McDonald's employee shares some disturbing images of a moldy ice cream machine
A (now) former McDonald's employee shared some disturbing images of the inside of a moldy ice cream machine in one of the hamburger giant's restaurants.
An 18-year-old named Nick was a McDonald's employee in LaPlace, Louisiana, until he shared some gross images of unsanitary practices inside the fast food restaurant. His employment came to an end after that.
According to BuzzFeed, Nick was recently instructed by a manager to refill the ice cream machine when he spilled some of the dessert. While cleaning up his mess, Nick discovered a moldy tray inside the machine.
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Nick says that he assumed the machine was cleaned regularly, but that none of the general crew employees were ever told to do so. On July 14 he tweeted the pictures, which have since received over 13,000 retweets at the time of writing. He told Mashable he didn't alert management about the moldy trays. He was fired last Wednesday for tweeting the photos.
In addition to the mold pics, Nick also shared some other photos of uncooked food, which look exactly like ordinary frozen food.
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Two days later, Nick posted a video of himself enjoying a free cone for National Ice Cream Day.
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Nick says the ice cream is "still trifling" but he doesn't care.
He also shared some photos which show greasy and unkept conditions in the restaurant.
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We should note here that this is just one McDonald's location. It's unclear which employees are responsible for cleaning the machine.
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McDonald's has a company policy that prohibits employee's from sharing things that may "undermine the goodwill, reputation, development and/or operation" of the brand.
Nick claims he knew about the policy, but decided to share the photos to let people know what was going on.
McDonald's did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, a spokesperson told BuzzFeed that the moldy section of the ice cream machine does not make contact with the ice cream.
Regardless, gross.
"This is a part of our soft-serve equipment that does not come into contact with any food and is required to undergo regular and timely cleaning," the representative told BuzzFeed.
If you want some quality ice cream, maybe consider spending more than $1 on your next treat.
UPDATE: July 27, 2017, 9:32 a.m. PDT A spokesperson for McDonald's issued the following statement from the franchise owner John Valluzzo.
“Our primary goal is to operate a clean and safe restaurant. We regularly conduct in-person and online employee training sessions as well as internal inspections to ensure crew members are following safe food practices. In addition, we have a long history of passing regular health department inspections.”
