‘Mcdonald’s mix-ups put son in danger’
MUM: ERRORS PUT TEENAGER AT RISK OF ALLERGIC REACTION
THE mother of a 14-year-old austistic boy who suffers from allergies says he is “being put in danger” after his favourite Mcdonald’s restaurant got his order wrong on three separate occasions.
Carolyn Wilkinson, of Wollaton, says she takes her son Thomas to the Mcdonald’s restaurant just off Nottingham Road in Arnold around four times each week as part of his routine.
She says staff at the restaurant have been particularly good with him until recently.
Ms Wilkinson told the Post that she and Thomas typically visit on the way back from his special education needs school in Mansfield, and always order Thomas a plain cheeseburger, fries, a Sprite Zero and ice cream.
Most importantly she asks for the meals to be placed into separate bags to prevent cross-contamination.
The first incident happened in mid-September, when she says staff failed to put his meal in a separate bag from her own order.
As a result she asked the manager to make sure it didn’t happen again. On September 30, they visited again. But this time as Thomas bit into the burger, she says he realised that it was in fact not plain despite a sticker stating otherwise.
“Mcdonald’s is the only place we know is the only safe place that we can get him food,” she said.
“He is allergic to chicken, fish, onions, lentils, peas and nuts. He has been tested for nuts and fish.
“He has got a lot of problems and about 20 allergies.
“He has had them all his life and when we started weaning him we were going to the hospital lots for anaphylaxis and now that he is 14 we cannot drop our guard.
“He goes to a special school in Mansfield so every time we come back it is Mcdonald’s,
“That is his routine, and now he is really worried about going back.
“The first time we had hoped they would have learned from it.
“I’m just getting a big standard reply like his chips were cold or something.”
Ms Wilkinson says she feared her son would have a reaction after biting into the burger which was covered in a relish .
nce again she complained to the manager and also sent an email to customer services, hoping to make staff more aware of those who could have a potentially serious allergic reaction.
However, on November 10 during another visit, they were again given the meal in the same bag, which meant it could not be eaten by Thomas.
“I’ve tried to be as calm and give them the benefit of the doubt,” she added.
“They have offered me some vouchers but I just want them to get it right.
“He was very lucky the second time when he bit into [the burger] as he spat it out as he knew straight away.
“Some of his reactions he’s had when he was younger have been really bad.
“He swells up like he has been in a boxing match.
“I have to carry life-saving Epipen injections with me at all times.
“After the second time they said staff would be retrained.
“I am beyond disbelief.” A Mcdonald’s spokeswoman said: “We’d like to apologise to the customer in question for this instance of order inaccuracy.
“We take this issue very seriously and have a number of procedures in place to avoid inaccurate orders, which the restaurant team have reviewed.
“We are disappointed we fell short of those standards on this occasion.
“The separate issue around meeting the specific requests of how the food is bagged has also been addressed with the restaurant team. “However, we must remind our customers that though we try to keep products separate, we cannot guarantee any item is allergen free, even after ingredients have been removed on request.
“We understand this customer has been liaising with our customer services team.”
Some of his reactions he’s had when he was younger have been really bad Carolyn Wilkinson