A human tooth was served with french fries at a McDonald’s Corp in Japan last year, reports said yesterday, the latest in a series of woes for the company.
A customer complained to the Japanese arm of the fast-food giant after finding a foreign body in a serving of french fries from an outlet in Osaka, television networks said.
The item had apparently been deep fried.
Independent investigations ordered by McDonald’s determined that it was a tooth, broadcasters said, citing the results of the probe. A statement from McDonald’s given to the woman, obtained by a TV station, said the object was “believed to be a tooth.”
“I received an apology only when the store manager came over,” the customer, whose name was not revealed, told Japan’s JNN network. “The manager didn’t really talk about how it got in and what action they will take in the future... I have a small child and it terrifies me to think that they could have eaten it and choked.”
The store manager who visited her said the tooth had been “fried,” she reportedly said.
The Asahi network said it was not known how a tooth could have been mixed with the fries.
McDonald’s said there were no employees missing a tooth at the outlet and it believed there was a very low possibility of contamination at the US factory that had shipped the fries, the network reported.
The incident is the latest public relations setback for McDonald’s, which has seen its reputation suffer in Japan.
The firm has previously confirmed a customer found a piece of vinyl inside a chicken McNugget sold by an outlet in the northern city of Misawa and that there was a similar case of contamination at a Tokyo branch.
Reports also said a tiny piece of plastic was found in an ice cream sundae in the northeastern city of Koriyama last month.
Those finds came after McDonald’s was forced to switch nugget production to a Thai company in the wake of a food scare at one of its Chinese suppliers.
Late last year the company had to airlift an emergency supply of french fries from the US after a shortage had resulted in rationing at its 3,000 restaurants across the country.
Labor disputes on the US West Coast had hit exports, leaving Japanese firms scrambling to secure fresh supplies.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan fast-food lovers are mourning the disappearance of McDonald’s fries, amid the country’s currency controls, implemented more than a decade ago to stem capital flight.
A recent shortage at the US fast-food chain comes as socialist Venezuela grapples with shortfalls of basic goods ranging from medicines to flour due to strict currency controls that affect imports.
McDonald’s restaurants are coping by replacing fries with salad or local fare such as fried yuca or arepa corn pancakes — but Golden Arches fans are not too happy about the new meal.
“Hamburgers don’t go with arepas and this salad I accepted doesn’t taste of anything,” said student Indira Silva, 27, at a McDonald’s restaurant in affluent eastern Caracas. “I’m not coming back until the fries do.”
Additional reporting by Reuters
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