Shortly after a McDonald’s customer in Japan discovered a piece of vinyl in his chicken nuggets at the weekend in Misawa, another embarrassing report said a human tooth was served with French fries at an outlet in Osaka.
A female customer, whose name has not been released, complained
to the Japanese arm of the fast food giant after finding a
'foreign body' in a serving of potatoes. Independent
investigations ordered by McDonald's determined that what looked
like a tooth was indeed a tooth.
"I have a small child and it terrifies me to think that they
could have eaten it and choked," the woman told Japan News
Network (JNN).
She said she received an apology only when the store manager came
over.
"The manager didn't really talk about how it got in and what
action they will take in the future," the customer added.
The store manager "soothed" the woman by saying the tooth had
been "fried," she reportedly said. The incident reportedly
happened in August.
READ MORE: Vinyl found in McDonald's nugget in Japan, sales halted
McDonald's meanwhile stated that there were no employees missing
a tooth at the outlet. The company believed there was a very low
possibility of contamination at the US factory that had shipped
frozen French fries, the network reported.
McDonald's, which has over 3,000 outlets in Japan, earlier
confirmed a customer found a piece of vinyl inside a chicken
nugget sold by its outlet in the northern city of Misawa, and
that there was a similar case at a Tokyo eatery. McDonald's
stopped selling chicken nuggets that came from a Thai production
facility since vinyl was found in one of the nuggets that had
been made there.
On Wednesday, McDonald's Corp. officials in Japan apologized for
a human tooth, plastic pieces and other objects found in the
burger chain's food.
"To make such cases zero is our goal," AP has quoted
Takehiko Aoki, a senior executive, as saying. "We are doing
our utmost to tackle them, one by one," he added, denying
that such cases testified to an overall quality-control problem.
He said it was possible that outsiders had planted the tooth and
other items.
2014 was awash with offending incidents for McDonald's. Reports
said a child's mouth was injured by a piece of plastic in an ice
cream sundae in December. According to the company, the fragment
had fallen into the dispenser while being assembled.
In July, Chinese officials shut down food-supplier Shanghai Husi
Food Co. after media allegations claiming the plant mixed expired
meat with fresh produce that was then supplied to McDonald's,
Starbucks and Burger King outlets in China.
Last month, the food chain temporarily stopped sales of medium
and large French fries over the labor dispute at US West Coast
ports. On January 5, though, the sales were resumed.