Dad claims McDonald's made a '˜hash' of complaint after plastic is found in food

Plastic found in Boldon's McDonalds food. Tony Carlisle and daughter Taylor-Skye Carlisle aged 2

Tony Carlisle has also called on the firm to overhaul how it deals with customer complaints following the visit to the Boldon Colliery restaurant with two-year-old Taylor-Skye.

Tony’s wife Nicola, 35, found the piece of yellow plastic packaging in a hash brown, which he says could have been given to the youngster.

The piece of plastic found in the McDonald's hash brown.

The charity campaigner was furious when he was offered a Happy Meal was a way of apology and s says he does not want any financial compensation - suggesting a donation to a children’s fund instead.

He has since been offered £20 in meal vouchers, which he feels makes a “mockery of the issue.”

The company recently offered a Happy Meal to Biddick Hall mum Kayley Paul, 29, and daughter Jordyn Carruthers, seven, when they found a needle on the toilet floor of its restaurant in South Shields town centre.

Former Harton Technology College teacher Tony, 59, from South Shields, said: “If this had been given to my two-year-old daughter, it could have been fatal.

“Their response has been atrocious.

“We use them quite a few times a week, my girls love it.

“When Nicola found it, she was absolutely flabbergasted, because she’d found this yellow piece of plastic.

“I thought ‘I’m not happy about this’ took a photo so that I had evidence and when I gave it to the member of staff.”

He added: “They took it from me, said they’d do something about it and then just put it down on the counter.

“I went back out and talked to my wife and thought ‘I’m going to do something about this.’

“I had a conversation with a manager who had overheard what had happened with the member of staff, and she said she was sorry, but I was still reeling.”

Tony, who organises the Great North Dog Walk, was also with children Toni, six, and Summer, eight, when they visited early last month.

A McDonald’s spokesman said: “We’d like to apologise for our response falling short of Mr Carlisle’s expectations. “Food quality and safety are of the utmost importance to us and our stringent checks mean incidents like this are extremely rare. “Several attempts have been made to compensate Mr Carlisle and our customer services team have been back in touch today to discuss the matter further.”