McDonald’s Japan Reports More Past Incidents of Objects in Food - McDonald’s Corp. (2702)’s Japanese affiliate reported past incidents in which customers complained there were pieces of metal and plastic in food, a day after the chain said a human tooth was discovered in its fries.
A McDonald’s customer in Kyoto prefecture found a piece of metal in a pancake in November, and the company sent the metal to a third party for analysis, Kokoro Toyama, a spokeswoman for McDonald’s Holdings Co. Japan, said by phone today. A customer in Okinawa also reported finding a piece of plastic in a muffin in September, she said. The company investigated both incidents without determining where the objects came from, she said.
McDonald’s Japan said yesterday it had investigated inconclusively the case of the tooth found in its french fries and was also looking into plastics discovered in chicken nuggets made by Cargill Inc.’s Thai unit. McDonald’s Japan fell for a seventh day in Tokyo trading today, the longest losing streak since 2009, closing 0.9 percent lower at 2,530 yen.
McDonald’s Japan had switched sources of chicken nuggets to three Thailand factories, including two of Cargill’s, after a food supplier scandal in China hit McDonald’s restaurants in both countries last July. The change came after Shanghai Husi Food Co., a unit of Aurora, Illinois-based OSI Group Inc., was featured in a local television report on July 20 that showed workers repackaging old meat and changing expiration dates.
Separately, Wakodo, a baby-food maker owned by Tokyo-based Asahi Group Holdings Ltd., received a complaint from a customer who found a cricket in one of its products, it said in a statement today. The company is recalling the product and offering refunds, according to the statement. Wakodo investigated the matter but couldn’t determine the cause, it said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Kiyotaka Matsuda in Tokyo at kmatsuda@bloomberg.net; Monami Yui in Tokyo at myui1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stephanie Wong at swong139@bloomberg.net Terje Langeland, Dave McCombs ( bloomberg.com )