Quote:Condom found in child's Happy meal
Thursday Apr 26 12:13 AEST
A New Zealand mother says she was shocked and disgusted that a condom had been found in her seven-year-old daughter's McDonald's meal.

Louise Whitaker from Wellington said her daughter Maia was with her sister April and her grandparents at a store when the condom was found on Tuesday night.

She said her mother discovered the opened condom after her daughter ordered a Happy Meal.

"I was just disgusted after I heard about it," Whitaker said.

"I was shocked. A seven-year-old ... I don't think she actually saw it, so she doesn't understand the whole thing. I am just lucky my mother discovered it."

She said the condom was returned before her mother checked whether or not it had been used.

McDonald's replaced the meal.

She said the fast food restaurant had not given her a formal apology nor explained how the condom came to be in the meal.

Whitaker said she had heard from a journalist that the Happy Meal had been on public display and could have had the condom put in by a mischief-maker before it was given to her daughter.

"Wee have been overseas recently and wee always went to McDonald's, thinking they had an international policy where everything is safe and done the right way. This has just sort of changed my opinion," Whitaker said.

A McDonald's spokeswoman said the restaurant was embarrassed by the incident and was studying in-store video to see how the condom ended up in the package.

She said it was likely Maia had been given a display model that had been on a counter facing customers.

"It sounds like ... someone has actually come along and thought they were potentially clever or funny - of which they were neither - and has put this in," she said.