Rottingdean mum finds screw in coffee from fast food outlet

Sable Card, 27, from Rottingdean, was shocked to discover a "one-inch" screw in her toffee latte after it hit her mouth while drinking the beverage.

The mum-of-two bought the drink from a McDonald’s drive-through in Brighton Marina on Saturday, March 2, while on a day out with her mother and children.

Sable, who is a part-time carer for her mum who has Fibromyalgia, immediately found the manager in-store and was offered a replacement drink.

“First of all, he just wanted to take it, just give me a drink and that be it - not very apologetic. All the customers in the shop were like, ‘woah, that’s real bad’,” she said.

Mum-of-two Sable was concerned to find the screw in her drink

“If it went in my mouth the wrong way, that could’ve gone down my throat and I could have choked.

“If that went into a kids milkshake, that could’ve ended up a lot worse than it was.

“He took my details and said that customer care would be in contact with me regarding some sort of compensation. He said that they would definitely be compensating me”

By Monday, 4 April, she had received no response from the customer services team, so made contact herself.

McDonald’s responded via email with an apology and a £20 voucher for their restaurant as compensation.

Sable said she felt “insulted” at the offer of a £20 voucher.

McDonald's in Brighton Marina

“I think that’s just ridiculous. People in America find a cockroach in their nuggets and get £20,000 for it if they take it to court,” she said.

“Obviously, I don’t expect nowhere near that much, but I’m a customer myself, I’m always there, and I’ve never ever had any problems.

“I’m a part-time carer for my mum. She lives next door to me so I’m always with her, and when we’re out and about, we drive through the drive-through and have a coffee and takefive minutes, especially after dropping my boy off at school in the morning.

"We go down there for a bit of peace and quiet.”

Responding to the incident, McDonald’s said: “We are very sorry to hear about this customer’s experience.

A screw believed to be of similar length to the one Sable found in her drink

“Food safety is of the utmost importance to us, and we place great emphasis on quality control, following rigorous standards in order to avoid any imperfections. Unfortunately, on this occasion, it appears we did not meet these standards.

“As soon as the customer made our restaurant team aware they apologised and replaced the customer’s full order. We understand the customer has been liaising with our customer service team to help find a resolution."