What’s that in your food?

You never know what you'll bite into when you hog that burger or eat that chocolate. Seriously! Check out infamous incidents involving people like you and me who found things other than ingredients in stuff they ordered or bought. These fiascos involving major food giants will hopefully compel you to think, “Are we really eating healthy?”

McDonald’s: I’m not loving it

We cannot believe that the world’s largest chain of fast food restaurants, serving nearly 47 million customers daily, can commit such horrible mistakes. Recently, a metal clip was found in McDonald’s aloo tikki burger. The clip nearly choked the ‘birthday girl’ who had ordered food from the outlet. Now how horrible is that?

The Linking Road outlet at Mumbai tried to make amends by replacing all the burgers, but this did not stop the girl’s mom from complaining to the Food and drug administration (FDA).

Cadbury’s dairy milk

Imagine a worm in a delightful bar of chocolate! That's exactly what happened with Dairy Milk. In 2003, a stockist found worms in the chocolate. Many parents barred their kids from buying this brand of chocolate. But it was Cadbury’s strong PR skills and Big B’s ads that helped the brand regain its lost glory. Amitabh Bachchan "reportedly" inspected the company’s factory site and checked the storage equipments. (Such a publicity stunt, we say…!)

Pepsi or pesticide?

Pepsi, the young generation’s drink, was embroiled in a controversy in 2003 after reports surfaced that diet pepsi contained 0.36 amounts of pesticide per parts per billion (ppb). The company pressed the panic button and embarked on an extensive campaign. Again the ambassador came to the rescue. The ‘Peeyo Sar Uthake’ campaign with Aamir Khan worked. It gave the same déjà vu feeling as the Cadbury ad. And all of us soon forgot what Pepsi had in store for us. Now, we don’t think twice before drinking it.

Dominos effect

All of us saw that disgusting video on You tube, where an employee farted and sneezed on a sandwich. (eeew!) It was widely ‘twittered’ about too. But the head of Dominos Pizzas, Patrick Doyle claimed the entire episode was a ‘hoax’. Sales dropped down by whopping numbers, thus affecting the brand. Now the video has been pulled off to prevent further damage.

Chickening out

Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is a brand that has flourished globally. We can't get enough of those ‘finger lickin good’ chicken at KFCs. But over the years the brand has been accused of irresponsible food practices around the world including the treatment of chickens and concentrated animal feeding operations. There is also a concern about the unhygienic poultry farms from where the chicken comes from. KFC is also criticised for destructing the Amazon rainforest as the supply of soy used for chicken food comes straight from the jungle.

But does this news really bother us? We soon forget these stories and then bite into the same food to satisfy our hunger. We take such news with a pinch of salt, just as we take our health for granted!