McDonald's have said sorry to two stunned customers who claim they found a slug inside a burger.
Hungry Aimee Welch and her boyfriend Josh Bakin grabbed a bite to eat at their local branch at Festival Park, Stoke-on-Trent.
The young couple say when they got their meal home they made a very unwelcome discovery as they begun to tuck in.
The fast food giant has apologised and is attempting to find a resolution - however claims there is no evidence to suggest the slug got into the burger in the branch
StokeOnTrentLive report that they bought their food in store and only removed the meals from the bag after entering their home.
Aimee, 18, said when Josh opened his BBQ Bacon Stack, he found the slug - and it certainly wasn't one of the company's famous gherkins.
At first he believed it to be a pickle, and removed it from his lunch but reality soon dawned that it was something else altogether.
McDonald's has said it can find no evidence to suggest the slug got into the burger in the branch.
In an email Aimee received from the company, it said "there is no excuse for it", and offered her vouchers.
She said: “He opened his burger and he thought it was a pickle at first, he doesn't like pickles so he moved it. He noticed that it was slimy.
“The slime was on the cheese and lettuce. He moved it and was like ‘what’s that?’. We looked closer and it was a slug.
“It knocked me sick. Josh was shocked and he didn’t want to eat anything."
She said they went back to the branch in the evening with the slug and were offered a £5 refund for the burger. But Aimee said she felt the situation could have been handled better.
She added: “We went down to the branch to see if we could get a refund on the same day. The manager's reaction was ‘Aahh, effin hell mate, sorry about that.’
"He then gave us cash and walked us outside."
She said that in calls to McDonald's customer services people, she was told in an email that a pre-paid envelope would be sent out so that she could send the items in and McDonald's could "investigate further".
But Aimee said it had still not arrived, and "the slug is in my bedroom sitting in a sandwich bag. It’s horrible."
She added: “If Josh had liked pickles he would’ve bit straight into it but he always checks in case they put them on. I’d warn people to check their burgers but they shouldn’t really have to."
Josh, 19, said: “Seeing the slug made me feel ill, and I didn't want to ever go back or eat there again. I felt the manager was very un-bothered and it felt like they just wanted to get rid of us.”
A McDonald's spokesperson said: “We are sorry to hear about this customer’s experience. Food safety is of the utmost importance to us and we place great emphasis on quality control, following rigorous standards in order to avoid any imperfections.
"Having conducted an investigation at restaurant-level, we’ve been unable to find anything to suggest the product was contaminated with the foreign object in the restaurant.
"Our Customer Services Team has contacted the customer to apologise and to help find a resolution.”
