Burger King has launched an investigation after a family alleged they were served burgers with raw chicken at its Whanganui store, resulting in a visit to the hospital.

Stuart McLeod said he made it through half of his burger from the Victoria Ave restaurant and said it tasted “pretty yum”, but he noticed the chicken patty was missing its normal crunch.

“Without a word of a lie, the actual chicken breast wasn’t cooked at all, it was just bright pink.”

McLeod made a complaint to Burger King following his family’s visit last Thursday.

Head of marketing at Burger King New Zealand, Leann Smith, said a full investigation was under way to understand and rectify the cause.

“Our training and quality assurance manager is working with the manager of this restaurant to review all possible areas where our strict processes may have broken down.”

Smith said the head of operations services would meet with the family in Whanganui on Thursday.

The $107 cost of the order would be refunded to the family, but Smith said “an investigation of this nature” would take some time.

 “This includes food safety records and food temperature checks, cooking equipment set-up and labelling, and the training of all team members that were working at the time this guest was served.”

McLeod and three members of his family visited the hospital, where he was given fluids as he was “badly dehydrated”.

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The next day he was “sick as hell” and suffered from constant vomiting due to suspected food poisoning.

“I’ve never had anything so bad in my life, to be honest,” he said.

The experience had put McLeod off completely.

“I’ll never, ever go back there in my life.”