MPI investigating complaints of undercooked McDonald's chicken

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) today confirmed its investigating complaints of undercooked chicken at "various" McDonald's restaurants around the country.

It comes after Stuff recently reported at least two cases of people being served raw or undercooked chicken in their nuggets and burger at McDonald's in Auckland and Christchurch.

"New Zealand Food Safety is aware of a number of complaints relating to chicken at various McDonald’s stores," Vincent Arbuckle, deputy director general New Zealand Food Safety told 1News.

"We cannot go into detail about ongoing investigations, but we are looking at each complaint on its merits."

Arbuckle added: "It can be difficult to assess food safety risk based on pictures on social media as we do not know when they were taken.

"We encourage anyone who has eaten unsafe food to keep a sample of the food and contact us directly.

"This will help us move quickly to manage any potential wider food safety risk."

McDonald's also gave a statement on the undercooked chicken incidents.

“While incidents relating to undercooked products in recent weeks have been unrelated, as a business McDonald’s takes any type of food safety complaint extremely seriously," a spokesperson said.

"Findings and learnings are being shared with all restaurants, and a heightened focus on food safety has been implemented nationwide. We are working with the Ministry for Primary Industries to support their investigation process. All restaurants have verified food safety plans in place, which include daily food safety checks and reporting. Every restaurant also receives unannounced food safety audits by an independent third-party food safety verifier."