A Queensland woman was gobsmacked when she discovered what appeared to be a battery in her takeaway dinner from a popular Mexican chain.
Stephanie Weston ordered a beef mince burrito bowl from Guzman y Gomez at Ripley, south-west of Brisbane, last Friday.
Her partner picked it up at the drive-through and brought it home to Weston, who dug in before she spotted something small and metallic in the meal.
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Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be a button battery.
If ingested, they can cause severe chemical burns and internal injuries that can turn life-threatening.
Weston told the ABC she “panicked” when she realised what it was.
Horrified, she snapped a photo while her partner returned to the fast food restaurant to show staff the battery.
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A Guzman y Gomez assistant manager told her the battery had come from a food thermometer.
Weston’s partner was offered a refund and two burrito vouchers as compensation.
Unimpressed with the restaurant’s response, Weston posted a photo of her meal to Facebook with the caption: “Well I’m not eating Guzman y Gomez Ripley again, I found a battery in my burrito bowl and they think voucher makes up for almost posioning myself.”
A Guzman y Gomez spokesperson told 9news.com.au they were aware of the photo “displaying a foreign object in a meal from our Ripley restaurant” doing the rounds online.
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“We have been in contact with the guest who was involved,” they said.
“GYG immediately initiated a full investigation into this matter and confirmed that the object came from a food-grade thermometer.
“This is an isolated incident, there is no alert or recall that is required on this matter.”
The spokesperson said Guzman y Gomez had “undertaken urgent actions to ensure that this does not happen again”.
That includes replacing the model of thermometer involved in the incident, training crew and running additional checks of equipment across all restaurants
“Food safety is our absolute priority at GYG, and we take incidents of this nature extremely seriously,” the spokesperson said.
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