Old pies are on the menu at McDonald’s, one customer claims.
TikToker and Mickey D’s customer, Shaun (@techneeqs4life) uploaded a clip where he shows evidence of the expiration tomfoolery in question.
“McDonald’s puts new stickers on pies almost 10 hours after they were prepared,” a text overlay in the video reads, which begins with Shaun removing a sticker from a McDonald’s pie box.
The adhesive strip contained information about when the pie was made and when the best time to eat it by was: “PIES PREP 06/20/24 2:23 PM ENJOY BY 6:23 PM 6/20/24,” it reads.
However, there’s another sticker on the box as well that indicates the pie was actually prepared at 4:54am and that it should be enjoyed by 8:54am. Shaun says McDonald’s employees at this particular location must’ve simply printed a new sticker to place over the old pie box.
He narrates, “They put a sticker, this best before on top of an older sticker so they could sell them again. My son said that they’re really hard.”
The user shows his kid on camera, who grabs his own pie to explain that the texture of the Mickey D’s dessert wasn’t all that: “Yeah, it’s chewy for some reason.”
As his son takes the pie out of the box before panning back to the pie before him, he says, “It’s chewy and soft but they literally put a sticker so they could just sell them again.”
@techneeqs4life McDonald’s on Riddell in Orangeville, Ontario replaced the best before stickers on their strawberry pies hours later! We got a refund and some new pies but I still feel like the situation should have never happened. I’m not sure who made the discussion to do that at the location but that should never happen again #mcdonalds #mcdonaldscanada #orangeville ♬ original sound – Shaun 🖤🇨🇦🖕😈🖕
This isn’t the first time someone on social media has complained about the “best by” stickers on McDonald’s pies. One Redditor uploaded a query to the site’s r/McDonaldsEmployees sub asking if workers at restaurants really do abide by the information on these stickers, i.e. tossing away ones that become technically “too old” for customers instead of leaving them out for sale. They went on to say they got an apple pie that was nearly two hours past the “use by” time listed on the sticker.
One employee replied that even though it is protocol for McDonald’s workers to toss the pies this unfortunately isn’t a widely common practice: “No, it’s not expired. I’ve eaten old pies and have been served old pies. They stay in a heater to keep them warm. The reason there’s a timer is because the pies tend to dry out after they expire and we should throw them away. Most people don’t.”
In May 2024, two separate McDonald’s locations in China were found swapping our expiration label dates on its meals, according to China Daily: “Two McDonald’s branches, one in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province, and another in Jinan, capital of Shandong province, have, it seems, found a solution for food that doesn’t sell by the sell-by date — just replace the use-by label. Some journalists who did an undercover investigation earlier this year found that staff members at both restaurants were tampering with the food expiration labels.”
Viewers share their thoughts
Several folks who responded to Shaun’s video stated that this type of pie practice is par the course for a lot of McDonald’s stores.
One individual wrote, “They do that all over the place.”
Someone else echoed, “They do that everywhere.”
On the flip side, comments from other users seemed to indicate that this could be a location-by-location occurrence, as one user penned that they’ve never sold an exceedingly old pie to a customer: “I worked at McDonald’s for two years. We never did that, we threw them out or… usually we just had them,” they remarked.
However, several others touting to be employees say it is common practice with one writing, “Huh they still do that I guess. We did this when I worked at McDonald’s 12 years ago.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to McDonald’s via email and Shaun via TikTok comment.
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