NATIONAL NEWS - “I will eat a McDonald’s burger again, actually I would not mind one now,” says Kayla Bezuidenhout (13), much to the disgust of her siblings.
A frog found in her McDonald’s burger made national media headlines last week.
A post by her father, meant for family and friends on a social media platform, spread like a wildfire and had people commenting not only in South Africa but across the globe.
Kayla loves chicken burgers and McDonald’s is her second favourite takeaway food outlet.
The Bezuidenhouts are family of seven. When two siblings Clara (5) and Milanke (3) were ill on the night of May 6, the quickest dinner choice for Kayla and her siblings was McDonald’s.
They ordered via Mr Delivery and kept an eye on the tracking of the delivery process. According to the app the order was selected at 17:40, collected by the delivery service at 17:50 and delivered at 17:57.
Kayla took two bites of her burger. On her third bite, she discovered two frog legs sticking out of her food.
“I spat out everything that was still in my mouth. My siblings got scared and ran away.
“I went to my dad and told him there is a frog in my burger,” says Kayla.
The Bezuidenhout couple, Angeline and Willem, could not believe what they were seeing. Kayla was put off food for the rest of the evening and says she was nauseous until the next day.“
teachers call me McFroggie. Even my hockey coach calls me McFroggie,” says a laughing Kayla.
She says from now on, she will closely inspect her food before she eats.
A meme of ‘Secunda’s brulburger’ with a huge toad between garnish and two buns, is doing the rounds. Angeline says at least the real frog is much smaller in comparison to the one in the meme. The frog was about 2cm in size.
Negative comments on social media have affected them somewhat, but the family say they handle the comments as they come.
“People have become very personal. If you don’t know me, rather don’t say anything. When it comes to my kids, it is even harder for me,” says Angeline.
A meme doing the rounds. The Bezuidenhout family says the real frog was 2cm big.
They do understand that by posting this on social media they have put themselves out there, but the post was mainly intended for friends and family on their personal Facebook profile, the family says.
Comments have gone as far as accusing the family of planting the frog.
“Why would we go through all of that for a R60-burger and still have the audacity to take it back to McDonald’s?
“My children cringe when they see frogs. They won’t even climb in the swimming pool if there is a frog,” says Angeline.
Some accused the delivery service of tampering with the package, but Angeline says they tracked the order from the moment it was placed until it got to their door, which happened in minutes.
“We were contacted the Monday after the incident by Mr Delivery’s head office. The manager apologised and refunded us. I told him I did not expect a refund, but he insisted,” says Angeline.
McDonald’s South Africa has since sent out a laboratory (Global Network of Accredited Laboratories) to collect the frozen and sealed package from the family home.
McDonald’s South Africa sent the Ridge Times a media statement saying that the company is aware of the incident at their Secunda restaurant and that it is being investigated.
“Our commitment to serving food to our customers will always remain a top priority in our business. We take this matter very seriously and are working with all parties to ensure this is resolved,” says Daniel Padiachy, chief of marketing, communications, IT and supply chain officer at McDonald’s SA.
