An Edinburgh McDonald's customer was left feeling disgusted after her child was served a burger with a bite taken out of it.
Bosses at the Cameron Toll branch have apologised after the local mum was accidentally given a 'returned burger' instead of a fresh one.
The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, was visiting the fast food restaurant on Wednesday evening with her child when she purchased a McSpicy burger. After opening the box when they returned home, she was horrified to find a huge chunk out of it.
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Since raising the issue with the manager of the store, the woman claims she was told the meal had actually been returned by another customer and mistakenly re-packaged and given to her.
Speaking to Edinburgh Live about the ordeal, she said: "I placed the order through the dive-thru, took it home for the kids and opened the box of the McSpicy and it had a bite out of it. I was horrified, I Immediately drove back and went into the shop and asked to speak to a manager, while waiting for a manager another man came who looked annoyed stood at the counter and also asked to speak to a manager.
"When the manager came over I explained that I had a drive-thru order and upon opening the box there was a huge bite out the McSpicy/burger. The man beside then said look so is mine. The manager said hold on, went away and came back with two new McSpicy’s for me and the other man.
"I said do you think that's acceptable and okay just to hand me another one and no apology or anything and he said no and then apologised, he then said he would refund my order. I said it wasn’t about that its about why i have been sold a item that had been eaten by someone else or a member of staff and how disgusting and unhygienic this was."
The furious customer then insisted the manager review the store's CCTV footage and find out how the mistake happened and how two eaten burgers managed to get re-packaged and sold.
The woman claimed that half an hour later, the store manager phoned to confirm it was a mistake and the two burgers had been returned from a previous order.
She continued: "It was me that asked if they had CCTV of their workers and he said yes. I asked him to take my details to let me know what had happened as I had the kids in the car and he said he couldn’t check it just now as it was too busy! I was extremely annoyed and still couldn’t believe that this had just happened, I actually felt physically sick!
"The manager then phoned me back about half hour later to say he had checked the CCTV and it was a returned McSpicy from a wrong order of a young boy and had been put back on the hot shelf and then resold, he said this was the same with the other customer that was there.
"I didn’t know what was worse, thinking a member or staff ate a bite or a customer took that away to either their house, car or table, touched it and ate a bit and then it was put back to resell to someone else.
"If I hadn’t looked in the box before handing it to my child, my child may have ate that thinking I had taken a bite or their sibling and would have been contaminated with a strangers germs/blood or anything from their mouth, its just disgusting thinking about it!
"I said was that normal practice to put it back on the hot shelf to resell, he said no it should be put in a bin. He offered my whole order for free on another date but I said I would be reluctant to eat there again. It makes me wonder what else goes on with the food in McDonalds?"
A McDonald's spokesperson said: "We are very 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 to avoid any imperfections.
"We understand the restaurant team contacted the customer following a thorough investigation and would encourage an ongoing dialogue with our Customer Services team to find a resolution."
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