Woman 'thought she was going to die' after eating McDonald's burger

She has warned others after a severe allergic action

A woman says she feared she was going to die after suffering a severe allergic reaction which caused her throat to close up. She believes her reaction may have been caused by a McDonald's burger.

Beth Mcintosh went to the McDonald's at Stone Lane Retail Park in Exeter on Wednesday (September 25) and ordered a cheeseburger. She says just minutes after eating it, she went into anaphylactic shock and had to be rushed to hospital in an ambulance.

"It was quite severe. I actually thought that was it yesterday," she told DevonLive. "It was within minutes that my face had come up all red and my eyes were all swollen.

"My throat had started to close up and by the time the ambulance arrived, the EpiPen had improved me a little bit but they said if they hadn't got there soon, they don't know what would have happened."

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It was a "very scary" experience for Beth, who says this was her first time experiencing anaphylaxis, having only learned she was allergic to nuts in the last three years. She says it was so bad that she went into a "secondary reaction" while she was in hospital.

She said: "Even after the EpiPen, I went into a secondary reaction while I was in hospital. Altogether, the itching, the burning, the coughing and struggling to breathe all lasted about four hours."

The burger, which is part of the fast food giant's saver menu, consists of a beef patty cheddar cheese slices, ketchup, pickle slices onions and mustard. While the Food Standards Agency (FSA) issued an urgent warning to people with a peanut allergy after it was found that some mustard products on the market may have been contaminated with peanuts earlier this week, McDonald's has insisted the mustard that it uses is not believed to have been affected.

The FSA said that it had traced the contaminated ingredients to a producer in India but is still working with local authorities and businesses to identify affected products. It added that those with peanut allergies should avoid eating anything with mustard until it had identified all products that may have been contaminated.

The FSA's Director of Food Policy, Rebecca Sudworth, said: "Those with a peanut allergy should avoid consuming products containing mustard as an ingredient until we identify the individual products affected. Parents and carers of children who have a peanut allergy should take care to check the labels of food they buy and, if eating out, or getting a takeaway, ask the restaurant or cafe about foods that might contain mustard.

"As soon as we have more information, we will update consumers. As always, we urge people with an allergy to sign up to our allergy alerts, so you can be notified about future allergy recalls."

A spokesperson for McDonald's said: "We are aware of the recent Food Standards Agency (FSA) warning regarding the potential contamination of mustard products with peanuts and want to reassure our customers that the mustard supplied to McDonald's, and therefore our products, have in no way been affected by this issue.

"However, while we are confident our mustard has not been impacted, we cannot fully ensure any item in our restaurant is entirely allergen-free. Although our menu items do not contain nut or peanut ingredients, we are unable to guarantee that our food is completely free from nuts or peanuts - something we make clear in our allergens guidance."

A number of specific products have already been recalled but so far, no McDonald's items are on the FSA's list. But Beth claims the chain's menu items may be unsafe for those with allergies.

McDonald's has not issued a specific warning of its own about mustard and Beth says she wasn't asked about allergies when ordering. She fears this could have serious consequences for others.

She said: "I'm really upset because McDonald's hasn't told people with nut allergies. All it takes is for someone not to have an EpiPen on them."

She has also taken to her TikTok account to warn others allergy sufferers. In the short video, she said she thought she was going to die.

Beth said: "It was a very scary experience. I thought nothing about the mustard, I didn't think that far ahead and I thought I was going to lose my life."