A FURIOUS mum claims a piece of chewing gum buried inside a McDonald’s pancake caused her one-year-old son to choke on his food.

The 31-year-old mum from Benfleet, who wants to remain anonymous, was sitting in the restaurant at the Eastgate Centre in Basildon when she noticed her son began choking while eating the pancake Fortunately the youngster was able to cough it up, but to his mum’s horror, they found a “large and fresh” piece of chewing gum among the food.

After searching the table for any discarded gum to make sure he hadn’t grabbed it from anywhere else, the mum found the table was clear.

She insists the gum must have been in the pancake given to her by staff after she had placed her order.

However, McDonald’s have stated an investigation has been carried out and “have found nothing to suggest that anything was wrong with the pancakes”.

The mum says she “had it out” with managers after finding the gum and told them it was “unacceptable”.

She fears the situation could have been much more life-threatening for the toddler.

She said: “It’s about the risk and this not happening to another child.

“I’m worried my son could be exposed to something as the person who’s gum it may be could be carrying a virus, it’s not acceptable for a small infant to have to go through such an experience.”

The mum, who says she doesn’t go out too often, added she felt “intimidated” by the manager, who she alleges told her he had checked their CCTV and didn’t see anything suspicious.

She has since taken the matter to McDonald’s head office, who told her they’re looking into it.

She added: “I felt the managers at McDonald’s don’t want to take responsibility for what happened or understand the seriousness of the risk.”

A McDonald’s spokesman said: “Food safety and hygiene are of the utmost importance to us, once this matter was brought to our attention we offered a full refund and apologised to the customer.

“We have fully investigated the incident and have found nothing to suggest that anything was wrong with the pancakes before they left the restaurant.

“However, our restaurant crew have all been reminded of the importance of our health and safety procedures as a precaution.”