A MOTHER was horrified to find a dangerous chemical instead of a toy in her child's fast-food meal.

Joanne Fairbanks, 29, believes Elijah, three, would have been poisoned if she hadn't found the cleaning powder in time.

Joanne took Elijah to McDonald's on Walter Street, Harpurhey, for a Sunday afternoon treat. She got her son a `Happy Meal', the children's fast-food option which typically comes with a toy.

But when she got home to Manchester New Road, Alkrington, she was shocked to find that instead of a Pop Challenge gadget, the meal contained a sachet of industrial cleaning powder.

Joanne, a clerk at Manchester's Civil Justice centre, said: "Normally, if he gets a Happy Meal he just goes straight for his toy, but this time he'd eaten half the food first. Then I looked in the box and found this bag with a powdered substance in it.

"Elijah can't read and could have opened it and then eaten it. I'm concerned he could have eaten a dangerous substance, and it bothers me that he ate the food that was on top of it. The packet says it should be disposed of as `hazardous waste'. All the toys are wrapped in bags which are quite similar to this sachet - he could ended in hospital and I might not have had a clue what it was."

The packet contained 28.4g of `McD sanitizer' for cleaning `shake and soft serve machines, towel buckets and general sanitizing'.

It has a number for the National Poisons Information Service on the front. Joanne has now reported McDonald's to environmental health.

A McDonald's spokesman said: "We have rigorous procedures in place to ensure that incidents of this nature do not occur. We apologise that in this isolated incident our usual standards do not appear to have been met and for any distress this has caused. The safety of our customers and our food is of paramount importance and we have launched an urgent investigation."

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