A BASELESS CLAIM continues to spread that Jamie Oliver won a “legal battle” with McDonald’s by proving that the company’s food was not fit for human consumption.

While Jamie Oliver previously publicly condemned a product that had been used by McDonald’s, he has not taken any legal action against the fast-food chain.

“McDonald’s loses the legal battle with chef Jamie Oliver, who proved that the food they sell is not fit to be ingested because it is highly toxic,” read many identical posts on social media this month. 

“Chef Jamie Oliver has won a battle against the world’s largest junk food chain. Oliver proving how burgers are made.”

A recent post featuring this claim has been shared more than 690 times, including by Irish users, since being created on 25 January. However, the claim appears to go back to at least 2018.

The basis for the claim appears to be a 2011 episode of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, which decried “pink slime” — a name given to a highly processed meat paste made from beef trimmings.

“This is not fit for human consumption,” Oliver said of beef trimmings. This may have been correct, as those innards had not yet been disinfected with ammonia as would happen when processing it into so-called “pink slime”.

(“Pink slime” is approved for human consumption in the United States, but it is prohibited in the EU).

Oliver’s broadcast led to a backlash against the product. The following year McDonald’s announced that it was discontinuing the use of “pink slime” in its food.

Although the company did not cite Oliver’s campaign as the catalyst for this change, the news was described by some media outlets as a victory for Oliver. It was not an outcome of a “legal battle”, however. 

Jamie Oliver’s team confirmed in 2021 that Oliver had never taken any legal action against McDonald’s, AFP reported when these online claims previously surfaced.

The confusion may have also been spurred by other cases, such as a laid-off beef processing worker who sued Oliver in 2013, claiming that bad press about “pink slime” had cost him a job.

McDonald’s currently has a Frequently Asked Questions section on its website which states that its burger patties are “made from 100% pure beef”, and that “pink slime” is not used. 

The HSE advises people to limit fast food “as much as possible – maximum once a month”.

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