Some customers of Russia’s rebranded McDonald’s are not loving it according to images by social media users of orders that have contained some unexpected ingredients.
Images posted have shown what appears to be insect legs and bugs in the burgers, while other pictures document creeping mold on the buns.
Another Twitter user posted a video clip of birds pecking at a stack of burger buns outside an outlet, citing it as a grim example of Russia’s experiment with fast food import substitution.
In response to the claims, a spokeswoman for the chain said “product quality and safety is our top priority. When storing and preparing products, all necessary procedures are followed.”
“We have already contacted the manufacturer for further clarification. And the entire batch, in which the product of inadequate quality was found, has been discarded.”
However, the reports were enough to prompt opposition politician and television personality Ksenia Sobchak to say on her Telegram channel that the new Russian chain “doesn’t quite honor the standards of McDonald’s, at least in terms of product quality control.”
“Today alone, at least three cases have been recorded when burgers with moldy buns were sold to catering customers,” she said, later posting that customers had also been given sauces that had gone beyond their best before date.
“Guys, you’ll figure it out,” she wrote, “you don’t need to poison people.”
McDonald’s had operated in Russia for three decades after the fall of the Soviet Union but was among the many companies that deserted the country following the start of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sold to Russian businessman Alexander Govor, who ran 25 McDonald’s outlets in Siberia, the chain told Reuters that it sold a record 120,000 burgers on its opening day last month.
The chief executive Oleg Paroev said the company was planning to reopen 200 restaurants in Russia by the end of June and all 850 by the end of the summer, telling reporters before its reopening that its goal was that customers “do not notice a difference either in quality or ambience.”
McDonald’s pulls out of Russia, this is what Russia gets. The Russian burger chain that moved into the former McDonald’s locations is serving this. Moscow citizens are posting photos of moldy burgers and insect legs in the food. pic.twitter.com/FcViFws7J4
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) July 5, 2022