The latest apology included the assurance that the company was doing everything they can to ensure the safety of their products. In the highly competitive fast-food world, McDonald’s has just taken their third strike, following on the heels of the China chicken scandal and more recently, french fry rationing.
Hiroyuki Kamiya, chairman and founder of Japan Food Analyst Association (JFAA), said “It’s another blow for McDonald’s in Japan and sales will likely fall further.”
In another incident, a child suffered a cut lip in December from a piece of plastic while eating a chocolate sundae. It was decided a piece of plastic had fallen into the dispenser when it was being assembled.
On Jan. 3, a man in a city in Northern Japan found a piece of what appeared to be light-blue vinyl several centimeters long (1 1/2 inches) inside a chicken McNugget. Two days later, a customer in Tokyo found a piece of clear vinyl in a McNugget. The incidents are still being investigated, and the company halted the sale of McNuggets that had been made on the same day by their supplier in Thailand.
McDonald’s began getting their chicken McNuggets from three sources in Thailand about six months ago. The change in vendors was an attempt to inspire customer confidence in the quality of their product after the Chinese supplier Shanghai Husi Food Co Ltd. was accused of selling McDonald’s expired meat.
The incident with the human tooth occurred during August last year. A customer ordered a Big Mac and fries and found the tooth in his french fries. No employees at the outlet had lost a tooth, and none of the company’s suppliers had lost a tooth. The tooth itself had not gone into the fryer. This incident is still under investigation.
Sales have nose-dived at McDonald’s Japan outlets by more than 10 percent on the year every month since July, 2014 when the China chicken scandal broke. Same store sales have continued to drop since last August, remaining in the double digits. McDonald’s Japan declined to comment on the latest incidents and how sales would be affected.
