SARABURI, Thailand – After an exhaustive investigation, Cargill announced on Jan. 14 it is confident the blue, plastic foreign material recently discovered in one McDonald’s Chicken Nugget in Japan did not originate from Cargill’s production facilities. According to statement from Cargill, physical and chemical analysis, microscopic third-party lab analysis and a step-by-step search across Cargill’s entire production facility were included in its investigation.

The type of plastic found in the nugget does not exist in the Cargill production plants in Thailand, chemical and physical analysis concluded. Cargill investigated many potential blue plastic materials found in its production facilities and processes.


“Additional data points revealed during the investigation such as the length of the blue plastic film, lab analysis results lacking clear indications associated with heating and a review of the records of our food safety and quality assurance programs suggest that this plastic film found in the nugget was not impacted as would be expected by our meat grinding and cooking processes,” said Chuck Warta, president, Cargill Meats Thailand. “We are very confident that the plastic film in the nugget occurred outside of our production plant. We are always striving to reduce risks in our production processes. We are going to increase our investments in additional x-ray machines and additional resources at our visual inspection points at our Thailand facilities.”

Vares Ransibrahmanakul, food safety and quality assurance director of Cargill Meats Thailand said continuous improvement for the company is a 24-7 endeavor. “This means we must embrace every issue as an opportunity to deeply review each step in our food production processes to ensure we deliver safe, delicious food to our customers and consumers.”