As the largest fast food restaurant in the country (in total sales), McDonald's feeds millions of Americans daily. McDonald's must do everything in its power to prevent food-borne illness from mishandled food, contaminated food, lack of proper training for employees, and apathy of employees to food safety measures. Recently, it came to light that a 4 year old girl in Georgia was served a McDonald's Breakfast Burrito contaminated with a foreign object. She had already eaten part of it before she had noticed a nose ring was in the food she was served.

As a former manager at McDonald's, I find this entirely unacceptable. Food safety should be the most important thing on every employee's mind, every hour of every shift. Unfortunately, my experience is that this is very far from reality for most McDonald's employees. While McDonald's certainly has some commendable systems in place to prevent contamination and food-borne illnesses, it has largely overlooked the most important aspect of its food safety program: the employees.

When millions of people put their trust in McDonald's to serve them and their children safe, fresh, delicious food, McDonald's has the responsibility to follow through and fulfill their promise of Quality, Service, Cleanliness, and Value. Every employee must be on the same page, including all levels of management and supervision. Many in management technically hold certification but aren't held accountable to uphold food safety standards. These are often the same people who don't hold their staff accountable for these standards either.

Many McDonald's stores only require managers to be trained by ServSafe or an equivalent Food Safety certification program.

The signers of this petition demand that McDonald's expand this requirement, as a condition of employment, to include ALL employees, including those of franchisees, who will ever step foot into a restaurant owned or operated by McDonald's or its franchisees.

No food handler or person who works in the vicinity of the food that McDonald's serves should ever take shortcuts or be able to make excuses for not ensuring the safety of every bite of food its customers eats. We are only 19 years removed from the Jack in the Box e. coli outbreak that killed 4 children and sickened some 600 people. Fast food employees, from cashier to janitor and cook to store manager, have the lives of their customers in their hands at all times. Every single one of them needs to be an expert in Food Safety and practice it every day. Anything short of that goal is closer to someone else being sickened or killed by ignorance or apathy to proven food safety measures.