An Alabama woman was left puzzled after finding a mysterious sticker on her child’s McDonald’s cheeseburger, raising questions about how “fresh” the meal actually was.
TikTok user Mrs. Curry (@yvette420) shared a video showing the sticker that appeared to display a 24-hour expiration time.
“So you mean to tell me McDonald’s is making these cheeseburgers 24 hours in advance?” she asked in her viral clip.
The video shows a label on the wrapper reading: “Today is November 5th,” along with a timestamp suggesting the burger was made at 5:58 a.m. and would “expire” at 5:58 a.m. the next day.
Commenters Offer an Explanation
Viewers quickly flooded the comments to explain the sticker — and it turns out the label probably had nothing to do with the burger itself.
A commenter identifying as a McDonald’s general manager wrote, “The 24-hour sticker is for pickles. It must’ve slipped off the container when a team member was restocking the pickles and landed on the sandwich wrapper. We make all of our sandwiches to order, except for fish sandwiches on Lent Fridays.”
Another McDonald’s worker agreed, adding, “There’s a printer that prints time labels for food prep. It likely fell by accident — we don’t use stickers for pre-made burgers.”
One commenter jokingly said, “And I bet you fed it to your kid anyway.”
Another user offered further insight: “Cooked meat patties for cheeseburgers are held for up to 20 minutes. Anything left after that is thrown away to maintain quality.”
Does McDonald’s Make Burgers in Advance?
No, McDonald’s doesn’t sell pre-assembled or stored burgers.
While individual ingredients such as patties, buns, and condiments are prepped and kept warm for efficiency, employees assemble each burger fresh when an order is placed.
Buns are toasted, condiments added, and patties — cooked from frozen — are placed on the sandwich just before it’s served. Any patties left in the warmer beyond 20 minutes are discarded.
As employees explained, time labels are part of standard food safety procedures. They’re typically used on ingredients like lettuce, cheese, sauces, or pickles to track freshness.
So while the sticker on Mrs. Curry’s burger looked concerning, it was almost certainly a misplaced label from the kitchen’s prep station.
Both @yvette420 and McDonald’s have been contacted for comment.
This article has been carefully fact-checked by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and eliminate any misleading information. We are committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity in our content.
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