Over the years, consumers have found a plethora of things in their fast food orders that are not actual ingredients for the meals, from marijuana dusted french fries to oatmeal with a free hot water machine lever. In the most recent incident, a Kentucky woman claims she found the tip of a needle in her McDonald’s hamburger. 

LEX18 reports that Lexington-Fayette County Health Department officials have opened an investigation after a woman claims she bit into a needle while eating a hamburger from the Golden Arches.

The incident occurred Monday when a couple and their grandson were visiting the restaurant for dinner.

When the grandmother bit down on the burger, she first thought she was chewing a cap. However, when she pulled the item out of her mouth, she was pricked on the finger and realized the item was a needle.

“I’m not a paranoid person by any means, but I think this is a big public health issue,” the woman’s stepdaughter wrote in a Facebook post that has since been deleted. “My little boy is only five and that’s alarming that that could have been in his hamburger.”

The woman notified the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department of the incident and went to the hospital where she spent several hours receiving a hepatitis B vaccination and antibiotics, the Lexington Herald Leader reports.

Local health officials confirmed that they visited the McDonald’s restaurant after learning of the incident.

“A health inspector visited the restaurant, surveyed the ingredients used to make the burger and found no evidence of contamination,” Health Department spokesperson Kevin Hall said.

The inspector tells the Herald Leader that the manufacturer lot numbers for the food products used in the burger have been sent to the Kentucky Department for Public Health for additional investigations.

A manager at the restaurant told the inspector that McDonald’s employees had no idea how the needle could have been found in the burger.

The restaurant’s owner told the Herald Leader that she takes the allegations seriously.

“We are working to verify the facts and welcome the partnership with the health department in this matter,” she said.

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