Screw found in portion of chips at Bognor's MacDonald's - claim

A boy bit off more than he could chew during a family dinner trip to McDonald's.

Max Goodwin of Frobisher Road, Rose Green, visited the restaurant in High Street with his mother and brother George, 13, expecting to enjoy a portion of chips.

The 11-year-old said: " I was looking at my mum because she was speaking to me. I was chewing and then all of a sudden my tooth hit something hard. I didn't know what to do so I spat it out and showed my mum."

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Max's mother, Jane Goodwin, said: "I was horrified when Max showed me. To be honest I just could not believe what I was seeing, a screw is not what you expect to see in a carton of chips."

"I immediately alerted a member of staff and asked for the manager.

"I spoke to the manager, but all he cared about was getting the screw back."

She added: "I asked the manager for an address or phone number for head office, but all he kept saying was that the screw would just get sent back to him, so I may as well give him it now to save time."

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"He didn't seem concerned that my son could have choked on the screw, he just wanted it back. He didn't even offer a replacement meal, not that we would have eaten it."

She added: "I finally managed to get a number for customer services off a board in the restaurant. And I rang this number numerous times, but didn't get an answer."

Mrs Goodwin then phoned trading standards who told her it would be Arun District Council that dealt with the complaint.

The screw, which was about 3cm long, is being collected by an officer from Arun District Council's food safety department.

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A spokesman for Arun District Council said: "We have received information from Mrs Goodwin that her son found a piece of metal in a McDonald's meal, we will collect the metal and then contact McDonald's to try to establish where it came from."

"Max was really lucky, this could have been a lot more serious. If

Max had been younger he could have quite easily swallowed the screw," said Mrs Goodwin.

Max, who will be starting the Regis School in September, added: "I used to visit that McDonald's quite regularly.

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"It has not put me off McDonald's altogether, but I definitely won't be going to that restaurant again, and I will take a lot more notice of what I am eating."

A McDonald's spokesman said: "We are very sorry if our usual high standards were not met and we are looking into this incident."

He added: "We adhere to the very highest standards of cleanliness and hygiene and the health and safety of our customers is our absolute

top priority."

He added: "Providing excellent service in a busy, fast-paced environment is demanding, and we believe our restaurant teams do an outstanding job of rising to this challenge.

"We're sorry that this customer's complaint was not dealt with appropriately and we will be investigating this."