A MAN has raised serious concerns after biting into what he called a "contaminated" beef burger and finding a date label.

Harry Short and his partner, both of whom live in Cwmbran, recently stopped off at McDonald's in Pontypool.

But after a few bites Mr Short noticed something unusual in his quarter pounder beef burger.

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South Wales Argus:
He discovered he had bitten into a paper date label, which had been in the middle of his order.

"Shortly after buying a burger on December 23 we continued our journey and stopped at our destination waiting to pick up my partner's son," he said.

"We started to eat and after a few minutes I felt something touch my tongue. It was dark so I used my phone torch to see what it was.

"To my disgust I found a date label inside my burger. I had bitten into it but it had not come away. I felt sick and threw my contaminated burger away."

He added: "Later that evening, when we got home I felt I had to let McDonald's know how that experience made me feel and how it had put me off their products."

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The 40-year-old is now hoping that by raising awareness the matter will not happen again.

He said: "Shortly after I had a reply stating they did take the matter as seriously as I did and would send me a sealed envelope to place the contamination in so they could test at their labs. 

"I waited and waited until after the Christmas period but nothing arrived. There have also been no further emails from them, despite me contacting them again. I then asked them if they were going to take the matter seriously or not via another email on January 6. 

"I got no reply until January 16 and this said they were again sorry - and that the envelope had not been sent and they would dispatch another. I still have the contaminated item and will document sending the item to them. All I want is for them to address the matter so that this does not happen to anyone else. I made my thoughts and feelings clear."

A spokeswoman for McDonald's said: "We are sorry to hear about Harry’s experience. Food quality and safety are of the utmost importance to us and we place great emphasis on quality control, following rigorous standards in order to avoid any imperfections – it appears that on this occasion we did not meet these standards.

"We would also like to apologise for the delay in getting back in touch with Harry. We have now followed-up directly with him.”