CHRIS THOMSON
McDonald’s’ reputation for edible food is taking a quarter pounding with the revelation that a recent conviction of the burger chain’s Rockingham outlet was down to a cockroach stuck to the inside of an iced coffee.
The pictured insect was detected by a less-than-impressed customer on July 8 last year, according to a City of Rockinghampaper published this week.
McDonald’s Australia was convicted in January of selling food contrary to that demanded by a customer, and fined $17,500.
Rockingham McDonald’s.
The conviction was McDonald’s Australia’s seventh known health conviction in Western Australia in five years, and the fourth in six months.
The conviction’s exposure follows a Department of Health notice published last month that confirmed the golden arches on Wanneroo Road in Wanneroo sold unsuitable food on May 1 last year.
For that offence, McDonald’s Australia was fined $8000 and ordered to pay $1654.45 in court costs.
In November last year the City of Rockingham had claimed another legal victory against McDonald’s Australia. At that time, the chain’s Warnbro outlet was fined $22,500 after standing accused of serving a raw chicken wrap.
In July 2009, Rockingham council achieved yet another conviction – when the Warnbro McDonald’s was fined $9000 for failing to maintain its premises and equipment in a clean and sanitary condition, among other indiscretions.
In June last year, McDonald’s Australia was fined $20,000 after pleading guilty to supplying undercooked chicken nuggets from its outlet in Midland.
That eatery is also a double offender – having been fined $500 for a breach of health laws in February 2008.
Those convictions followed a $1250 health fine slapped on the Landsdale McDonald’s in September 2007.
