From its surprising toys to its joyful name, McDonald’s Happy Meal is one of the ‘go-to’ meals for millions of kids all around the globe. However, the ‘Happy Meal’ that reached for the kids of a 35-year-old mother, turned out way too far from happy, instead the meal left the family shaken and the mother questioning the hygiene maintained in McDonald’s outlets. Gemma Kirk-Bonner, a UK woman from Barrow-in-Furness, bought a ‘Happy Meal’ for her 1-year-old and 3-year-old sons on October 18, as per The Mail. But what she found inside the meal ended up raising a whole lot of questions about Mcdonald's. To Gemma’s surprise, the 35-year-old reportedly found a cigarette butt’ at the bottom of the packet of the French fries. The unhygienic revelation instantly left Gemma stunned, after which she took to her social media handle to share the ordeal with the internet. Chastising McDonald’s in Barrow-in-Furness and demanding an apology, Gemma further explained that she was handled rudely by the staff after she called them up regarding the incident. 

Taking notice of the matter, once the woman’s post went viral, Dalton Road restaurant franchisee Mark Blundell assured about the importance of food safety and stressed the efforts of making the customers feel approachable to the authorities regarding such matters. "Food safety is of the utmost importance to us, and we place great emphasis on quality control and providing the highest standard to our customers at our Barrow-in-Furness restaurant. We would encourage the customer to contact customer service so that we can properly investigate and help them find a resolution," he was quoted as saying to The Mail. 

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The post went viral and the food giant ended up receiving a lot of backlash on the internet. Many also suggested the woman share the incident on X (formerly Twitter) so that the company would have to respond directly on a public platform, while others expressed their concerns over the carelessness displayed in packing a meal that is especially served for kids. 

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Taking to the comment section, people shared their views. “Wow That has just happened to my daughter - Katherine Sara - she ordered two Happy Meals and only one toy,” a user said. “Omg that’s disgusting, I’d be fuming,” a second user said. “post it on their Twitter! companies hate bad publicity for social that open,” joined a third person. “That’s awful! That must be happy meals free for life! Trading standards I’d say!” commented a fourth user. “This happened to my Daughter tonight,” said a fifth netizen. “Unbelievable sending a photo to trading standards definitely put a complaint in which macs was it in barrow?” asked another.