A CLACKMANNANSHIRE woman says her daughter was left shaken after finding a nasty surprise in her McDonald's tub of ketchup.

Alloa mother Claire McKay, 37, had a not-so-happy-meal the other night, when her daughter Emma, 8, realised her tomato sauce contained a sharp object.

The woman and her children were visiting the popular fast food chain's Alloa restaurant on Tuesday evening for a take-away and she says her eight-year-old nearly put the object in her mouth.

At first, Claire and her daughter thought they may have encountered a shard of glass, but the woman now believes it is probably a sharp piece of plastic.

Claire told the Advertiser: “We were driving in the car, we have just been to McDonald's and my daughter always gets a tub and she always puts her finger in them and scoops the sauce out and just eats it like that.

“She just went to put it in her mouth and she went 'oh, I'm not eating that, there's a big bit of glass in it'.”

Alloa and Hillfoots Advertiser:

Claire immediately got her daughter to give her the tub, which contained the “hefty chunk” of what she then thought was glass.

She continued: “It was not a large bit, but for the size of the tub it was quite large and I just got such a fright – thinking oh my God, if she put that in her mouth and if it was my son who had it, he is only four, he would not have known what he's putting in his mouth.”

Claire phoned the Clackmannan Road restaurant and was asked to bring the tub back, but she decided to hold onto it for now as evidence. She wanted to highlight the story to make people aware, saying she wouldn't want any other child or person to suffer injury by accident.

McDonald's told the Advertiser that its sauce production site is glass free and that there does not appear to be a wider issue. How the sharp object got into the dip remains a mystery.

Luckily no injury occurred, but Emma is old enough to understand what nearly happened. Claire added: “It shook her up quite badly, what if she had put it in her mouth and she had swallowed it.”

Swallowing a piece of glass or a sharp object can be lethal. Newspapers reported in 2013 that an elderly businesswoman from England was killed when a piece of glass in the mustard she ate with her steak pierced her carotid artery. She became very unwell very quickly and she was unable to breathe after her throat started to swell.

Several symptoms can occur when a sharp object enters the system. These include vomiting, drooling, chest pains, neck pains and the inability to swallow. Pieces can become trapped in the intestines, causing tissue damage or tears.

McDonald's confirmed to the Advertiser that its UK condiments are produced down south by McCormick Ltd in Littleborough, Lancashire, but the food manufacturer's spokesperson declined to either deny or confirm, saying it is confidential information.

Claire said the restaurant manager has been in touch with her since to apologise and that she contacted Food Standards Scotland, who have passed the issue on to Clackmannanshire Council's Environmental Health Team.

A McDonald's spokesperson said: “Our sauce production site is glass free and we would like to reassure that this does not appear to be part of any wider issue.

“Our restaurant team have been in touch with the customer and conversations will continue at her convenience.

“She is being encouraged to return the object, enabling us to look into this matter fully.”