Food these days comes with its own set of risks; however, when it comes to known brands, people expect them to at least maintain quality and safety standards that are often questionable with street vendors. However, a woman was visibly disappointed when she found a dead insect in her order—not from any local eatery but from Burger King.
She took to her Instagram page, ‘chikatalks’, and shared a reel of the dead insect inside her burger. “I feel like puking right now but I want to raise an issue,” she said, disgusted, from behind the camera. Then appearing on camera, she exclaimed, “If brands like Burger King are going to do this, then I don’t know where to eat anymore.”
She further explained in her caption, “This store was in Mumbai and my double party veggie burger had a dead insect inside it. This raises the safety issues for all of us and also the reliability on huge brands that can’t take care of their franchises. I demand an apology for the risk to my health and safety; I had consumed half the burger.”
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In no time, the reel went viral and sparked public outrage. “Never expected this from you @burgerkingindia,” a user replied. “Case kar. Lawsuit file kar. 50L maang loo. Life pe risk tha bol de, get a lawyer. Sue them,” another user suggested.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time a major brand has disappointed a customer. On July 10, 2014, Sandeep Saxena from East Delhi had a similar incident at McDonald’s in GIP Mall, Noida. He bit into a McAloo Tikki burger only to find an insect inside.
Saxena took ill, vomiting repeatedly, and immediately complained to the manager. Reports from the Times of India revealed that Saxena contacted the police and the district magistrate’s office, leading to the burger being tested and declared ‘unsafe’ by the Food Safety and Medicine Administration.
The district forum ordered McDonald’s later to pay compensation to Saxena: Rs 895 for his treatment, Rs 50 000 for the mental agony, and Rs 20 000 for litigation costs.