A mom in England made a horrifying discovery after opening her son’s Happy Meal, and the fast food chain has responded.
On October 18, 2023, English mom, Gemma-Kirk Bonner ordered a Happy Meal for her son at their local fast-food restaurant in Barrow-in-Furness.
To her horror, she made a startling discovery while feeding her one-year-old son. Inside the container, among the french fries, was none other than a cigarette butt.
She told The Mail, “gave my three-year-old his without looking. Then I put my one-year-old in his high chair, and I was feeding him by hand. I was picking the [food] up for him.”
Then she found the cigarette, which was surrounded by ash. The worst part is, that she claims when she contacted the local restaurant, they didn’t seem to care.
In a Facebook post, Gemma wrote, “Forget the toy… now comes with cigarette end and ash for extra taste… Phoned up to make a complaint but rudely spoken to then she put the phone down on me.”
Other mom’s rallied to support Gemma, with one commenting that this should mean “free happy meals for life.”
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Not the first time this has happened
Reports of customers finding unsavoury items in their McDonald’s meals aren’t uncommon. Throughout the years, we’ve heard of everything from a bandaid in a bag or fries, and a human fingernail in a cheeseburger.
Some are more sinister than others, with a report of a young girl in Massachusetts biting down on her hamburger, only to find a needle inside.
In 2010, 18-year-old Hayley Parsons found live bugs crawling around in her food, then 6 years later, American Football coach Todd Haley sued the chain for 1.7 million when he found a dead rat in his sandwich.
McDonald’s have responded to the cigarette-butt incident, stating “Food safety is of the utmost importance to us, and we place great emphasis on quality control and providing the highest standard to our customers of our Barrow-in-Furness restaurant.”
“We would encourage the customer to contact customer services so that we can properly investigate and help them find a resolution.”