Apparently the five-second rule applies to donuts. At least, donuts sold at the Dunkin’ Donuts franchise in Mendon, Mass. Earlier this week, a video surfaced of an employee at the store dropping a tray full of donuts on the ground, setting them to the side, and then later putting them back on the shelf for serving. Yum. (At least she wasn’t licking them though, right?)
To be fair, Dunkin’ Donuts does not condone the behavior of the employee in question, who, according to Liam Flaherty, the worker who shared the security footage, is the store manager. That said, the employee was not fired for her actions, but rather, reminded of food safety standards in a meeting with the store franchisee.
Although some viewers of the video suspect that the tainted tray of donuts was swapped out for fresh because of a bit of fast-forwarding Flaherty does midway through, Dunkin’ Donuts confirmed the incident had in fact occurred, and responded with a statement:
We are aware of the video and we take matters like this very seriously. The actions seen in the video at a franchised Dunkin’ Donuts restaurant are absolutely inconsistent with our strict food safety standards and requirements.
According to the franchisee, upon hearing of this incident in November 2015, he investigated the matter and met with the employee to discuss the fact that the donuts should have been immediately disposed of in keeping with our standards.
As for Flaherty, his journey with Dunkin’ Donuts appears to be done: both he and his sister were terminated shortly after the video exploded on the internet, in what appears to be an unrelated incident, but which Flaherty is just as vocal about. As he wrote in a Facebook post,
We were both simply crossed off the schedule myself for going home an hour early last Tuesday: VIOLENTLY ILL. I mean coughing, hacking, puking, sneezing left & right.. I WORK WITH FOOD. I’ve worked at that dunkins for 3 years, full time through my first 2 years of college. After being refused to let leave an hour early, (I had been there for 7 hours that morning) I clocked out on my own volition. A person has every right to be sick.. & to prioritize their own HEALTH & WELL BEING as well as that of customers.
He then went on to document all the additional horrors he’d seen during his time with the Mendon Dunkin’ Donuts, and now serves as a lone Facebook crusader against the store remaining open.
The conditions at his former place of employment do sound pretty awful, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be boycotting our weekly donut runs any time soon. Because we #cantstopwontstop when it comes to crullers.
Check out the video of the incident below, and decide for yourself whether you’re still hungry for a box of Munchkins.
