Rosemary Thomas, a mother from New York, was with her sister, daughter and niece when she found the revolting dead head.
The family had been out at a Popeyes branch in Harlem when they noticed the distinct shape of a rodent’s face – complete with nose and eyes – in her meal.
‘Friends and family, this is a meal Popeyes in Harlem served my daughter, my niece and sister,’ Rosemary Thomas said.
‘This is clearly a rat and they have the nerve to have a 5 rating by the department of health. Think about all the other rat that have been served and the lasting effect this will have on my daughter, niece and sister.”
She later added that her daughter was ‘traumatised’: ‘I had to take her to urgent care last night, vomited with diarrhoea all day.’
Commenting on her Facebook remarks, people said it was ‘disgusting’ and ‘terrible’. One person wrote that this kind of thing was ‘why I no longer eat chicken or meat. Gradually weaning off fish too’.
The post – which had been shared 146,619 times at the time of writing – prompted someone to lodge an official complaint with the city’s health department, and had sparked an investigation, according to the UK Metro newspaper.