Eeew.... Here's Why You'll Never Eat a Hamburger at Golden Corral Again
In case you don't have two minutes to pry yourself away and watch this video or just can't deal with the sight of flies on hamburger patties, just remember this entree: dumpster ribs. A man who identifies himself as Brandon Huber, an employee at the Golden Corral in Port Orange, Florida, posted this video exposing his employer's purported habit of putting open food next to the restaurant's dumpsters earlier this week:
RELATED: Local News Convinced You Will Burn Your House Down While Frying Turkey
RELATED: World Not Ready for Sushi Pop Tarts
While the video isn't exactly HD, and you can't really see the actual flies on the hamburger patties in detail, you can see the various pieces of meat and items like green bean casserole in the dumpster area. Huber explains that there was an inspection going on in his restaurant during the time of filming, but doesn't exactly say why the food was placed out there—it's insinuated that they might be trying to skirt around inspection while trying to save the food. But it's still unclear whether or not this food actually was served to people, but it doesn't look like the food was put by the dumpsters with the intention of being thrown out—many of the pieces of meat and ribs were still in containers, trays and were placed on rollaways.
RELATED: News: Americans Should Eat Vegetables
What's perhaps even more gut-turning is that this isn't the first time the chain has been subjected to an investigation. In 2010, Tampa's ABC News performed a "Dirty Dining" investigation on a local Golden Corral chain in Port Richey, Florida—which showed similar conditions to the ones Huber documented, like maggots and the rodent-infested area "a few feet" from the back of the restaurant:
RELATED: Chef Jamie Oliver in America: Irking Libertarians, Pleasing Liberals
RELATED: Alan Richman's 'Diner for Schmucks' Gets Bon Appetit Recognition
It's all akin to the 1992 Food Lion controversy, when ABC News sent journalists undercover to find disgusting conditions at the supermarket chain and the selling of expired meat. But that was before the time of iPhones and YouTube. According to Huber and the YouTube uploader, the complaints about these unsanitary practices have been brought to the attention of Golden Corral higher-ups, but have been ignored. Though Golden Corral has yet to issue a formal statement, they have posted a response on YouTube, saying that the food was never served to people, implying that Huber was trying to make money off of this video, and that the manager has been fired.
The manager being terminated seems off, in the context that the company is claiming all the food was thrown out immediately and never served—meaning there's a possibility this happened before, and that though people weren't served from this batch of hamburger maggots, this restaurant might have been serving this gross food int he past.
