Julian Crowley
In 2008, a different kind of foreign First Aid object showed up in a teenager’s double cheeseburger in Reading, Massachusetts. The unnamed 14-year-old girl was biting into her burger when she came upon a hollow piece of metal about an inch long. Health officials who examined the object said they believed it to be part of a veterinary needle or syringe that somehow found its way into the food chain at a meat packing plant in Ohio — possibly as a result of an animal being vaccinated prior to its slaughter. A statement from McDonald’s at the time read: “We take these matters seriously. However, at this time, these are allegations. Upon learning about these claims, we immediately began an investigation to gather the facts. Without the facts, it would be inappropriate to further comment or speculate on where this object may have come from.” However, McDonald’s stopped using that shipment of meat, while the uninjured girl was taken to the hospital as a precaution.
