THE MOTHER of a three year old who says she found a toenail in her son’s food has said she’ll never eat at another McDonald’s restaurant.

Maggie Webster had taken her son Lewis to McDonald’s in St Albans for a Happy Meal on his way home from nursery when she says her partner found a toenail clipping amongst the fries.

Maggie said: “It was really quite disgusting and my partner had only taken two fries and the nail had fallen out of the pack with the second one.”

The couple returned the fries and the manager took them and the toenail. Maggie said she was told by him that he’d send it off for testing although it was most probably a bit of plastic that looked like a toenail.

“What really made me feel quite ill was when another member of staff came out and told me that last week an even larger toe nail was found in some food. Obviously other customers who were waiting had heard all of this and decided they didn’t want to eat there anymore, and I can’t blame them.

“We asked for the toenail back because we wanted evidence about what had happened but the manager wouldn’t return it.”

When Maggie left, she says the manager assured her she’d be contacted about the issue but is yet to hear from them.

McDonald’s reject Maggie’s claims and say they are quite confident the object wasn’t in the food when it was served. A spokesperson for the restaurant said: “Food safety is paramount to McDonald’s and we prepare our food carefully and using industry-leading hygiene procedures. Our thorough investigation has determined that this object was not in the fries when they were served, but we apologise if the customer feels we have not handled their complaint appropriately.

“Please note that we only have record of one incident, and our inquiries have not found any conversation where we discussed a second incident.”

Maggie, of Watson Avenue, said she’d never let any of her children eat at the chain restaurant again and said she’d been so disappointed by the official McDonald’s response that she’d been down to the restaurant yesterday (Wednesday).

There she met with the operations consultant, Tracey Jackson, who informed Maggie that she was investigating the matter and had called a meeting at the branch to discuss the issue. She assured Maggie that the toenail had been sent off to head office and would undergo further testing.

Maggie added: “I’m not a liar and I went to tell them that. Tracey was very helpful and assured me that my complaint would be looked into, which is at odds with their official line.”