McDonald's begins selling mozzarella sticks ... forgets to include the mozzarella

Wednesday, February 03, 2016 by: Jennifer Lea Reynolds
Tags: McDonald''s, mozzarella sticks, junk food

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(NaturalNews) File this as another "you can't make this stuff up" story.

McDonald's, which has been facing dwindling sales and isn't exactly known for churning out healthy foods, is now in the midst of its latest embarrassing debacle: selling mozzarella sticks (are you ready for this?) without the mozzarella.

Now, on the one hand the absence of the unhealthy item may be a blessing, but at the same time, the lack of cheese – which makes a mozzarella stick a mozzarella stick for crying out loud – isn't doing much to help the fast food giant recover from its ongoing problems.

Consumers: 'When I order mozzarella sticks I generally want some cheese'

Consumers who were eagerly awaiting the cheesy food broke them apart to find that they were about to eat nothing other than the fried outside portion. Instead of stringy, hot cheese oozing from the item, only a hollowed-out empty stick sat before them. You can view several pictures here.

The sticks caused quite a stir in the social media world, with many taking to Twitter to express concerns. For example, Danielle (@CheeseburgerCas) wrote, "@McDonalds I [sic] when I order mozzarella sticks I generally want some cheese." Herman Serna (@iamherman_) was another cheeseless person who wrote, "@McDonalds I am utterly disappointed in your 'mozzarella' sticks." Endless amounts of people continued in this manner, often uploading photos of the void in their sticks.⁽¹⁾

The reason for the hollowed out sticks is thought to be an error in the baking process, as explained by McDonald's spokeswoman Lisa McComb.

Problem said to be a glitch in the baking process

"We are aware of a low volume of guest concerns about our Mozzarella Cheese Sticks," she wrote in an email statement. "In these instances, we believe the cheese melted out during the baking process in our kitchens and shouldn't have been served. We apologize to any customers who may have been affected. We are working to fix this in our restaurants."⁽²⁾

While McComb says it's a "low volume" matter, the reality is that the issue spread like wildfire across various social media platforms and news outlets, putting the problem in the spotlight. The public relations bad-image hole just got deeper for McDonald's.

This isn't the first time the fast food chain has experienced widespread issues.

McDonald's not a stranger to problems, including diminishing sales

Last year, a survey was conducted by an experienced restaurant industry analyst. In it, McDonald's franchisees were asked to provide their six-month forecast. With "1" being "poor" and "5" being "excellent," the average response was a low 1.69. Other survey feedback included a host of disappointments, including people who stated that the corporate level often does not produce any answers, and that they possess a "collective arrogance." No wonder their sales dropped to their lowest levels in 12 years at the time.⁽³⁾

McDonald's also met a great deal of criticism during their back-and-forth stance on kale. Initially, they came out with commercials that joked about health-conscious foods. They featured close-ups of burgers with a voice-over declaring that kale isn't juicy. The implication was that the addition of it in foods is seemingly pointless, and is the very reason why they'll continue creating the foods they do. Well, not too long thereafter, they changed their position, announcing that salads and breakfast bowls in certain regions would contain kale. Their conflicting thoughts about the food item reinforced their unstable ways, which wasn't well received.⁽³⁾

Additionally, there have been many concerns over their use of antibiotics in their chicken, and that they addressed the issue much later than other restaurants that had already put food safety measures in place. According to their website though, they're focusing on the issue, stating that "In the US, we agree antibiotics have important benefits, but we believe that a few sensible changes can both maintain their most important benefits while helping to reduce their use overall." They maintain that they'll "... stop using antibiotics important to human medicine in chicken production for McDonald's USA by March 2017."^(3,4)

So, they've flip-flopped over their thoughts about kale to the point of making fun of health-conscious people.

They've experienced less-than-satisfied franchise owners.

They've been frowned upon for their use of antibiotics.

Their foods are far from healthy.

Now, they've got cheeseless mozzarella sticks to add to the mess.

What could possibly be next?

Sources for this article include:

(1) ABCNews.go.com

(2) OrlandoSentinel.com

(3) NaturalNews.com

(4) News.McDonalds.com