mcdonalds antics

spaminator

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News Toronto & GTA
Man finds ants in his burritos
Sandwich discovery 'disgusting'
By CHRIS DOUCETTE, TORONTO SUN
Last Updated: 3rd January 2010, 10:35am
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Click here to watch the videoA Markham man says he found about 50 ants in his McDonald's breakfast burrito.
Play VideoMARKHAM -- Having Aunt Martha stop by for dinner over the holiday season is one thing, but having 50 ants for breakfast was more than Tommy Lam could stomach.
The jeweller said he found them lining his McDonald's burritos.
"It was disgusting!" Lam told the Sun yesterday soon after he said he made the gruesome discovery.
The 28-year-old said he and his girlfriend stopped by the busy fast-food restaurant at Markham Rd. and Denison St. around 11 a.m. yesterday to grab a quick bite to eat on their way to work.
After waiting 15 minutes in line, the couple said they ordered two sausage and egg burrito combos to go, which includes a total of four pita-wrapped sandwiches.
Soon after, they sat down to eat at his business, Jewellery Box, just around the corner at Steeles Ave. E. and Middlefield Rd. That's when Lam claims they spotted dozens of ants inside and outside their burritos.
NOT MOVING
Fortunately, the little critters weren't crawling around. But that was of little consolation to Lam, who had already eaten the first of his two burritos.
Whether or not that first sandwich was also laced with dead ants, Lam is not sure.
He doesn't even want to think about it.
"I still can't believe this happened!" Lam said, shaking as he recalled the ordeal.
Finding the ants in his food was shocking enough, but Lam said he was even more stunned by the reaction he received from the store manager when he returned with the contaminated food.
NO APOLOGY
"He didn't even offer an apology," Lam said of the McDonald's manager, a man who only identified himself to him as Keith.
The one thing the manager did offer, Lam wanted no part of.
"He offered to replace our burritos, that was it," Lam said. "I just said, 'No thanks!' and walked out."
Before yesterday, Lam said he stopped by the McDonald's regularly for breakfast on his way to work.
"But I'll never eat there again," he said.
Lam said he later tried to contact McDonald's head offices and his local public health department, but he wasn't able to reach anyone over the long weekend.
However, he still has the burritos and he vows that first thing tomorrow morning he'll be demanding some answers.
Staff at the McDonald's location referred the Sun's calls to the company's head office.
A message left on the Media Relations Centre line was not returned yesterday.
York Region Community and Health Services also could not be reached for comment.
CHRIS.DOUCETTE@SUNMEDIA.CA
Man finds ants in his burritos | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun
 

JLM

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Nov 27, 2008
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Vernon, B.C.
News Toronto & GTA
Man finds ants in his burritos
Sandwich discovery 'disgusting'
By CHRIS DOUCETTE, TORONTO SUN
Last Updated: 3rd January 2010, 10:35am
StoryVideoCommentsEmail StoryPrintSize A A AReport TypoShare with:
FacebookDiggDel.icio.usGoogleStumble UponNewsvineRedditTechnoratiFeed MeYahooSimpySquidooSpurlBlogmarksNetvouzScuttleSitejot+ What are these?
Click here to watch the videoA Markham man says he found about 50 ants in his McDonald's breakfast burrito.
Play VideoMARKHAM -- Having Aunt Martha stop by for dinner over the holiday season is one thing, but having 50 ants for breakfast was more than Tommy Lam could stomach.
The jeweller said he found them lining his McDonald's burritos.
"It was disgusting!" Lam told the Sun yesterday soon after he said he made the gruesome discovery.
The 28-year-old said he and his girlfriend stopped by the busy fast-food restaurant at Markham Rd. and Denison St. around 11 a.m. yesterday to grab a quick bite to eat on their way to work.
After waiting 15 minutes in line, the couple said they ordered two sausage and egg burrito combos to go, which includes a total of four pita-wrapped sandwiches.
Soon after, they sat down to eat at his business, Jewellery Box, just around the corner at Steeles Ave. E. and Middlefield Rd. That's when Lam claims they spotted dozens of ants inside and outside their burritos.
NOT MOVING
Fortunately, the little critters weren't crawling around. But that was of little consolation to Lam, who had already eaten the first of his two burritos.
Whether or not that first sandwich was also laced with dead ants, Lam is not sure.
He doesn't even want to think about it.
"I still can't believe this happened!" Lam said, shaking as he recalled the ordeal.
Finding the ants in his food was shocking enough, but Lam said he was even more stunned by the reaction he received from the store manager when he returned with the contaminated food.
NO APOLOGY
"He didn't even offer an apology," Lam said of the McDonald's manager, a man who only identified himself to him as Keith.
The one thing the manager did offer, Lam wanted no part of.
"He offered to replace our burritos, that was it," Lam said. "I just said, 'No thanks!' and walked out."
Before yesterday, Lam said he stopped by the McDonald's regularly for breakfast on his way to work.
"But I'll never eat there again," he said.
Lam said he later tried to contact McDonald's head offices and his local public health department, but he wasn't able to reach anyone over the long weekend.
However, he still has the burritos and he vows that first thing tomorrow morning he'll be demanding some answers.
Staff at the McDonald's location referred the Sun's calls to the company's head office.
A message left on the Media Relations Centre line was not returned yesterday.
York Region Community and Health Services also could not be reached for comment.
CHRIS.DOUCETTE@SUNMEDIA.CA
Man finds ants in his burritos | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun

He should just consider himself damn lucky he didn't get charged for a side order of meat..........:lol::lol::lol::lol:
 

JLM

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 27, 2008
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Vernon, B.C.
Not moving, I can understand. Cooked does that. I just wonder how ants got there. This is winter. Don't ants go dormant?

I smell scam-for-lawsuit

They were probably Mexican ants and spent the summer in the freezer. Between the freezing and the cooking they were likely fairly harmless. :lol::lol::lol:
 

countryboy

Traditionally Progressive
Nov 30, 2009
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Not moving, I can understand. Cooked does that. I just wonder how ants got there. This is winter. Don't ants go dormant?

I smell scam-for-lawsuit

Nothing would surprise me when it comes to what might appear in your restaurant food these days.

I used to work with a guy who was once an assistant mgr. at a KFC. They caught a young (male) employee adding some "special sauce" to a batch of creamy cole slaw...his own semen! He was quietly fired.

If you think of the thousands of people working behind the scenes in restaurants and food outlets, the law of averages pretty much dictates that you're going to see some "oddities" once in a while. Some are deliberate, and some are just poor cleaning and food handling practices. None of them are good, of course.
 

spaminator

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Oct 26, 2009
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Nothing would surprise me when it comes to what might appear in your restaurant food these days.

I used to work with a guy who was once an assistant mgr. at a KFC. They caught a young (male) employee adding some "special sauce" to a batch of creamy cole slaw...his own semen! He was quietly fired.

If you think of the thousands of people working behind the scenes in restaurants and food outlets, the law of averages pretty much dictates that you're going to see some "oddities" once in a while. Some are deliberate, and some are just poor cleaning and food handling practices. None of them are good, of course.
i guess you could say the kfc employee 'came and went'.:lol:
 

countryboy

Traditionally Progressive
Nov 30, 2009
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What's that old expresson, "I saw, I came, I went?" No, that's not it...well, something like that.

Seriously though...if we (the public) could see behind the scenes, our consumption of food in restaurants would likely decline dramatically. That's not to say all restaurants are bad - there are many responsible operators out there who do care about basic sanitation and cleanliness.

The health departments are generally focused on bacteria control, although some health inspectors get pretty excited about certain viruses, like hanta.

In this case, some cooked ants really wouldn't present a big problem in terms of bacteria, as long as they were "freshly cooked" and hadn't sat around for a long while before they found their way into the burrito. Ants are actually a good source of protein in some cultures and...they are organic!

Sometimes, "what you don't know won't hurt you is true", but other times, what you don't know can kill you.
 

TenPenny

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Jun 9, 2004
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Location, Location
In NB, you can see on line the results of health inspections of restaurants - if they pass, they get a green square; if they get a yellow (warning - to be corrected) or a red (shut down until corrected), you can actually read the inspectors' reports on line.

Some of them are fairly interesting; I think last summer, one of the Don Cherry's Grapevines was shut down for a couple of days by the health dept.
 

countryboy

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Nov 30, 2009
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In NB, you can see on line the results of health inspections of restaurants - if they pass, they get a green square; if they get a yellow (warning - to be corrected) or a red (shut down until corrected), you can actually read the inspectors' reports on line.

Some of them are fairly interesting; I think last summer, one of the Don Cherry's Grapevines was shut down for a couple of days by the health dept.

Sounds like a good system in NB.

In BC, they have stretched the health inspectors to the limit...not really enough of them to go around and do the job properly, especially in the "Heartland" (anything other than the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island). They keep reorganizing the jobs in an effort to cope with ongoing budget limitations...you see some inspectors being saddled with restaurant inspections, sewer system inspections, and water system inspections...a real "focus", eh? Most of them are just "on the run" without sufficient time to check all the restaurants, and certainly not enough time to sit down and help the restaurants get better. It's a pretty stupid setup, but that's not all that unusual in BC - we have lots of idiocy in government-run things. It's a tradition out here.
 

missile

House Member
Dec 1, 2004
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Saint John N.B.
Having had a few bad experiences at fast food joints,i only eat what i can prepare at home for myself..the moving worms in an order of fish and chips was the final straw,
 

Kakato

Time Out
Jun 10, 2009
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Alberta/N.W.T./Sask/B.C
Sounds like a good system in NB.

In BC, they have stretched the health inspectors to the limit...not really enough of them to go around and do the job properly, especially in the "Heartland" (anything other than the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island). They keep reorganizing the jobs in an effort to cope with ongoing budget limitations...you see some inspectors being saddled with restaurant inspections, sewer system inspections, and water system inspections...a real "focus", eh? Most of them are just "on the run" without sufficient time to check all the restaurants, and certainly not enough time to sit down and help the restaurants get better. It's a pretty stupid setup, but that's not all that unusual in BC - we have lots of idiocy in government-run things. It's a tradition out here.

My familys restaraunt was right on the border,the kitchen was in Alberta and the dining room was in B.C. so it was crazy dealing with both provinces but the inspectors were strict on the kitchen part anyways.
It used to be a bar in the older days and the guys would just move to the alberta side when the bc side closed.:lol:
 

countryboy

Traditionally Progressive
Nov 30, 2009
3,686
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BC
He probably didn't know if he was coming or going.

Ha, ha...he figured it out when he got caught with the creamy cole slaw! He "went" rather instantly.

A funny little aside - In Japanese, the word for "coming" is actually "going", in the context we're discussing. So, if someone is saying, "iku, iku" (I'm going, I'm going), they're actually coming. It's a bit confusing, at first, but one eventually can figure out if they're coming or going! :lol:
 

Francis2004

Subjective Poster
Nov 18, 2008
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Lower Mainland, BC
In NB, you can see on line the results of health inspections of restaurants - if they pass, they get a green square; if they get a yellow (warning - to be corrected) or a red (shut down until corrected), you can actually read the inspectors' reports on line.

Some of them are fairly interesting; I think last summer, one of the Don Cherry's Grapevines was shut down for a couple of days by the health dept.

That's the same for BC TenPenny.. Here is the link for our area..

Lower Mainland Area
Fraser Health Authority

Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island Health Authority

Coastal Inspections
Welcome to the Vancouver Coastal Health Inspection Website

They have the full reports and follow up inspections that you can read..
 

countryboy

Traditionally Progressive
Nov 30, 2009
3,686
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48
BC
That's the same for BC TenPenny.. Here is the link for our area..

Lower Mainland Area
Fraser Health Authority

Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island Health Authority

Coastal Inspections
Welcome to the Vancouver Coastal Health Inspection Website

They have the full reports and follow up inspections that you can read..

Hey Francis...do we have any similar reports for areas in the Interior? I'd love to see them but don't have enough speed in the old dial-up system to search around for them...thanks!