A 6-year-old girl in the UK choked on her McDonald's chicken nuggets because they contained bits of a face mask, her mom says

• A UK woman told BBC News she had to physically remove a chicken nugget from her 6-year-old daughter's mouth after the girl began choking on it.
• Laura Arber said she found pieces of a protective face mask inside the chicken nuggets.
• "Just because it says it's a Happy Meal doesn't mean it's safe," Arber said.
• In a statement to BBC News, McDonald's said it was investigating the incident and had "taken action to ensure any product from this batch is removed from restaurants."

A 6-year-old girl in the UK "nearly choked" on a chicken nugget from McDonald's, according to her mother, who said she found parts of a surgical mask "baked into it."

"I had to put my finger in her mouth to make her sick and it came up all speckled with blue," Laura Arber, 32, told BBC News.

Arber said she examined the nuggets after her daughter, Maggie, started choking on her Happy Meal. She said the nugget filling contained mangled pieces of a protective face mask.

Arber said she initially was unsure what the blue bits were but noticed similar pieces in the other nuggets in the box.

"It was a mask, it was absolutely baked into it, it had gone like chewing gum," Arber told BBC News. "It was disgusting."

"If I hadn't been in the room, I just don't know what could have happened," she added.

The incident occurred after she bought the nuggets at a McDonald's location in Aldershot, a town in the Rushmoor district of Hampshire, England, at about 6 p.m. on Tuesday, she said, according to Hampshire Live.

After discovering the tainted nuggets at home, Arber said, she returned to the McDonald's location, where she said did not receive an apology and was unhappy that the location did not immediately stop serving the nuggets, Hampshire Live reported.

"I just couldn't believe the way the management were handling it," Arber said.

McDonald's UK did not return Insider's request for comment on Wednesday. It told BBC News in a statement that it was investigating the incident.

"As soon as we were made aware of the issue we opened a full investigation with the relevant supplier and have taken action to ensure any product from this batch is removed from restaurants," the company said.

It added: "We would like to offer a full apology to the customer in question and understand they are currently in conversation with our customer-services team."

"Just because it says it's a Happy Meal doesn't mean it's safe," Arber told BBC News.

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