A pregnant woman lodged a police complaint against fast food chain McDonald's after allegedly finding a deep-fried lizard in her French fries at an outlet here, police said on Friday.
Priyanka Moitra visited the outlet on Eastern Metropolitan bypass with her mother and four-year-old daughter and ordered French fries only to discover the deep-fried lizard in her snack.
"While having the French fries, I suddenly saw a burnt lizard in the packet. I ran to the washroom and started vomiting instantly. Thankfully, my daughter did not eat the fries as she was busy playing with her toys," Moitra said.
She further alleged that when they drew attention of the employees at the outlet, they responded very casually to the incident.
"When we called in the attendants at the outlet, they responded in a very casual way as if it was a small incident. I wonder what would have happened if my kid had eaten that. Also, I am six months' pregnant myself but they did not give any importance to it," Moitra claimed.
The woman took a picture of the food with the lizard and lodged a police complaint at Kolkata's Phoolbagan Police Station the same day.
"Moitra lodged a complaint on February 28 as they allegedly found a dead lizard in their packet of French fries at the McDonald's outlet in an E.M. bypass-based shopping mall here. She also gave a picture of the contaminated food item," said an officer from the police station.
Meanwhile, the MacDonald's India issued an official statement saying they are taking the situation seriously and have immediately initiated a thorough investigation to gather the facts about the incident.
They also said that the accused restaurant was allowed to be reopened only after a full inspection by the Food Safety Authority.
"We are taking the situation seriously. Immediately upon being made aware of the complaint, we launched a thorough investigation in an effort to gather the facts of the matter...it is still on-going.
"Meanwhile, the officials from Food Safety Authority have also fully inspected our restaurant including the kitchen, and have given us permission to reopen the restaurant. We are fully cooperating with the authorities involved," the official spokesperson of McDonald's India (North & East) said.
The officials at Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation said the incident has come to their notice and they are moving to the Municipal Affairs Department to see what steps can be taken.
"We are aware of the incident. Though we haven't received any written complaint, we are getting in touch with the Municipal Affairs team to see if any facts can be given to the Corporation, so that we can take adequate steps against these incidents," said Pranay Kumar Roy, Mayor in-council (Health) of the civic body.
"We generally conduct a periodical inspection at the food outlets to check the standard of food. We are discussing to make the process more frequent," he added.
