A cheeseburger from 1995 is about to celebrate a remarkable milestone: it is turning 30 years old. Bought by two Australian friends in Adelaide, the burger—dubbed the “Senior Burger”—has remained in what its owners describe as “eerily intact” condition, despite never being refrigerated and spending decades in cupboards, sheds and boxes.
The burger was purchased after a recording-session snack stop in 1995. The friend who hadn’t finished it asked the other to keep it until his next visit. That visit never came. Instead of tossing the spare burger, one of the friends boxed it and stored it away—initially just as a teen joke, then as a quirky keepsake.
Over the years, the burger’s appearance has barely changed. There’s no visible mold, no bad smell, only some noticeable shrinkage of size. Experts attribute this preservation not to mysterious preservatives, but to dehydration: without moisture, bacteria and molds struggle to thrive.
The pair attempted to pursue formal recognition of the burger’s age and status—thinking about museum display, even trying carbon-dating—but they were stymied. The burger is too recent for traditional carbon-dating methods, and without an original receipt, certification efforts hit a dead end. So far, it has not been recognised as a world-record holder.
Despite the lack of official certification, the burger has become a cultural curiosity—featured in media interviews and discussed as a sign of how processed food can sometimes defy decay under the right conditions.
