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Fast-food giant McDonald's was cleared yesterday of providing substandard food after a customer complained he found a rusty nail in his French fries.

Acquitting McDonald's, North Kowloon Court magistrate Diana Cheung Han-chu said the nail might have fallen into the food from 'somewhere nearby' as customer Chan Wing-shing walked to a park to eat his meal.

Describing Mr Chan's testimony as unsatisfactory, Ms Cheung said: 'It disturbs the court why the prosecution witness [Chan Wing-shing] took the meal a long way to the park, where the environment was dirty.'

She accepted defence counsel Christopher Coghlan's submission that there were doubts over Mr Chan's testimony.

The case was brought by the Department of Food and Environmental Hygiene after Mr Chan telephoned to complain.

McDonald's denied one charge of selling food not of the nature, substance or quality demanded by the purchaser.

Mr Chan, 24, unemployed, yesterday testified that on July 3 last year he bought a take-away set meal from McDonald's branch in Carprio Mansion in Lai Chi Kok Road, Mongkok, for lunch.

He said he took the food to a park near Allied Plaza at 1.45pm that day. When he started to eat the meal, he found a 1.7cm rusted nail embedded in one of his fries.

He then telephoned a Chinese-language newspaper's complaints hotline and the Department of Food and Environmental Hygiene to report the incident.

Mr Chan said he went back to the McDonald's restaurant with a reporter from the newspaper and a health inspector from the Department of Food and Environmental Hygiene and told the shop manager about the nail.

The shop manager apologised to Mr Chan and offered him a free meal, which he refused.

The magistrate dismissed an application by the defence for the prosecution to pay $30,000 legal costs, saying it was proper for the Department of Food and Environmental Hygiene to have brought the company to trial in the case.

'If McDonald's did nothing wrong, there was no reason for them to have apologised [to Mr Chan] and offered an alternative free meal for him,' Ms Cheung said.

McDonald's was not available for comment last night.



McDonald's cleared over rusty nail in French fries