Take a look at some of the gross things people have found or have reported they've found in their food:
McDonald's
A Virginia woman ordered a box of Chicken McNuggets and found a fried chicken head as one of her pieces. While this story has been reported as true, a detention deputy reported he found glass on his cheeseburger at a McDonald's in Florida and that story has been found to be false.
A woman in Georgia repoted she found a condom in her burger and it was later determined to be an employee playing a joke by putting the condom on top of the burger after it had been prepared. A Wisconsin woman says she found a rolled up condom in her Big Mac. A Tennessee woman said she bit into her McNugget and a hypodermic needle lodged in her jaw.
McDonald's has been quick to cooperate with authorities when people report finding objects in their food. Some have been found to be true, some are not and some have been investigated but they simply can't find if an employee did something to the food or if the reports were simply a hoax.
Burger King
A two-year-old began screaming after his family says he found a fried lizard in his french fries. They say they were horrified at the discovery and the little boy immediately got sick to his stomach. Burger King said they needed the lizard for analysis to find out the reptile's source.
This happened in the U.K. back in 2000 and didn't make a huge impact on the media in the U.S. Nor did it make a dent in BK's profits.
Cracker Barrel
CBRL Group's Cracker Barrel stores were already having a low-earning month when a woman reported a mouse in her soup at one of the Virginia locations. Carla and Ricky Patterson, a mother and son, said they found the mouse in a bowl of vegetable soup they ordered. However, a mouse autopsy revealed the rodent had been beaten to death and that it wasn't cooked like it would've been had it been in the soup vat.
Police arranged to arrest the Pattersons when they told Cracker Barrel they would turn over their camera phone pictures of the mouse soup for $500,000. Cracker Barrel also cooperated with authorities to find out the truth and the truth turned out to be a lie.
Jack in the Box
On a different wiggly note, Jack in the Box suffered a huge PR and financial blow when more than 600 people got sick in 1993 after eating undercooked hamburger patties contaminated with E. coli.
Since most of the people who got sick were children and four of them died, Jack in the Box seemed to be on its way out of business fast. Not only did the chain suffer from a huge financial loss nationwide, they ended up in court with multiple multimillion-dollar lawsuits. Some plaintiffs with minor injuries received $12 million. A girl who was in a coma for 42 days received $15.6 million. One lawyer said he had recovered $40 million for his clients. Litigation ended after four years.
An investigation revealed the problem traced back to meat supplier Foodmaker. But Jack in the Box waited two days to pull the meat from its stores and didn't get out there to tell the public what had happened. They recovered somewhat when they instituted a state-of-the-art food handling system in an attempt to prevent the tragedy from happening again.
It took Jack in the Box and its chain owners several years to recoup their losses. The chain has survived and many franchise owners are now reporting high gains in profits.
As for Wendy's, Kohl's Frozen Custard, Arby's and Golden Puffs, just like with any of the companies who've suffered a PR crisis, time is the factor that plays a hearty hand in getting consumers to come back. A free frosty is a nice treat but it won't make the thought of a finger in chili go away, even though the claims were a hoax. The image of a man licking a finger in his custard thinking it was candy is something that may even pop into your own head no matter what company's frozen custard you're eating.
Consumers may skip a particular food or even that particular restaurant for a while but most come back. And if you don't think people will go back to Wendy's for chili after the hoax, just think of the consumers who've returned to Jack in the Box after the E. coli deaths.