Was human meat discovered in a McDonald's meat factory in Oklahoma City? No, that's not true: The video in this post was taken from a now-defunct satirical website and has been around since at least 2014.
The claim resurfaced in a post on TikTok (archived here) on February 27, 2023. The 4-minute-plus video opened:
OKLAHOMA CITY
First Horse Meat,
then the mysterious 'pink slime',
Now Human meat?
This is how the TikTok post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken Thur Mar 2 16:55:36 UTC 2023)
This video and claim have been on social media platforms since at least 2014. This video presents scenes that show what appear to be work in typical meat locker settings; the narration claims the pieces seen are human body parts in a McDonald's meat factory.
However, some of the pieces purported to be "human meat" in the video were dishes prepared for a "Resident Evil 6" video game release event in the United Kingdom in 2012, made up of various animal meats.
While Lead Stories could not locate the exact origin of the video seen in the post, it was featured in an article with the same claim titled, "McDonalds Exposed For Using Human Meat! (Must Watch Video)" on the now-archived website Huzlers, in March 2014.
The disclaimer found on the contact page of the Huzlers website, underneath the "about us" section, said that this is a satirical website:
Huzlers.com is a combination of real shocking news and satire news to keep its visitors in a state of disbelief.
The "Burger FAQs" page on the McDonald's website also debunked the claim that the restaurant chain uses "pink slime" in burgers and that the beef they use is treated with ammonia.
Lead Stories has similarly debunked a video that claimed to be McDonald's using human flesh, and another video claiming McDonald's used "human baby" meat in their burgers, which also came from the Huzlers site.
Lead Stories reached out to the McDonald's corporation and will update this fact check if a response is received.
