Emma Guinness
The 'fake McDonald's' replacement that has recently opened up in Russia has come under fire for serving mouldy hamburgers.
McDonald's closed all of their Russian stores in protest of the country's ongoing war with Ukraine, but the Russian people wanted hamburgers and the original stores were soon taken over.
However, it looks like the new company Vkusno & Tochka - or 'Tasty and that's it' - is struggling to maintain the standards that have made the real McDonald's a fast food favourite.
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The newly rebranded stores were bought from the real McDonald's and reopened in June of this year, but disturbing photographs of the mouldy burgers are now in circulation.
There have also been reports of 'insect legs' inside the food.
The news was revealed by politician and celebrity Ksenia Sobchak, who said of the 50 operational stores in and around Moscow: "Vkusno & Tochka, sells mouldy burgers.
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"It looks like they don't quite honour the standards of McDonald's, at least in terms of product quality control. Today at least three cases were recorded of burgers with mouldy buns sold to customers.
"Two of them were for my subscribers."
Vkusno & Tochka had promised to deliver 'the same but better' standards than McDonald's.
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Sobchak, however, slammed the chain, saying: "Figure it out, guys, you don't need to poison people."
The Daily Mail also reports that the new chain has been slammed for providing meagre portions of cheese on their cheeseburgers and for serving 'sad' fries in comparison to what McDonald's offered.
Reacting to photographs of the mouldy burgers, one social media user wrote: "Odd since McDonald's sourced stuff locally in Russia. They should theoretically be using the same products and facilities. I'm guessing the big change was throwing quality control standards out the window."
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"I am going to vomit," added a second. "[I'd] rather eat road kill."
The new chain has its own packaging and no longer uses McDonald's iconic golden arches.
McDonald's first began trading in Russia back in 1990, shortly before the fall of the Soviet Union the next year, the Daily Mail reports, and it was the first American chain to operate in the area.
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The fast food chain is not the only Western operation to sanction Russia in light of the ongoing war and other popular brands including Starbucks, Coca-Cola and Pepsi have all paused trading in the country.
The CEO of Vkusno & Tochka, Oleg Paroev, announced that the new chain is planning to reopen all of the original 850 Russian McDonald's restaurants under the new name.