McDonald’s Fails to Find Worms in McChicken

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: July 25, 2012 (Issue # 1719)

MOSCOW — McDonald’s found no irregularities at one of its Moscow restaurants that a customer said sold her a chicken burger containing worms.

“No foreign objects were found in the contents of the sandwich,” McDonald’s said in a statement, adding that staff had inspected the offending McChicken shortly after it was returned Sunday at one of the chain’s restaurants in the Global City mall in the south of the city.

Checks later run by the company of producers who supply ingredients used in burgers sold locally showed that company rules were being followed at every stage of the preparation process, the statement said.

On Monday, chief sanitary doctor Gennady Onishchenko waded into the row over the purportedly worm-infested fast food, criticizing burgers as being alien to the Russian diet.

“I remind our citizens that burgers, even without worms, aren’t a sensible dietary choice for the population of Moscow and Russia. This is not our food,” Gennady Onishchenko said in comments carried by Interfax.

Onishchenko, who in early June advised Russians not to eat sushi to avoid “gastrointestinal adventures,” said the Federal Consumer Protection Service, which he heads, was prepared to investigate McDonald’s as a result of the complaint.