktail or loads of preservatives to keep their food looking fresh. Now, over a decade later, we have TikTok creators replicating the same shock and awe for a new generation of viewers, and the whole debate about “chemical food” is back in the spotlight.