Woman opens McDonald’s chicken sandwich to find what appears to be mold, then replacement has raw chicken: “Absolutely ridiculous”
The replacement was supposed to fix the problem. Instead, she says it gave her another one.
Kelsea Pickerill had not even taken a bite of her McDonald’s chicken sandwich when she opened the box and stopped. What appeared to be mold was visible across the bun, so she got back in her car and returned to the restaurant for another one.
Pickerill says she checked the replacement bun before leaving this time. It looked fine, but when she got home and finally took a bite, she says she found another problem. The chicken appeared to be raw.
“Absolutely ridiculous,” Pickerill wrote in a Facebook post tagging McDonald’s. She told The Mary Sue that both sandwiches came from a McDonald’s in Jasper, Indiana, after she stopped for food on her way home from coaching her daughter’s soccer practice.
The replacement was supposed to fix it
Pickerill had placed a mobile order after coaching her daughter’s soccer practice and went through the drive-thru to pick it up. Employees asked her to pull forward while they finished the chicken sandwich, which she says did not bother her.
Once an employee brought the food to her car, Pickerill drove about four minutes home. She opened the sandwich before eating it and says what she saw on the bun stopped her immediately.
“I immediately stopped in my tracks,” Pickerill told The Mary Sue. She said she had not even touched the sandwich yet, so she grabbed the food and her receipt, got back in the car, and returned to McDonald’s.
Pickerill asked for a manager and showed him the sandwich. She says she kept the conversation polite, explaining that she does not like confrontation and knows restaurant workers already have plenty to deal with.
The manager offered to replace the sandwich, and Pickerill accepted. Before leaving this time, she opened the box and checked the bun herself.
This time, the bun looked fine. Pickerill drove home again and finally took a bite, only to say she discovered the chicken inside was raw.
Pickerill later sent The Mary Sue a photo of the replacement sandwich, which appears to show undercooked chicken inside. After already making one trip back to the restaurant, she decided not to return again and shared what happened on Facebook instead.
Credit: Courtesy of Kelsea Pickerill
Pickerill told The Mary Sue that she eats at this McDonald’s “quite often” and specifically praised the day shift manager, though she said her experiences with the newer night shift managers have not been as positive.
The replacement was the one she actually bit into
The first sandwich looked wrong before Pickerill ever ate it. The replacement was different because she says she had already taken a bite by the time she noticed the chicken inside appeared undercooked.
That can be more than an unpleasant fast-food experience. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says raw or undercooked poultry can carry bacteria including Salmonella and Campylobacter, and chicken should reach 165 degrees Fahrenheit before it is eaten.
A photo can show that chicken looks undercooked, but it cannot confirm what temperature it reached. The CDC says color and appearance alone are not reliable ways to tell whether poultry is safely cooked, which is why a food thermometer is the best check.
If something seems wrong with restaurant food, customers can report the problem directly to the restaurant or company. McDonald’s has an online feedback form for individual visits, while concerns about unsafe food handling or sanitation can also be reported to the local health department.
Pickerill decided she was not making a second return trip that night. After already taking the first sandwich back, she shared what happened on Facebook instead.
The Mary Sue reached out to McDonald’s for comment and had not received a response at the time of publication. We will update this story if the company responds.
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