A former McDonald's employee has revealed why the fast food chain's ice cream machines seems to be always "broken".

If you're a fan of a McFlurry, you may have rocked up to your local Maccies only to find the tasty treat isn't available. If you were ever told McDonald's ice cream machine is out of order, there's actually a little-known reason for this.

It seems that the issue is happening more often, as customers previously expressed their frustration on social media after being unable to get their hands on a frozen desert. According to one ex-worker, the machines are often unavailable for use, because they need to be cleaned.

Tweeting under the username @will_doyle, they said it can take a long time to do this, which workers are less than happy to do. As reported by the Mirror, the tweet read: "Btw, I used to work in McDonalds. The ice cream machine was never broke, it just takes 3 hours to clean so we used to say it was broke so we didn't have to serve you lot. Cheers x"

Another former worker posted: "As an ex McDonald's employee, the ice cream machine was always working it just took too long to clean it so we used to tell everyone it was broken hahaha." In response to the tweet, one user asked: "I don't understand why you couldn't say it's being cleaned or maintenanced."

Another former worker replied and said: "because people don't understand that you can't use it at all when its on a cleaning cycle ... they just think you're wiping it down or something, its easier to say its broken."

McDonald's insists the machines go through a cleaning cycle ever 24 hours. The fast food giant responded: "Our shake and soft-serve ice cream machines undergo heat treatment cycles every 24 hours - they're disassembled, sanitized and cleaned every 14 days."

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