Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MY BURGER’S FOWL
Model ‘sick for days from raw chicken’
A WOMAN claims she was left severely ill after eating a partially raw chicken burger from a fast-food takeaway.
Mairead O’neill said she was struck down with food poisoning that left her unable to work for three days after consuming part of the burger she had ordered from Little Ceasar in West Belfast.
The 20-year-old model had just returned home from her job in the early hours of Sunday when she placed an order via the Just Eat app.
Mairead said she was so hungry she started to eat the chicken burger when she noticed “something wasn’t right”.
She told the Mirror: “I ordered a chicken burger and a steak burger but when the guy came to the door he said he’d thrown in a few free items because it took so long to arrive.
“So when I got it in I didn’t even open any of the other items and grabbed the chicken burger first and just started eating it.
“I had about three bites out of it when I noticed something wasn’t right and looked to see and it was raw right in the middle.
“I was sick about 20 minutes later, it was terrible. I’ve been so sick for three days since. I couldn’t believe it, I put it on my Snapchat and everyone was replying saying they couldn’t believe it. Then when I put it on my Facebook I got loads of emails from people about the takeaway and I looked online and realised they had loads of really bad reviews”
Mairead, from South Belfast, added that she tried to call the takeaway to complain and contacted them on social media but got no reply.
She said: “When my partner went to find the takeaway to tell them personally what had happened we followed the address and they’re serving from a storage unit off the Grosvenor Road. “I’ve heard nothing from them since I contacted them after it happened.
“When I put it online I got a message from a Just Eat manager who apologised for the service I had received and they would bring it up with their head office.
“I also reported it to Food Standards at City Hall and they said they will go check it out. I’m only starting to come around now, it was awful. I just don’t want anyone else to go through what I did.”
A Belfast City Council spokesman said: “We can confirm we have received a complaint of alleged food poisoning, but cannot comment further due to the fact that it is an ongoing investigation.”
The Mirror made several attempts to contact a representative for Little Ceasar but none were responded to.
SOUTH BELFAST