Do MrBeast’s Lunchly Meals Have a Mold Problem?
When Lunchly, a prepackaged meal created by YouTubers KSI, Logan Paul, and Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, started to hit store shelves earlier this month, users filmed themselves opening packages only to be met with food that didn’t look particularly appealing; according to videos that started popping up online, there was mold in the cheese.
The company boasts on its website that its pizza product is “made with real cheese,” which has a shorter shelf life than the “cheese product” used in Lunchables, the reigning champion of the prepackaged meal scene that Lunchly is trying to usurp. Many have speculated this could be the problem.
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When asked about the mold’s existence, a Lunchly spokesperson tells Rolling Stone, “All Lunchly products go through a stringent review process to ensure the quality and safety of its products. That process consists of multiple inspections and approvals, including that of the USDA before any product can even leave the manufacturing facility.” Spokespeople for MrBeast and Logan Paul declined to comment. KSI did not respond by publication time.
Three different Lunchly meal options are available, including the ingredients to make a turkey sandwich, pizza, or nachos. Alongside them are MrBeast’s chocolate bar, Feastables, and PRIME, the energy drink owned by Paul and KSI. YouTuber merchandise has become popular with creators who can leverage their brand to earn more money from their audience. Rhett and Link sell beard oil, and Linus TechTips offers a screwdriver, and Emma Chamberlain has basically quit YouTube just to focus on her coffee brand.
But Lunchly has had a controversial rollout since it was announced in mid-September. Though it’s framed itself as a healthier alternative to Lunchables, creators like Rosanna Pansino and Dr. Mike have publicly doubted those claims, noting its high sodium level and low caloric value when compared to Lunchables and for a young child’s lunch. “Lunchly has slightly less sodium and saturated fat than comparable Lunchables, however, both differences were fairly small,” Dr. Mike says in his video.
To combat some of that internet noise, Lunchly’s creators have been on a social media marketing blitz. There have been predictable videos, like the trio showing how much tastier their product is than the competition or recreating an old Reese’s commercial. But there also been zanier moments meant to get viral traction, like Paul putting the meal on his Instagram Story alongside the birth of his child and posting over a dozen responses to Minecraft YouTuber DanTDM after he tweeted that Lunchly “is selling crap to kids who don’t know better than to trust the people who are selling it to them.”
Pansino, who rose to internet fame through cooking videos, posted her video looking at Lunchly on Saturday. She’s long been an outspoken critic of Lunchly and MrBeast, but, she tells Rolling Stone, for her video, all she wanted was to have a “taste test” and compare “the nutrients and ingredients” with its competitor alongside “people who are not in MrBeast’s pocket.” She had heard rumors there was mold in the Lunchly packages and “I had seen pictures online, but I wasn’t sure if those were a joke, if they were fake, or people were trolling,” Pansino says.
After criss-crossing over 130 miles across Los Angeles to obtain multiple snack packets, Pansino booted up her video camera, flanked by MrBeast employees-turned-critics Dogpack404 and Jake Weddle, and started filming. “When I opened the Lunchly, I was putting all the food on the plate,” Pansino says. “And when I opened the pizza Lunchly, there was mold in the mozzarella shredded cheese.”
After posting her video online, some commenters accused her of faking the ordeal. So the next day, she posted the full, unedited three-minute clip of her opening the boxes. “Honestly, I wish I had never found that because the whole point of my video was just going to be taste testing, comparing them, and talking about the nutritional differences,” Pansino says. “I was hoping people would just hear the message about it being an ultra-processed food because they’re marketing it as healthy or better for you. And that is just, in my opinion, false advertising.”
Over the past year, Pansino has grown to be one of the most biggest critics of Donaldson and the MrBeast brand. Last October, she shared on Trisha Paytas’ podcast that she believed she was edited to look worse in a MrBeast challenge video. Since then, she’s claimed there were unsafe conditions on the Beast Games, a new reality show in the works with MrBeast and Amazon, and criticized Donaldson for his older, edgier material. “I’m not the biggest fan of [Paul, MrBeast, and KSI] as people because I know who they are behind closed doors,” Pansino says. “But I am shocked that they didn’t at least make a statement saying they’re going to look into it because food companies all the time run into issues.”
Pansino speculates that “there could be many reasons” as to why she found mold in her Lunchly, though she noted that the “adhesive glue” that held the lid of the Lunchly on “didn’t seem well attached.” Whatever it is, it’s starting to look like the Lunchly brand, might have the shelf-life of a dairy product.
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