Pure outrage exploded on social media, after some McDonald’s customers bit into their mozzarella cheese sticks to find that they were – gasp – hollow.
But the fast-food chain came back with an explanation on Friday, after a number of major news outlets including Fox News, NBC, CBS, The Today Show, Chicago Tribune, The Guardian, Huffington Post, and Fortune reported on the quandary.
"[In the reported instances], we believe the cheese melted out during the baking process in our kitchens and [those sticks] shouldn't have been served," Lisa McComb, McDonald’s media relations director, told PRWeek via email. "We apologize to any customers who may have been affected. We are working to fix this in our restaurants."
McComb added that there has only been a "low volume" of customer concerns about the mozzarella cheese sticks, and said that the issue has been "over-reported" on.
A quick glance on social media shows that customers have been complaining about the missing cheese –and posting the photos to prove it -- since at least the middle of last year.
Mozarella Sticks, @McDonalds forgot the cheese. pic.twitter.com/p4u7fyVbjl
— Kidokinetics Corp (@Kidokinetics) May 25, 2015
But customer gripes on Twitter have definitely picked up steam in the past month.
Hey thanks @McDonalds for the awesome mozarella sticks. With... no cheese. #McDonalds #nocheese :( [all 3 like this] pic.twitter.com/9kvsAMT3x2
Hahaha McDonald's mozzarella sticks are a joke. They don't even have cheese in them @McDonalds pic.twitter.com/yWgR4oGu3u
— Victoria G. Emory (@v_emory) January 18, 2016
When you order mozarella sticks and only get the stick. #WheresTheCheese @McDonalds pic.twitter.com/IK3iVy1jiE
— Paris (@PariBelle) January 7, 2016
@McDonalds new Mozzarella Sticks has no Mozzarella. They should just call it Stick. pic.twitter.com/iKrp1z33J0
— Sherman Chen (@ShermChen) January 1, 2016
@McDonalds is this what the mozzarella sticks are supposed to look like?. There's nothing in there pic.twitter.com/g1uchnZJTF
— Jo-Anna Perez (@Turtlejars) January 27, 2016
Craving mozzarella sticks. Excited that @McDonalds has them! Just to get home to have hollow breading :( #sad pic.twitter.com/ngnLG7Kx8K
— Amber (@Heyamber021) January 26, 2016
My girl got mozzarella sticks from McDonald's and they gave her them with no cheese ???????? @McDonalds y'all slacking pic.twitter.com/0JD6njZeQr
— Twan (@AntoineFulton) January 17, 2016
As of press time, McDonald’s had not responded directly on social media to any of the customer complaints. The chain also made no mention of the incident on its official website, Twitter, or Facebook pages.
