Although we might expect that fast food menus are pretty much the same no matter where you go, it doesn’t take much digging to discover that what you can get at a McDonald’s in Finland can differ a lot from your options stateside.
But although some of these changes reflect the cultures the chains are trying to attract, some of the item differences are surprisingly ordinary.
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For instance, you can’t get chicken wings in an American McDonald’s right now, but it’s a different story if you try your luck throughout Asia.
However, one repulsive incident in China might have us reconsidering any feelings that we’re missing out.
The day started simply for Zhou of Beijing, China when she had some food delivered to her house.
Among her order was a set of three chicken wings, which she had given to her young daughter.
However, she found plenty of reason to be concerned when her child suddenly coughed up some mysterious fluff.
As The Daily Mail reported , that fluff turned out to be feathers that had somehow found themselves embedded under the fried breading.
Fortunately, the girl managed to avoid a medical emergency, so Zhou didn’t need to go to the hospital.
Instead, the outraged mom headed for the nearest location to register a compliant about what her daughter had almost eaten.
In response, the restaurant’s management offered to compensate her with 10 times the product’s original price.
This amounted to about 300 yuan, the equivalent of about $44. They also offered to throw in an additional 300 yuan in coupons and money.
However, Zhou declined this and instead reported what she found to China’s Food and Drug Administration.
Zhou said that the experience has made her daughter retch whenever she eats anything now.
As The Daily Mail reported , McDonald’s has apologized for the oversight on the Chinese platform Weibo and announced an investigation into what happened.
Part of their statement said, “We express our sincere apologies for the product flaw which was not immediately detected by the restaurant and has caused inconvenience for the customer.”
This statement comes amid backlash with people calling the discovery “disgusting” and saying it serves as an example of the chain’s food safety standards.
In particular, The People’s Daily said there were “so many feathers on the chicken wing that it was enough to make a jianzi,” which is a shuttlecock used in a traditional game that’s a little like hackey sack.
Of course, any shocking photo on the internet will have at least a few people saying it’s all fake.
However, since McDonald’s itself is willing to admit it happened and is, apparently, taking the matter seriously, there’s not much that such comments can accomplish.
This is especially true since it’s unclear what they’re based on.
In a weird way, some commenters found a sense of relief from this incident.
As far as they were concerned, it proved that McDonald’s does use real chicken in its products.
h/t: The Daily Mail
