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.
This came out of McDonald's ice cream machine in case y'all were wondering... pic.twitter.com/DTXXpzE7Ce
— nick (@phuckyounick) July 14, 2017
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.
Since I'm exposing McDonald's I might as well show y'all what y'all really eating... fresh out the freezer. pic.twitter.com/KZ7Ao1kWsR
— nick (@phuckyounick) July 18, 2017
Two days later, Nick posted a video of himself enjoying a free cone for National Ice Cream Day.
I got my free cone #NationalIceCreamDay pic.twitter.com/oJwpkkZDYU
— nick (@phuckyounick) July 16, 2017
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.
Nice and dirty... pic.twitter.com/vjxuVLJpgF
— nick (@phuckyounick) July 18, 2017
We should note here that this is just one McDonald's location. It's unclear which employees are responsible for cleaning the machine.
plus aout the ice cream its only like that because y'all the employees aren't cleaning the machine daily like your suppose to be.
— D'King (@notdannym) July 19, 2017
Actually they dnt teach the employees to do this regularly, the managers clean the machines, well supposed to once a week according to regs.
— pennie (@wydpennie) July 19, 2017
So I see nothing's changed since I worked for MickeyD's 17 years ago. 😂😂 we had weird white alive things in the machine WITH the ice cream
— LowDownLorettaBrown (@TranscendentMe) July 16, 2017
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.