Gold Coast man shocked to find metal object mixed in with Orago takeaway chicken dinner
Staff at Southport’s Korean chicken shop Orago admitted the chunky object was being used to weigh down papers lining takeaway boxes – and it somehow ended up inside.
Emjay James, 36, was eating a second box of his favourite fried chicken about 6.30pm on Friday when he discovered the greasy hunk of metal.
Photo of Emjay James after finding a piece of machinery in his box of chicken. Pic by Richard Gosling
Mr James was sharing the meal with a friend and his friend’s two-year-old daughter.
The ex-chef, who lives in Surfers Paradise, said he could not believe it when he found the fitting – understood to be a tap key – in among his meal.
It was at the bottom of a box of his soy chicken meal.
“I just held it up to my mate Josh and he said ‘are you kidding?’,” Mr James said.
“And I said, yeah dude, your daughter has just eaten chicken from a box with this grubby thing in it.”
Emjay James found a greasy chunk of metal in is take away chicken. Pic: Emjay James.
Mr James said his friend then “freaked out” for his daughter’s health.
“It’s lucky she wasn’t sick, we were watching after her all night. If she tried to bite it she could have been hurt.”
Mr James rang the restaurant to demand how the part ended up in their dinner.
“They were missing a gold cross and then I asked why it was in there (the meal) and they said they used it as a sort of paper weight for the chicken.”
Mr James, who said he was soon to be a young grandfather, was shocked at the restaurant’s response.
“I said surely not. You don’t know where it’s been.”
When the Bulletin contacted Orago, the restaurant manager Hanna Lee said the metal part was used to keep paper that lined the takeaway boxes from blowing away.
“We just put (it on) the paper, it’s a heavy thing. That time, we forgot to take it out.
“We (have) stopped doing that now. We gave him a new box of chicken and he was very nice. He said it can happen,” Ms Lee said.
Asked if they had cleaned the paper weight prior to using it in the kitchen, she said yes.
Another spokeswoman for the shop said: “It was one mistake and he was happy.”
“We gave him a refund. The wind was blowing so hard and that’s why the weight was used. It happened by mistake.”
Food Standards Australia New Zealand was warned any time metal or other “foreign matter contamination” is found in food, diners are at risk of injury from potential consumption.
Orago restaurant apologised to Mr James on Friday night and refunded his $52 meal.
It also gave him an additional box of the chicken which he claims is “the best in the world”.
Mr James said he intends to make a formal complaint to Gold Coast City Council today.
A spokesman for Queensland Health Minister Cameron Dick and Lorraine Haase from Food Standards Australia urged Mr James to make a formal complaint to food safety authorities so it can investigate.
“Things like this shouldn’t be happening and we encourage them to make a formal complaint,” a spokesman for the Health Minister said.
“Patently it’s not good, and once a complaint has been made it can be investigated.”
A spokesperson for Gold Coast City Council, which oversees local outlet’s food hygiene standards, said council hadn’t been contacted so would not comment.
Source: Gold Coast Bulletin, Nicholas Mceloy, July 13th 2015
