World's oldest McDonald's Quarter Pounder turns 30 and is still 'eerily intact'

A third friend with them couldn't finish his Quarter Pounder - so Nits said he would hold onto it until the friend came back to visit them in Adelaide.

"We were joking, 'Imagine if we kept this forever,' and here we are."

The friend never returned to claim his burger, and Nits' mother begged him to get rid of it since it had been sitting on his desk for weeks. 

But the teen stashed it away in a box instead. Over time, it became part of the "family." Nits' mother, a teacher, even brought it to school to show it off to her students.

The burger was never refrigerated and spent most of its life in cupboards, garbage bags and sheds. It even traveled across Australia years later with Nits' sister as she moved between military bases with her husband.

To this day, the so-called "Senior Burger" remains "eerily intact," Dean told SFGate upon its 30th anniversary. The burger is still wrapped in its original waxy beige paper featuring 1990s-era McDonald's branding.

Dean, a musician and dog trainer, became the public face of the "Senior Burger," while Nits, a bricklayer from Adelaide, has actually kept and preserved the burger all this time, according to reports.

"The only thing that's happened is it's shrunk in size," Nits told SFGate. 

The men have also told other outlets that the burger has hardened, yet it hasn't developed any odor or mold. "It's no longer food," Nits added. "It just looks like artwork."

A Utah man who purchased a McDonald's burger in 1999 also discovered that it stayed mostly intact after more than two decades, according to multiple reports.

And Melana Monroe, a grandmother from Texas, has held onto a McDonald's hamburger she bought nearly 30 years ago. 

She originally purchased it for a science experiment, tossed it in her car trunk and forgot about it - only to later realize that it never rotted. 

"The burger belongs to American culture," Monroe's daughter, Katie Frugé, told SFGate. "It's kind of an American icon."

That viral moment prompted McDonald's to address the long-running myth that its burgers "never rot," explaining that the food simply dried out in a moisture-free environment, which prevents mold and bacteria from growing.

"In the right environment, our burgers, like most other foods, could decompose," the company said at the time. 

"Look closely - the burgers you are seeing are likely dried out and dehydrated and by no means 'the same as the day they were purchased.'"

Several experts previously said the lack of moisture and high salt content, combined with the burger's small size, likely helped preserve it.

Fox News Digital reached out to McDonald's for further comment.