Thankfully, the United States has some of the stricter food handling regulations out there. In fact, a restaurant can get a failing grade during an inspection for not having enough soap at a hand washing station. In Florida, a delivery driver went viral for exposing a seriously disgusting secret held by a Chinese restaurant.
The driver, who opted to be anonymous, uploaded a now-viral video of a China Yan employee mixing a bowl of chicken on the unmopped floor with his bare hands. He told the outlet he decided to film employees violating health code regulations after his expression of concern was ignored.
After all, he’s “just a delivery driver,” right? The videos of their bare hands caught the attention of Danielle Egger, the CEO of Florida Food Safety Systems, who was disturbed by the several clips of gross violations of the state’s regulations.
“This could be a foodborne illness outbreak waiting to happen,” she told Local 10.
Authorities are worried an outbreak can happen
The delivery driver posted several other videos of food being prepared by workers without gloves. Some were caught touching their faces and then touching food, or preparing food on the floor.
Egger says the age-old argument of, “The bacteria dies when you cook it,” can’t be applied here.
“There are certain germs that just won’t cook off with high heat. Even so, this is a big concern,” she said. “There are certain bacteria, like staph, for instance, that’s heat resistant. Staph can form spores that are heat tolerant.”
She’s said there have been several outbreaks of foodborne illness that have spread from restaurants that practice unsafe food handling. Egger’s worried this could be the next outbreak source.
Records show they’ve been caught bare-handed before
Since about 2022, reporters found several reports of failing health inspector reports from the same restaurant. China Yan has been forced to shut down due to roaches, other reports show several instances of bare-handed food preparation, or not providing cleaning products to employees.
Of course, the owner and other employees refuse to speak to the media.
Egger says customers should be wary, and if they are greeted by a horrible smell when they enter, their air conditioners are rusty or dusty, or if their bathrooms are filthy, it’s a good indicator they’re slacking in other areas, too.
