Plastic in McDonald's nugget not from Cargill plant

CARGILL has announced the results of an exhaustive investigation into the origin of the blue, plastic foreign material found in a McDonald’s chicken nugget by a customer in Misawa, northern Japan early this month.

The investigation, which included physical and chemical analyses of several potential blue plastic materials found in Cargill’s production plants and processes, microscopic third-party lab analysis, and a step-by-step search of Cargill’s entire production facility, revealed the plastic did not originate from the company’s facility in Saraburi, Thailand. 

Chuck Warta, president of Cargill Meats Thailand said, “We are very confident that the plastic film in the nugget occurred outside of our production plant.”

McDonald's Holdings Co. (Japan) Ltd echoed Cargill’s announcement in a separate interview, according to a report from Reuters, saying the type of plastic was not used at Cargill’s facility in Thailand, which produces the nuggets.

McDonald's Japan said the Misawa store where the incident happened did not use that type of material either. The fast-food chain, which was still unable to determine the origin of the plastic, stated the possibility of the plastic entering the nugget during food preparation at the store was low. 

The investigation also revealed the length of the blue plastic film. Laboratory analysis results lacking clear indications associated with heating and a review of the records of Cargill’s Food Safety and Quality Assurance Programs indicate the company’s meat grinding and cooking processes did not impact the plastic film found in the nugget as would be expected.

Precautionary measures

To reduce risks in its production processes, Cargill will increase investments in additional X-ray machines, Mr Warta said. The company will also raise its resources in visual inspection points at the Thailand facilities.

According to Cargill Meats Thailand Food Safety & Quality Assurance director Vares Ransibrahmanakul, “Producing safe, high-quality food is our top priority. This means we must embrace every issue as an opportunity to deeply review each step in our food production processes to ensure we deliver safe, delicious food to our customers and consumers.”

The strip of plastic found in a McDonald’s chicken nugget in Misawa is the latest controversy for McDonald’s Japan, which was already troubled by dropping sales. A piece of plastic discovered earlier in a separate incident spurred McDonald's Japan to pull all 956,925 nuggets made by a Cargill unit in Thailand on the same day, in the same factory, according to a CNN Money report. McDonald's has yet to confirm if the two incidents are related.

The incidents further ignited the uproar over food safety at the fast-food chain. A customer in Osaka found a shard of tooth in an order of French fries last August. McDonald's was unable to identify the source of the contamination but issued an apology. The month prior, McDonald’s was amongst several fast-food chains hit by a scandal involving tainted meat from a Chinese supplier.

The food scare, which has shaken Japanese consumer confidence in McDonald's, has slowed sales in Japan. With sales decline exceeding 10% each month compared to the same period last year, the company expects a net loss for the current fiscal year, the first annual loss in 11 years.