Hamburger with plastic meat at McDonald’s, yes you read that right. Yesterday I had the worst experience I could ever have in a restaurant. I bought a sandwich from McDonald’s, at a restaurant in Bucharest, and the meat, instead of being chicken, was plastic. We hope this article will reach as many people as possible and all the competent authorities, who we ask to take all necessary measures.
Yesterday, at Mc Donald’s Restaurant Valea Cascadelor in Sector 6 in Bucharest, I had a hallucinatory situation.
I bought my kid a crispy chicken sandwich. The child’s first reaction: “Mom, this is not meat”. He tasted it twice, I also tasted it… It was a “white meat”, which inside had some dark pink streaks towards the cyclamen. What do you think they were?! Some plastic strings! Elastics. A rubber that stretches exactly like a rubber band. Like a rubber band falling apart, that’s exactly what the plastic strings in the McDonald’s hamburger looked like.
Ingested plastic is extremely dangerous for people’s health, doctors warn.
Hamburger with plastic meat at McDonald’s‘s in Bucharest: How the restaurant boss reacted
I went to the manager of the restaurant and asked her what’s up with that sandwich that has plastic or rubber instead of meat. She was surprised and almost snatched the tray from my face with a fake and cold smile. He said he was stopping the sandwich for the test to send it on, that it looked strangely bad, really.
He wanted to offer us any other sandwich, but the child didn’t want it anymore. At the insistence of the restaurant manager, the child accepted a Mc Puișor, which he immediately threw away. It had exactly the same texture as the given sandwich. I left the restaurant, and the child said: “Goodbye! I’m never stepping foot in a McDonald’s again!”
Washington Post: Some McDonald’s products contain plastic
It turns out that my experience yesterday is neither a hallucination of mine nor is it anything new to the fast food chain. In the year 2021, the prestigious American publication Washington Post published a study, from which it emerged that traces of plastic materials, extremely dangerous to health, were found in food from McDonald’s restaurants and other famous restaurant chains.
“Small amounts of industrial chemicals called phthalates (pronounced THA-lates), which are used to make plastic soft, have been found in food samples from popular restaurants including McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Chipotle.
George Washington University researcher Lariah Edwards, Professor Ami Zota and colleagues purchased 64 fast food items from the national burger chains McDonald’s and Burger King; pizza chains Pizza Hut and Domino’s; and the Tex-Mex chains Taco Bell and Chipotle in nearby San Antonio. The researchers found harmful chemicals in most of the samples collected. Phthalates are linked to health problems, including endocrine disruption and fertility and reproductive problems, as well as increased risk for learning, attention and behavior disorders in children,” writes the Washington Post. You can find the full study and the names of the other restaurant chains, some also present in Romania HERE.
The Commissionerate for Consumer Protection of the Municipality of Bucharest (CPCMB) carried out, in the first days of this year, control actions at two well-known fast-food chains in the Capital: McDonalds and KFC, owned by economic operators Premier Restaurants Romania SRL, respectively US Food Network TO.
Following the detected irregularities, which affected the economic interest of consumers, the commissioners of the CPCMB applied contravention fines in the amount of 15,000 lei and ordered the complementary measures of
– temporary stoppage of the activity until the deviations are remedied
– rectification of information deficiencies, within 30 days, from the date of the control.
“Stealing on the scales or on occasion seemed to be things of the past from Cuza’s time. I am convinced that the parent company is not instigating the theft, but here it turns out that they should have been more involved so that these situations did not occur. What seems strangest to me is the fact that the consumer is never favored when such deviations occur. He is always the one who loses, and the one who wins is the economic operator. We are thus sending a message, at the beginning of this year, that we will not change our approach until a more firm one”, said Horia Constantinescu, president of the National Authority for Consumer Protection.
What were the irregularities found la McDonald’s
– The existence of some inconsistencies against consumers, regarding the weight of the portions of fried potatoes, the declared weights being higher than those found after weighing the ready-to-eat products, by survey
– The existence of some differences, to the detriment of consumers, in the soft drinks sold from the dispenser, in the sense that the liquid level did not reach the mark written on the glass
– Lack of mention of ingredients with potential allergens, in the price list with information on the name, weight and price of the product, in the vicinity of cash registers
– Lack of mention of the weight of the products, on the interactive touch panel for product presentation and ordering
– Use of refrigeration units with accumulations of impurities, food residues, coarse dust, peeling paint, broken frames and rusted grilles.
Contacted by PUTEREA.RO, the representatives of McDonald’s Romania did not comment anything until the time of publication of this article.
