McDonald’s customer horrified over ‘dangerous’ find in burger

An afternoon Macca’s run turned into a disgusting experience for one customer after he bit into a hot honey chicken burger.

An afternoon bite to eat turned into a horrifying moment last weekend when a Sydneysider allegedly discovered a piece of raw chicken inside a McDonald’s burger.

Steve Frizza said he was running errands in the Sydney CBD when he decided to grab a bite at the QVB McDonald’s – a choice he would later regret.

“I ordered the new Hot Honey McCrispy burger, and it was taking longer than expected,” Steve Frizza told news.com.au.

When he finally received it, he took a bite and discovered that the chicken was “tepid and raw” and “frozen and icy” in some parts.

Disgusted, he approached the counter, and the manager on duty reportedly threw the burger in the bin immediately.

A man claimed his McDonald's chicken burger was raw. Picture: Supplied

“They mentioned a trainee had prepared the burger and offered to remake it,” Mr Frizza recalled.

“But I just wanted a refund and the burger back so I could have proof.”

He received a refund, not the burger back – but thankfully, he had already taken a photo of the raw chicken before handing it over.

“I got the sense that he didn’t understand the gravity of the situation,” he added, noting that his details were not taken down.

He has since contacted McDonald’s but was dissatisfied with their response, which took nearly a week and essentially stated that “the wrong timer was pressed”.

“It was just lip service … it didn’t indicate that any changes would occur,” Mr Frizza said.

McDonald’s responds

News.com.au received a statement from McDonald’s Australia that said: “McDonald’s takes food safety extremely seriously and we follow strict processes to ensure we’re serving up a great quality menu and a great customer experience.

“This clearly falls short of our high standards, and we have apologised to the customer and offered a full refund.

“We treat complaints of this nature very seriously and immediately investigated the claim. We believe this is an isolated incident and haven’t received any further complaints.

“Restaurant management are following up with the staff personally and reminding all staff of the correct procedures.”

‘Not returning’

The McDonald’s QVB store currently has a 2.9-star rating on Google.

While he fortunately didn’t get sick, the experience was enough to turn him off the fast-food chain forever.

“I will not be returning there, or to any McDonald’s for that matter,” he concluded.

According to Healthline, the most common bacteria found on raw chicken is Salmonella, which can cause symptoms such as abdominal cramps, diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, fever, and headaches.

The McDonald's QVB store. Picture: Google

Commenters slam ‘disgusting’ burger

After sharing his experience on both Reddit and the McDonald’s Complaints Facebook page, viewers were equally shocked.

“Ewwwww,” remarked one user, while another wrote, “That’s so disgusting, hope you didn’t eat too much of it”.

Mr Frizza said he ate about a third of the burger, and it “seemed fine” before he discovered the raw centre.

“That’s so dangerous, you could die from that,” commented someone else.

In rare cases, bacteria from raw chicken can spread to the bloodstream and cause a life-threatening infection, according to Mayo Clinic.

The customer said he won’t be going back to McDonald’s. Picture: Supplied

Other comments included, “That looks fowl,” “Standards at Maccas have dropped dramatically,” and “Shocked that this can actually happen”.

However, many people were equally shocked that this incident proved McDonald’s uses real chicken in their burgers.

“The most unbelievable thing about this is that McDonald’s actually used real chicken that wasn’t cooked before it got to the store,” noted one user.

“I’m surprised to see that it’s real chicken,” said another.

Originally published as McDonald’s customer horrified over ‘dangerous’ find in burger