Quad Stack Controversy
Published on 02 October, 2008
The Quad Stack burger
Its not politics, war or even the environment that has been making headlines of late, its Hungry Jacks new burger the Quad Stack that has everyone talking.
Article by student reporter Erin Stevens
The burger, which consists of four beef patties, four slices of cheese, two rashers of bacon, barbecue sauce all combined between two sugared buns has caused controversy since its release.
TV commercials promoting this latest offering have been labelled irresponsible and a sign that the industry is ignoring health warnings about the obesity epidemic.
The burger contains no salad and the calorie content equates to more than half a woman's recommended daily energy intake and nearly one third of a mans.
"This is gross and encourages binge eating' said Health Minister John Hill when shown a picture of the burger.
"It is unbelievable that in this time of heightened awareness of obesity that a junk food producer would sell this product".
Dietary breakdown indicates the burger contains 71g of fat, 34g of saturated fat, 1930 milligrams of sodium and 74.8g of protein.
"Once you've eaten one of these burgers all you can really eat for the rest of the day is fruits and vegetables as you've already reached your daily intake in most of the food groups" said Professor Jane Scott from Flinders University Nutrition and Dietetics department.
"It challenges people to over consume".
Deciding to see what the hype was all about and, with open mind and hungry stomach. went to my local to order the Quad Stack Burger.
It was immediately obvious the burger wasn't freshly made as it took about 2.5 seconds for the counter assistant to retrieve it from the pile of Quad Stacks already prepared.
I really wanted to take a bite for the sake of the story but once I unwrapped this monstrosity I physically couldn't bring myself to do so. I asked a male friend with a somewhat iron clad stomach if he would take a bite of my Quad Stack, he refused, dubbing it ‘ a heart attack in a burger'.
Perhaps it was the charred grey patties, the rubbery cheese or the unnatural purple looking bacon all slopped together that made it so unappealing. Perhaps it was the overpowering fatty smell or perhaps it was both these things combined with the fact that I felt like I was putting on weight just looking at the burger. In the end I didn't even care that I'd wasted six dollars on something I couldn't eat.
Public outcry is not affecting sales of the biggest burger around. In fact people seem to be more determined to try it now that it's causing such controversy. The Australian newspaper has run several stories about it inviting readers to leave comments. Many of the contributed threads affirm their authors will continue to eat the burger and many admitted that the negative press associated with the it encouraged them to try it for themselves. Most shockingly many proclaimed that the Quad Stack Burger was ‘no big deal' and that, if anything, it didn't live up to its name.
Hungry Jacks has not issued a statement at this stage in reply to the debate surrounding the burger.
Making headlines closer to home is Rockhampton's instalment of a 24-hour drive through at the Southside McDonalds. Along with the existing fast food outlets Rockhampton will soon open a second Hungry Jacks and the Portuguese fast food outlet Nandos within the month.
Rockhampton has a total of 71 takeaway food outlets putting it well above Mackay, Townsville and Bundaberg.