Eating any food not grown in your own garden and cooked yourself means putting a certain amount of trust in the people who prepare and handle your food. A former Dunkin’ Donuts employee leaked a video this week that shows another employee dropping a tray of donuts on the floor, then calmly putting them back on the tray and putting the tray out for sale. [More]
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Sears Delivers Filthy Oven, Has No Idea Why
By 3.3.16
A woman who loves to bake for her family saved for two years to buy a new built-in convection oven. Sears delivered it, and then she had to wait a few weeks to have it installed. That’s when she discovered a problem: what was supposed to be a new oven was full of baked-on filth and even grime on the glass. Sears says that this shouldn’t be possible, yet somehow it happened. [More]
FDA Inspection Reveals Chinese Restaurant Supplier Was Rat-Infested Nightmare
By 12.30.14
There are fascinating horrors hiding in letters from the Food and Drug Administration to the food, drug, and cosmetic companies that it regulates. One letter that we wish we could un-read is directed to New Yung Wah Trading Company, a Brooklyn-based company that supplies Chinese restaurants all over the East Coast. The results of multiple inspections of their warehouse near Pittsburgh were frightening to potential diners…at least, those of us who prefer our food to have as little rat urine as possible. [More]
Norovirus, Not Brawl, Breaks Out At Chuck E. Cheese’s
By 4.14.14
Something terrible broke out at a Minnesota Chuck E. Cheese’s last week, and for once it wasn’t an adult brawl requiring police intervention. No, this time it was something even more frightening: norovirus. Authorities believe that the illness didn’t spread through food, but across other surfaces. [More]
Fruit Punch Oreos Exist, Are Available At Walmart
By 4.3.14
Here at Consumerist, we try to stay at the forefront of advances in cookie technology. Earlier this week, we learned that fruit punch-flavored Oreos exist. This is only the latest in a string of intriguing and/or horrifying Oreo varieties that have hit shelves in recent years. We had to know more. [More]
Was McDonald’s Worker Who Served Up Raw Burger Targeting Cop Or Just Incompetent?
By 10.18.13
A police officer in New Hampshire visited the drive-thru window at his local McDonald’s while working the night shift. He ordered a Quarter Pounder with cheese, and a photo he took shows a gross uncooked or undercooked bottom patty. He says that he became ill a few hours later. Those are the facts that no one is really disputing. The question is: did the worker preparing his burger deliberately give him gross food because he’s a cop? [More]
Long-Running Mouse Infestation May Shut Down N.Y. Walmart
By 5.25.12
Recent state inspections of a Monticello, N.Y. Walmart have the mundane violations you’d see in any food facility’s inspection: dusty fans, lettuce cross-contamination, and coolers slightly warmer than they should be. Then there’s all of the food and other merchandise they’ve had to throw out after it was “defiled by rodents.” The state keeps coming back and reporting “thousands” of mouse droppings and evidence of rodents all over the store…and a few decaying corpses while they’re at it. The reports of mice go back to September 2011. [More]
Don’t Worry, That’s Just Bread Mold On Your Tampon
By 3.28.12 — Updated: 1.28.13
Normally, Danielle wouldn’t have pulled her Kotex tampon out of the applicator for inspection before using it. I mean, who does that? One happened to fall out of the applicator, though, and that’s when she saw them. The splotches of blackish mold. “Makes you wonder how many times things like this happen to tampons and we don’t have a clue,” she wrote. Um, yes. [More]
TSA Finds Your Vibrator In Checked Suitcase, Leaves Creepy Note
By 10.26.11
Bad: Having the TSA pawing through your checked luggage. Worse: The suitcase they chose to open includes a sex toy. Worse still: the person who went through your bags leaves a leering note. Specifically, they scrawl “GET YOUR FREAK ON GIRL” on the notice of inspection.
Similac Baby Formula Recalled Because It May Contain Chunks of Beetle
By 9.23.10
Certain types of Similac powdered baby formula have been recalled because of, as the FDA delicately puts it, “the remote possibility of the presence of a small common beetle in the product.” [More]
Chili's Fires Employee Accused Of Placing Camera In Restroom
By 7.10.10
A former Chili’s employee is set to answer charges that he stashed a cellphone camera aimed at the women’s toilets in the Arroyo Grande restaurant. The camera was discovered after a 41-year-old patron noticed something suspicious concealed in a bucket of cleaning supplies. [More]
Big Tobacco Sues NYC, Claims Anti-Smoking Posters Are Unconstitutional
By 6.4.10
Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds and Lorillard are bankrolling a lawsuit that says that the graphic anti-smoking posters that the city now requires near cash registers are unconstitutional. [More]
Oh Look, There's A Severed Frog Head In My Green Beans
By 2.24.10
There’s some disagreement about the identity of the creature whose head ended up in a Texas family’s frozen green beans. Is it a frog? Is it a snake? The family and the vegetable manufacturer disagree, but we do know that it is quite obviously not a bean. (Warning: picture and video inside.) [More]
Would You Buy This Meat?
By 2.22.10
Reader Michael sent us this breakfast-ruining photo of some seriously off-putting meat offered at a discount at Walmart. A quick glance at this meat spoilage guide suggests “Oxidative Rancidity” which is what happens when you don’t wrap meat properly.
Steak WIth A Side Of Used Tampon Allegedly Served To Tourist At Waldorf-Astoria
By 7.30.09
The image at left has been redacted for the protection of our more sensitive readers. The events of this story, if true, simply boggle the mind. A German tourist visiting New York City alleges that his delicious steak was somehow served with a used tampon on it. Warning: blissfully grainy photo and video inside.
How, Exactly, Did E. coli Get In Nestle’s Cookie Dough?
By 6.30.09 — Updated: 5.31.16
The recent discovery of E. coli O157 bacteria in NestlÈ refrigerated cookie dough and subsequent recall of 30,000 tubs of said dough raises an urgent scientific question: Uh, how did that much cow poop end up in cookie dough?
How To Spot A Contaminated Swimming Pool, And Why You Should
By 5.29.09
It’s gray and rainy up here in the tropical paradise of upstate New York, but for those of you in more temperate climes, Consumer Reports Health kicks off the weekend with some frightening statistics about the American public’s pool hygiene, and how to tell whether a pool will make you sick or not before you dive in.
National Funeral Home Lets Hundreds Of Corpses Rot In Hallways
By 4.5.09
The National Funeral Home in Falls Church, Virginia stores unrefrigerated corpses, including some bound for Arlington National Cemetery, in hallways and garages for months on end, according to embalmer-turned-whistleblower Steven Napper. The Funeral Home’s owner, Texas-based Service Corporation International, told Napper that they were unwilling to pay for refrigeration, which would prevent corpses from leaking and growing mold.
