9mo ago

TIL that in 2020, Burger King ran an advertising campaign featuring a picture of a moldy Whopper, to prove that their burgers are made without preservatives. This unconventional advertising method wor

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Burger King's moldy Whopper ad is dividing marketing experts

TIL that in 2020, Burger King ran an advertising campaign featuring a picture of a moldy Whopper, to prove that their burgers are made without preservatives. This unconventional advertising method worked, increasing sales by 14% (according to multiple sources.)

64 comments

I really don't understand the people who fearmonger about preservatives. Do you want food to go bad? Preserving things in salt and other methods are as old as cooking itself and are responsible for feeding people around the world in horrible famine times.
- Not all preservatives are “salt” and not all of them are good.
  For example, trans fats.
  
  Sure, there's plenty of preservatives we don't use anymore because there are way healthier alternatives. But there's also plenty of anti-science people who fearmonger about any and every preservative despite knowing nothing about its chemistry or even any claims of harm.
  
  Fair point.
  
  Trans fats aren't preservatives are they? I thought they were for texture / taste.
  
  Fat itself is a preservative, regardless of being saturated, cis or trans, since it helps to isolate food from humidity and air. That's how comfit works, for example.
  I thought they were for texture / taste.
  Yes, but it's a bit more complicated than that.
  Trans fats are mostly the result of partial hydrogenation of unsaturated acids; basically you pump some hydrogen into fat, in the presence of catalysts, and it'll convert some triple bonds into double and some double bonds into single. That makes the fat firmer, because it increases its melting point, so yes, it changes the texture.
  However, if the result is a double bond, you can generate two types of molecules, "cis" or "trans", depending on the positions of the carbons around the double bond. Like this (check the last two molecules):
  Most natural processes generate cis fatty acids. Hydrogenation generates trans fatty acids.
  This wouldn't be a problem if the fat was hydrogenated all the way, because then the double bond gets replaced with a single bond (where this issue doesn't pop up - see the first molecule). However that is more expensive than simply doing it halfway, and generating all those trans acids.
  
  ^Best answer. I majored very well in chemistry, a tiny bit less well in career, but this is the "cis" vs. "trans" explanation I was hoping to see.
  
  They technically have preservative properties because of the hydrogenation, but they really aren't used for that purpose. You don't fry things to necessarily preserve them better. It's for taste/texture, like you said.
  
  Idk, trans people are usually quite healthy.
  Edit: The controversy in votes over an innocent joke is hilarious.
  
  And yummy!
  Wait, did I say that out loud?
- The biggest issue is, if it can’t mold, then there’s no way to know if you’re eating a fresh burger or one that was left out for a week. The reason it doesn’t mold is because they dehydrate the food so mold can’t grow without moisture. That also degrades a lot of proteins that would be good to consume. Dehydrated not molding food is good for ration food, not for comfort food.
  
  That's partially true. They use dehydrated onions but their buns and meat are never dehydrated. So that leaves a lot to be explained. The "meat" is heavily salted and frozen, as well as having a lot of cellulose ("wood pulp") in it. The waxy paper wrapping also has a lot to do with it not degrading, as it makes it harder for bugs to get to. If you left a McDonald's burger outside without the wrapper, better believe it'll be mostly gone within a day or two.
- "I don't understand" followed by a gross oversimplification of a complex matter
  Please do everyone a favour and go back to Reddit.

64 comments