The fast-food giant apologized Friday to customers who started complaining about two weeks ago about receiving empty casings without any cheese filling at restaurants — apparently across the country.
“We are aware of . . . guest concerns about our Mozzarella Cheese Sticks,” said Lisa McComb, McDonald’s Corp.‘s media director from corporate headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill.
“In these instances, we believe the cheese melted out during the baking process in our kitchens and shouldn’t have been served,” she said.
Customers flooded Twitter with pictures of empty casings and unamused comments about their purchases, according to ABC News.
“Yoo McDonalds really just gave me 4 mozzarella sticks with no cheese in any of them,” Twitter user EvanFar_ posted with a photo Monday.
“So where’s the cheese in my mozzarella sticks, McDonald’s,” another Twitter user said alongside another photo.
Mozzarella sticks cost three for $1 on McDonald’s new McPick 2 menu, which allows customers to select any two of four selected items for a total of $2.
The bargain offering is believed to be McDonald’s way of weaning customers from the chain’s wildly popular Dollar Menu that was phased out last year.
McComb said McDonald’s was trying to figure out how to prevent the cheese from melting away before the item gets to the consumer.
“We are working to fix this in our restaurants,” McComb said.
“We apologize to any customers who may have been affected, she said.
The new McDonald’s menu, which includes a limited number of breakfast items offered all day, has been credited with reviving lagging sales at the world’s largest fast-food chain.
McDonald’s has some 36,000 locations worldwide.
