Customer Claims McDonald's Gave Her Mucus-Filled Iced Tea
Say you're driving along sipping your iced tea when you suddenly realize that your mouth is full of something slimy. You would probably freak out. One McDonald's customer says this happened to her and she is definitely freaking out.
From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
"I feel violated," the alleged victim said, fighting back tears. "I'm aware people fake stuff like this, but no amount of money will ever make it worth going through what I did and what I continue to go through every day."
The paper says that the woman drove back to McDonald's and confronted the staff, who "initially suggested the iced tea tank might not have been cleaned, but acknowledged what the woman presented in the iced tea cup."
She complained to the health department. Their response was less than what the woman had hoped for:
Public Health — Seattle & King County spokeswoman Hilary Karasz said the department received a complaint and an inspector went to the store on Sept. 25.
"He reviewed cleaning and sanitizing with the manager to make sure they have good practices there," Karasz said. "He asked the manager if she knew about other spitting incidents. She did not."
The inspector called the complainant back and the case was closed.
Here's the official statement from the McDonald's owner. He's taking it seriously:
"Food safety and quality at my restaurant, is a top priority," restaurant franchisee David Santillanes said in a statement. "Rest assured, we take these matters seriously and investigate all allegations to gather the facts.
"At this time, these are just claims. I strongly caution anyone from jumping to conclusions without having all the facts. Until we have been able to complete our investigation to gather the facts, it would be inappropriate to further comment or speculate."
Police are currently reviewing surveillance camera footage to see if anyone spit in the tea.
Woman: McDonald's employee spit in my drink [Seattle P-I]
(Photo:youngthousands)
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Comments:
She should be thankful it wasn't a different stringy and slimy human fluid substance.
Enjoy your lunch everyone!!
It probably wasn't mucus or spit. Sweet tea gets a yeasty sort of fungus in it if it sits warm too long in an infrequently-cleaned container. Basically it ferments. There's the same sort of goo in a batch of properly made vinegar, called the "mother," that is composed mainly of these yeast cells.
Still gross, but at least probably not human bodily fluids.
It could have been a bacteria build up. The bacteria build up in iced tea appears stringy and thick, which could be confused for mucus. This is a common problem for sun tea. If McDonalds let their tea sit out and get reused the next day it is a definite chance that bacteria was the cause and not a rouge employee. But this is McDonalds, so a rouge employee is also a good chance.
@speedwell, avatar of snark: That's what I was thinking--it's just a slime mold, same as the stuff that turned up in the Vitamin Water. Gross but harmless.
@latkadog: I thought it might be a cleaning issue too, I've heard about build-up of various things in McD's sweet tea tanks before, but I'm not sure that mucous-like bacteria is much better than actual mucous.
@floraposte: Yeah, I've seen that crap in some of the tea I buy at the store if I open the bottle and leave it lying around too long. It does look like mucus, so I can see how they might mistake it for that.
Definitely. I don't think it was mucus either. Still very gross, though.
It's nauseating, but it sounds like what happens when the dispenser hardware is not cleaned regularly (at least with soda fountains). Sugar builds up and congeals into a slimy snail-like (minus the shell!) goop that eventually breaks free and ends up in some poor customer's cup. It's probably harmless, but very, very disturbing.
Used to call those things 'Soda Slugs' when I needed to clean out the drip/drain tray at the fountain.
After showing it to the manager, she should have taken the cup and the slimy substance to the Health Department for analysis.
Without the substance, there is nothing to tell an inspector what to look for. If it was human effluvia, it would be easily tracebale.
My biggest worry from the local McDonald's is intentional food tampering. The manager there is Alliance. I'm Horde.
I don't think she does PvP so it seems less likely, but you never know. She may want revenge.
I just finished my lunch. Thanks, Consumerist. How about a cat photo with this post to take away some of the terrible, dreadful feeling?
On the topic at hand...there's nothing in the post or article itself that she bought SWEET tea. The article just says iced tea. The photo has sweet tea written on the banner, but it's just a photo and has nothing to do with the post.
I read the article, and there are some choice bits in there, like how the woman is awaiting lab results from her doctor after she was checked out for possible health complications. While spit is really, really, disgustingly gross, I'm not sure that you can be allowed to work in food service if you have any communicable medical problems. Not that this is okay, but unless a worker has active TB or something, you ingested something disgusting but not extremely dangerous.
@pecan 3.14159265: the sweet tea is an iced tea. You have sweet and non-sweet iced teas available. ALL iced teas are the same price.
"Police are currently reviewing surveillance camera footage to see if anyone spit in the tea."
"spit" is present tense.
Past tense is ""spat"
Get it right, dummy
@Ratty: They're different things. Sweet tea has sugar, iced tea does not. A lot of people are talking about the build up from the sugars in the tea. If it's just iced tea (not sweet tea) then would there still be build up from sugar?
@speedwell, avatar of snark: I accidentally consumed a large quantity of this on one occasion. The texture is nasty, but it has virtually no taste. The only effects were purely mental.
@speedwell, avatar of snark: Just to pick nits, a vinegar mother is based on bacteria, not yeast. Yeast produces alcohol, while bacteria ruins your batch of hard cider by making acid.
@Kimaroo - 20% More Kitty Added!: I read "Alliance" and first thought of Alias, then of Firefly. Then I read "Horde" and was disappointed.
Yes, her emotional tramau from drinking spit. Give me a break. This is one of the sole we have immune systems. Drink the spit and move on. Its obvious she wants money. "No amount of money...", whatver. The biotch was some cash and wants it now.
If this was indeed phlegm, WHY did she let go of the evidence? I would have taken it to the health department directly and had it identified. Then, if it WAS mucus, run a DNA test on it to determine the source. Seems simple enough to me anyway - probably because I'm the wife of a lawyer.
Lovely. I should have waited to read this article after my lunch hour..where I'm drinking iced tea.
Home made, so if there is any mucus in it, it's mine. Tasty.
I attempted to eat out on Sunday night; got an iced tea before our order was taken and proceeded to take a big drink. I found what appeared to be either mayonaisse or diswashing soap on the inside of the cup.
We left before ordering and I have been hocking all week.
I also made quite a scene according to my wife
NASTY!
Isn't the "Taking it seriously" tag missing on this post?
@pecan 3.14159265: Where I come from iced tea = sweet. that, and when you go into McDonalds to order it is on the menu as sweet tea but you can then order it not sweet.
People were also talking about bacterial an fungal buildups. I have seen these happen in unsweetened teas.
Say you're driving along sipping your iced tea when you suddenly realize that your mouth is full of something slimy.
No, it would just tell me that I was indeed eating McDonalds food.
@pecan 3.14159265: It doesn't have to have any sugar, as witness the Vitamin Water slime molds. (And my downstairs bathtub faucet, to be honest.)
@Gracegottcha: I think you're going to have a tough time compelling employees to take a DNA test and convincing somebody to absorb the cost, though.
@Ratty: Where are you from? Anywhere north of the Deep South, there is no sweet tea unless it is specifically marked 'sweet tea'...the Deep South is where iced tea is assumed to always be sweet, but you order it as 'sweet tea' anyway because you're used to it.
I had never even seen sweet tea (aside from Chick-fil-a) until I went to the South. I still can't get it in the DC area (unless I go to Chick-fil-a or McDonalds).
@floraposte: Good to know. I have noticed Vitamin Water slime, and it's made me stop drinking Vitamin Water completely. Blegh.
@pecan 3.14159265: "Anywhere north of the deep south" huh? I'm pretty far north of the deep south. As in 54 degrees. Way up in Canada.
@latkadog:
I think Ive seen something similar in Snapple iced tea. Probably left out in the sun or something, it was floating around on the bottom of the bottle and it looked like pleghmy backwash.
I thought Snapple had an explanation right on their website about it when I checked but I cant find it now
@The Porkchop Express: And there's absolutely no way you could force the employees to go through a DNA test over something like this.
You know, if spit can survive intact inside a liquid inside a hot car, even AFTER the ice melts, that's some powerful spit.
Also, the people never admitted it was spit, they just "acknowledged" there was something else in the cup. Why wasn't this fluid bagged/tagged/tested if she is so worried? Hell, if CSI and L&O are correct, DNA tests only take 10 minutes.
@pecan 3.14159265: +1 to the sweet tea reference. I lived a gruesome year and a half in North Carolina and that was the beverage of choice. Actually I'm still not completely convinced that they just handed out sweet tea no matter what you ordered because after a while everything tasted like sweet tea.
Also at McD's they're completely seperated. Nestea is part of the fountain soda machine and as pecan said comes unsweetened. "Sweet Tea" is the specific name of the drink, has its own seperate tank and comes only in one size that's larger than the fountain sizes and is only a dollar. The Nestea tea is charged the same prices as a regular fountain soda.
Totally unrelated question...
Does anybody else ever have a problem with ordering unsweetened iced tea at McDonald's and getting served sweet tea instead?
Ever since McD's introduced the sweet tea, it has probably happened to me 20 times. I always make a point to specify UNsweetened tea and ask for Equal. They usually give me sweet tea... with the Equal. Their tea almost always tastes like coffee these days too.
They probably mistaken her sweet tea order for a sweet and salty green tea.