McDONALD'S

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When Kevin Richer bit into his McDonald’s bacon double cheeseburger he found himself chewing on something hard and thought it was gristle. Then he found a flattened cigarette butt between the bap and cheese. Mr Richer said, “It looked as if it had been squashed under someone’s foot. It was disgusting and turned my stomach.” Horrified, he took the burger back to the Osmaston Park Road outlet, but said that the treatment he received made him even angrier.

He said, “They were just laughing and the member of staff I spoke to said that I must have put the butt in the burger. He said there was no way it could have got into the burger in store as it was a non-smoking restaurant. Other customers were saying that it was an insult. It was only then that he began to take the matter seriously and filled in a complaint form. I just felt that their attitude and hygiene was disgusting and I’ll never go into a McDonald’s restaurant again.”

Two weeks later he received a letter from the firm saying the matter was being investigated. He has received a letter of apology and two £5 McDonald’s vouchers, which he has discarded. The letter says, “We are regrettably unable to ascertain how the cigarette butt came to be in your meal.” Mr Richer said, “I phoned customer services again saying I wasn’t happy with the outcome and this man kept asking me what I wanted them to do. I said I didn’t know as I’ve never been in this situation before. Then, he hung up. Now, I will contact the citizen’s advice bureau.”

McDonald’s spokesman Robert Parker said, “This is the first time in my experience that anything like this has happened. It’s a complete mystery. We tried to resolve the matter with the customer but we don’t feel he gave us the opportunity to do so. We do take any incident such as this very seriously.”

McDonald's sued a renowned Italian food critic who described the hamburger chain as ''oppressive to the palate'' for more than £15 million. Edoardo Raspelli called the chain's Big Macs as "fodder" and its fries as "obscene and tasting of paper". Raspelli, one of Italy's leading culinary critics and who has written dozen of books on food, defended himself and said,''I was only saying what I thought of fast food - I find it repulsive.''

But McDonald's decided to take action after reading his comments in an Italian newspaper and launched a defamation case against him in Milan. McDonald's say the sum of £15.3 million was their yearly advertising bill in Italy. In a statement they added Raspelli's comments ''dented the company's image and profits.''

McDonald's lawyer Alessandro Facchino said,''What he said harmed my client's reputation and they are completely false. We have the proof that McDonald's uses nothing but the finest ingredients and we will go through this point by point. For example the fries that are said to taste of paper are thrown away within five minutes of being cooked if they have not been served and the oil used to fry them is changed regularly. Standards of the highest quality are respected in McDonald's and are guaranteed by a team of inspectors who often carry out surprise spot-checks in the restaurants.''

So, although everyone's entitled to their own opinions they must keep them to themselves.

A US schoolboy claimed he bit into a McDonalds cheeseburger to find it riddled with maggots. Vincent Ingram from Detroit, Michigan, sued the burger chain for $1 million after he allegedly swallowed the maggots. McDonalds said the allegation was "questionable", adding they'd not been given any evidence to support the claim. Vincent's lawyer, Arnold Reed, said, "His sister is standing next to him and starts freaking out, because she sees these things crawling around his mouth and out of his mouth. She starts screaming. Since this incident, he's been freaking out. He won't eat." Mr Reed said his client swallowed at least six maggots and said Vincent's mum had saved the cheeseburger and his vomit as evidence. The lawsuit stated the burger was eaten shortly after it was bought, but did not indicate the amount of time.

A Carolina man who complained his McDonald's chicken nuggets were "shit" was charged with disorderly conduct. John Kendall, of Hilton Head Island, claimed his nuggets were burnt and told the cashier, "I'm not going to eat this shit." The police were called and they claim Kendall was calling his nuggets four-letter words. He was arrested and charged, but later released on a bond.

"My nuggets were burnt. I just looked at her and said I'm not going to eat this shit," the 22-year-old said. When Beaufort County Sheriff arrived, Kendall claimed he was asked what he had said to the cashier. "I told him I wasn't going to eat that shit. I didn't curse at her. I cursed at the nuggets."