Horror as woman finds cockroach in Big Mac
Annah Sophia Stevenson bit into a Big Mac, and thought it seemed a bit chewier than normal. The cosmetic artist from New Zealand pulled what she thought was a piece of gristle from her mouth, only to find she had been chewing on a half a cockroach.
Stevenson told the Marlborough Express that she was exhausted from moving house, so decided to treat herself and her three-year-old son to a takeaway from the Blenheim branch of McDonalds. The meal turned out to be somewhat less of a treat than she was expecting.
She told the newspaper that she had spent a few seconds trying to chew what she thought was a bit of gristle, so that when she puled the cockroach from her mouth, it had a big hole in it and "the guts were hanging out." She rushed to the bathroom and vomited, then she cleaned her teeth - and found a piece of cockroach shell between her teeth.
Facebook
The Daily Mail reported that she posted details of her discovery on Facebook this weekend. She said: "Thanks McDonalds Blenheim, for the cockroach Big Mac. Only thing worse than finding it, was only finding half of it (have I consumed the other part?) and it was while I was chewing on it thinking it was a bit tough so pulled it out!!!. I feel violated, ill, traumatised, and disgusted."
The following day she posted a picture of the Laksa she had made for her dinner, with the comment. "Laksa.. Food for the soul... Also, nothing can hide."
The Express quoted McDonald's head of communications Simon Kenny, who said the incident would be investigated. He added: "We take any complaint regarding food safety very seriously. The franchisee has contacted Annah and is organising to pick up the Big Mac so that they can investigate further."
Cockroach tales
It's going to take a while for her to get over this incident, and it won't come as any comfort to know that she is one of many diners who have had a close encounter with a cockroach.
In January, the Little C.U. Chinese restaurant on Shaftesbury Avenue in London was closed to be cleaned, after cockroaches were found crawling up the walls, and wriggling in a bag of baking soda used to marinade pork.
In the same month, Gordon Ramsey's Maze restaurant in Mayfair was given a two-star health rating, after inspectors found seven cockroaches in areas used to prepare food and wash up.
In August last year we reported on the Brighton fish and chip shop that had been fined £1,000 after a customer found a deep fried cockroach at the bottom of a bag of chips. She had eaten the rest of her take-away before discovering it.
And a year earlier we covered the story of the Leeds pizzeria, which had been ordered to close for cleaning, after a customer found a cockroach baked into the crust of their pizza.
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