From severed fingers in chili to deep-fried rat heads in buckets of chicken, these fast-food
controversies are sure to make you skip the drive-thru and stick to your diet.
One of the most infamous incidents in fast food history was the McDonald's hot coffee
lawsuit from the early 1990s. At the time, the lawsuit was the source of significant mockery,
as the plaintiff was criticized for filing what many classified as a
frivolous lawsuit. That viewpoint was even immortalized in a classic Seinfeld episode.
"You get me one coffee drinker on that jury? You're going to walk out of there a rich man."
But the truth is far more serious and shocking than media coverage from the time suggested.
79-year-old Stella Liebeck actually suffered third-degree burns to her groin and pelvic region,
requiring skin grafts. She was in the hospital for eight days,
and her injuries ultimately required two years of treatment.
Amazingly, she wasn't even trying to get a big payday from McDonald's, but actually
just wanted McDonald's to cover her medical bills, which came to roughly $20,000. Instead,
McDonald's offered her just $800. She filed suit, and during the trial it was learned that
McDonald's had paid out roughly half a million dollars to hundreds of people to settle previous
coffee scalding incidents, but had refused to take any action to make their coffee less dangerous.
Recognizing McDonald's had acted egregiously by intentionally heating
its coffee to extreme temperatures, the jury sided with Liebeck. Consequently,
she was initially awarded $2.9 million in compensation for her suffering,
eventually settling with McDonald's out of court for an undisclosed lesser amount.
When a company is responsible for running thousands of locations throughout the
world — like Burger King, which has more than 18,700 locations as of 2023 — there's
bound to be a bad apple here and there. Or, more appropriately, a bad head of lettuce,
as in the case of the disturbing 2012 controversy from a Burger King in Mayfield
Heights, Ohio where employees photographed themselves standing in the lettuce bins.
That turned out to be a bad move, not just for the reputation of Burger King,
but also for the employees themselves. According to Cleveland.com, the location of
the boot-clad employee standing in lettuce was quickly identified. Bryson Thornton,
director of global communications for Burger King, told Today in 2012
"The franchisee took swift action to investigate this
matter and terminated the three employees involved."
Still, even a decade later anyone who saw the pictures has to wonder
just where the lettuce in their Whopper came from.
"Now we turn to the story everybody is talking about, the finger in the Wendy's chili."
Every fast food worker has likely had the urge to flip off a disrespectful customer at some point.
In fact, we'd venture a guess that anyone who's worked in food service, at any type of restaurant,
has stifled the desire to tell a customer how they really feel. But when you envision
a Wendy's employee giving a rude customer the finger, you probably imagine that it's still
attached to their hand — unlike the finger one woman found in her Wendy's chili in 2005.
Now, the Dave Thomas-founded restaurant is fairly forthright about its use of
fresh ingredients and never-frozen beef patties. But, a human finger isn't what
anyone has in mind when it comes to fresh meat. Thankfully, there's as much truth
to this story as there is edible meat to be found on a human finger — as in, none.
After some investigation it was discovered that Anna Ayala had put the finger there herself in
an attempt to defraud Wendy's. Her husband had bought the finger from a co-worker who
had lost it in an accident; Ayala then cooked it herself before plopping it in the chili.
Ayala ultimately spent four years in prison for the scam, while Wendy's reportedly lost more
than $20 million in sales thanks to the negative press coverage before the scam was discovered.
When it comes to chicken parts worth prioritizing for culinary purposes,
nothing may rank lower than the bird's head. But what if a chicken head arrives
at your doorstep without any warning, as appeared to be the case in 2000, when a
woman named Katherine Ortega claimed to find a breaded chicken head in her McDonald's order?
There were a couple of details that didn't make every news report on this one, though. First,
it was widely stated that the chicken head was in an order of McNuggets,
but that wasn't actually the case. Instead, it was reportedly an order of Mighty Wings,
which was being test marketed at the Virginia location where the head was purchased.
It's also worth noting that, unlike many similar incidents,
Ortega didn't sue McDonald's over the chicken head. Disgusting as it was, finding a chicken
head in a box of chicken apparently wasn't weird enough to justify a lawsuit.
Still, that's one point in favor of becoming a vegetarian!
"This image may have done more to promote vegetarianism than any number of PETA protests!"
Nobody likes rats. But as gross as rats are when they're scurrying around in the garbage or jumping
on pirates in the enchanted forest, it's even worse when you find a rat in your fast food order.
That's what apparently happened back in 2015 when a man claimed to have found a deep-fried rat in
his KFC order. But despite the photographic evidence — displaying an alleged rat in the
customer's order, long, disgusting tail and all — the authenticity of this claim was always
somewhat suspect. For one thing, KFC hand breads each piece of chicken in-house, meaning there's
often little homogeneity between its chicken pieces. This, in turn, opens the door for
some truly unusual-looking final products — even ones that might resemble another animal entirely.
In November 2016, KFC announced that a DNA test determined the so-called rodent was,
in fact, chicken all along. Still,
even though it turned out to be bogus, the controversy damaged the brand.
Speaking of America's least favorite chicken substitute, KFC wasn't the only fried chicken
brand that came under fire for supposedly serving rats to customers. In 2016, the same year as the
bogus KFC rat incident, Popeye's also came under fire for apparently frying up a rodent.
In this case, a woman in Harlem claimed that she found a rat's head in a bucket of Popeyes
chicken. And it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility. According to the New York Daily News,
several health inspections of the restaurant in question between 2013 and 2017 noted
"evidence of mice or live mice present in the facility's food and/or non-food
areas." And a 2015 health inspection noted that the facility was "not vermin-proof."
Still, that doesn't mean it actually was a rat. Popeye's suggested that, like KFC,
it might have just been some rat-shaped chicken. Even Snopes wasn't able to determine whether or
not it was a rat. But just to be on the safe side, if you find something
in your chicken bucket that looks like it might be a rat, we suggest not eating it.
Most major companies try to avoid controversy. And then there's Chick-Fil-A, who seem to have built
their entire marketing strategy around being as unapologetically controversial as possible.
We're referring, of course, to Chick-Fil-A's openly anti-LGBTQ stance. Now, it's no secret
that Chick-Fil-A is a staunchly Christian organization. After all,
its restaurants are closed on Sundays, which Chick-Fil-A expressly states is
to allow employees a chance to, quote, "worship if they choose."
It's also widely known that Chick-Fil-A has openly and consistently donated money
to Christian charities that actively oppose same-sex marriage and the LGBTQ community.
In 2012, when Chick-Fil-A owner Dan Cathy was confronted about his open
opposition to equal marriage rights, he responded, quote, "guilty as charged."
In a PR move, Chick-Fil-A announced in 2019 they as a company would no longer be donating
to anti-LGBTQ charities. However, according to Esquire, Cathy himself continues to funnel
millions of dollars of his Chick-Fil-A fortune into organizations fighting against equality.
Though the company's position has generated some backlash, overall they have actually gained in
popularity, as pandering to the right-wing has proven to be a savvy business move.
If you order a hamburger at a restaurant, would you be able to tell if it was ground horse meat
rather than beef from a cow? Maybe not, but that doesn't mean you want to eat Seabiscuit.
Unfortunately, that was nearly the case for diners at several UK Burger King locations in 2013,
when it was discovered that the fast food chain had purchased meat from
a supplier called Silvercrest Foods, where traces of horse DNA were found.
To Burger King's credit, it immediately terminated its contract with Silvercrest
Foods upon this discovery, and strongly insisted it never actually served horse meat burgers at
any of its locations. Still, we'll never forget this controversy — and neither will pop culture,
thanks to the classic "Bob's Burgers" Season 7 episode "They Serve Horses, Don't They?"
"Oh my god, Teddy, we don't sell horse anymore."
In 2017 the crap hit the fan when a BBC investigation found traces of fecal bacteria
in ice from a UK Starbucks location. That discovery set off a virtual poop storm online.
But was it really that big a deal? Not according to LiveScience. They explained that just because
the ice tested positive for fecal coliforms doesn't mean there was actually feces in it,
or that it's dangerous. That's because fecal coliform is a category that contains a lot
of different bacteria, not all of which are found in feces, and not all of which will get you sick.
Still, even if the controversy turned out to be a tempest in a chamber pot,
it was enough to put people off coffee for a while.
Back in 1991, Kentucky Fried Chicken changed their name to KFC,
a decision that many fans of the famous franchise found baffling. Why would
a company with such widespread name recognition ditch its name?
It wasn't long before a bizarre urban legend took hold, as the rumor spread
that KFC had to legally change their name because they no longer sold actual chicken,
but instead some kind of mutated chicken product.
You probably don't need Snopes to debunk this one, but just in case,
the truth is that KFC changed its name in part because the state trademarked
the name Kentucky and the chicken chain didn't want to pay royalties. Still,
the mutant chicken theory at least explains how Colonel Sanders got superpowers.
When it comes to pizza chains, there are a lot of options out there. Domino's, Pizza Hut,
Little Caesars, the list goes on and on. And one thing those chains all have in common is
that unlike Papa John's, their founders didn't become famous for dropping racial slurs in public.
Yes, it happened in a 2018 conference call. Ironically, the whole purpose of the call was
to discuss strategies to help founder John Schnatter avoid public relations issues.
The meeting followed in the wake of a controversy Schnatter found himself embroiled in following
some ill-advised statements surrounding Colin Kaepernick's protests against police brutality.
Instead, Schnatter decided to use the call as a forum to whine about the fact that
Colonel Sanders had been even more publicly racist than Schnatter without facing serious
consequences. During his indulgent episode of what-about-ism, Schnatter used the N-word.
Upon the public learning of the incident, Schnatter was forced to step down and has
since blamed, quote, the "progressive elite left" for his self-inflicted downfall.
When it comes to disturbing fast food controversies,
none may be more uncomfortable to discuss than the downfall of Subway spokesman Jared
Fogle. Fogle became rich and famous after Subway's sandwiches supposedly helped him
lose hundreds of pounds, and his popular ads reportedly helped Subway's sales surge by 20%.
But something dark lurked underneath Fogle's mild-mannered persona, and in 2015,
Fogle pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography, as well as having sex with a minor.
Fogle was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a federal judge,
which was actually several years longer than the prosecution recommended. Additionally,
he'll be forced to register as a sex offender upon release,
with law enforcement monitoring any electric devices he owns in the future, as well.