Adulteration of foodstuffs in McDonalds

[Mangetout]

The other day, Mrs Mangetout said that she didn't fancy coming with me to McDonalds with the kids because of what they put in the food, now I know that fast food isn't generally a particularly healthy thing, if it features prominently in your regular diet, I'm even aware that all kinds of animal parts can end up in fast food items (not necessarily at McDonalds though).

Anyway, she seemed really cagey about it, but eventually said that it was because there is _semen in the mayonnaise.
"What!?!", I exclaimed; "There's _semen in the mayonnaise - apparently they found _semen in the mayonnaise at McDonalds", she replied.

Now I am certain this is nothing more than an urban legend and I told her so. Snopes says nothing about the subject (although there are quite a number of McDs adulteration tales there).

Googling, I found a couple of pages where someone was claiming that this or that branch of McDonalds got closed down after 'they' found semen in the food there, but again, they are in classic UL format and layout (The person thought their burger tasted funny/fell ill and sent it for testing, wherupon 'they' found that it contained...")

Anyroadup, can anyone tell me if there ever has been a legitimate documented case of food contamination by human semen at McDonalds (and indeed at any commercial food outlet)?

[Mangetout]

(Hasty addendum)... any statement beginning "I heard..." is not the kind of documentation I'm seeking.

[Dung Beetle]

Foodstuffs? At McDonalds? I don't believe it!

[Dung Beetle]

P.S. At the McDonalds where I used to work, all wanking was kept strictly to the mop closet.

[RealityChuck]

It sounds like it's just a variation on this: http://www.snopes.com/horrors/food/semen.htm

Urban Legends mutate, and it isn't all that surprising that the name of the restaurant changed to Mcdonald's. The article even states:

Semen is said to have turned up in ... hamburger's "secret sauce."

That would seem to reference the McDonald's version of the UL.

[jjimm]

I heard that they thought it was mayonnaise, and then they were really sick, and under analysis it was actually chicken pus. It's true! Bloke said! It happened to someone who knows a friend of mine! (Actually, I really really was told this as gospel by a friend. But it isn't).

[Jinx]

I think they have a policy of making no substitutions!

[Wendell Wagner]

Semen is more healthy than most of the food that you'll get at McDonalds. You should demand that there be semen in your food. If there isn't already some in your food, check through the packets of ketchup, etc. and see if they have any packets of semen to add to your food.

[AskNott]

Have you folks been watching old copies of Barbara Broadcast?

[Finagle]

So I guess Mrs. Mangetout doesn't really mange tout?

[Paul in Qatar]

You you suppose they have vast semen ranches in Argentina or somewhere?

[Zenster]

There's nothing to adulterate. It is merely fax food (facsimile food).

[Mangetout]

Please folks; the humour is great, but I'm looking for factual answers here; I know there are urban legends about this sort of thing but the existence of numerous urban legends about it doesn't negate the possibility of it having happened.

The factual question is: Are there any legitimate, recorded cases of restaurants serving food that was found to contain human semen?

[Lemur866]

Given the nature of bored, sullen, stoned, and hostile fast-food burger flippers, I would be shocked if no one can come up with a story of one wanking on a customer's food.

[jjimm]

Originally posted by Mangetout
The factual question is: Are there any legitimate, recorded cases of restaurants serving food that was found to contain human semen?

The factual answer is: yes, anywhere Michael Winner orders soup.

[Mr. Slant]

Only documentation I've ever seen in paper was written up in "The Final Call" or somesuch.. whatever they call the official newspaper of The Nation of Islam.
The article ran when I was in college, which dates it to between 1995 and 1999. I believe I read this Freshman year, which puts it in 1995-1996, but I wouldn't swear on a stack of Korans to that.
In the article a Black customer of a chinese delivery restaurant was outraged to find a used condom in his dinner.
That being said, the journalistic integrity of the journal in question is uh... probably somewhat less than that of the New York Times.

[simple homer]

I worked at a Wendy's 20 years ago, and i walked in on a guy pissing into the 5 gallon pickle bucket back in the stockroom.
Thats not semen, but thats bad enough

[SylverOne]

From ABC News

From my POV, if they can put glass in your burger, they can put anything in your burger. ::shudder::

[Chefguy]

Originally posted by Mangetout
Please folks; the humour is great, but I'm looking for factual answers here; I know there are urban legends about this sort of thing but the existence of numerous urban legends about it doesn't negate the possibility of it having happened.

The factual question is: Are there any legitimate, recorded cases of restaurants serving food that was found to contain human semen?

Absolutely. Find and read a copy of "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser. WARNING: it may put you off fast food and maybe even processed meat for life.

The situation is often like this (and not to disrespect hard-working teens): you have a food establishment largely staffed by young people, who are supervised by young people. There have been documented instances of food fights, urinating in coffee and spitting into sandwiches. Now aren't you glad you asked?

[Jadis]

The Smoking Gun has a few pages of compilations of police reports and lawsuits related to restaurants tampering with food. Honestly, this is a risk you take when you eat *anywhere*, not just McDonald's, and it's generally not randomly done, it's done in retaliation for some perceived slight.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/food/food.html
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/food2/food2.html

So, the answer is yes...there are documented cases of nasty, horrible people tampering with food in all sorts of restaurants. I wouldn't call it a standard practice, though, and singling out McDonald's is rather silly.

[NickFun]

All this talk is making me hungry and it is Lunch Time. I'll post my opinion later.

[Chronos]

This one looks trivially false to me... McDonalds doesn't even use mayonaise, do they? Now, if the claim were semen in the Big Mac special sauce, or in the tartar sauce used on the Fillet O Fish, then it might be plausible. But what McDonalds item uses mayo?

[Darwin's Finch]

Originally posted by Chronos
But what McDonalds item uses mayo?

Chicken sandwiches (e.g., the McChicken).

[Mangetout]

Originally posted by Chronos
This one looks trivially false to me... McDonalds doesn't even use mayonaise, do they? Now, if the claim were semen in the Big Mac special sauce, or in the tartar sauce used on the Fillet O Fish, then it might be plausible. But what McDonalds item uses mayo?

I think that the 'special sauce' is quite commonly referred to as mayonnaise here, but they are always changing the menu here anyway (to include novelty stuff like 'Greek Mac' etc, so I suppose real Mayo is going to feature sooner or later.

[Geek Mecha]

Originally posted by Chefguy
Absolutely. Find and read a copy of "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser. WARNING: it may put you off fast food and maybe even processed meat for life.

The situation is often like this (and not to disrespect hard-working teens): you have a food establishment largely staffed by young people, who are supervised by young people. There have been documented instances of food fights, urinating in coffee and spitting into sandwiches. Now aren't you glad you asked?

Could you please tell me where in the book it is written that semen has been found in fast food?