Ohio Walmart Employees Caught Throwing Away Shopping Carts Full Of Food

A Walmart in Celina, Ohio, addressed a viral video on Monday that depicted several workers throwing away more than a dozen shopping carts filled with unexpired food. Gary Joe Ahrns posted the live video on Nov. 6 to his Facebook page following a Nov. 5 storm. The video quickly made rounds on social media.

A pair of tornadoes hit cities in Mercer County, Ohio, on Nov. 5 and killed two people. The Celina Walmart, which is located in Mercer County, cited a 14-hour power outage caused by a storm as the reason for the large quantities of "unsafe" food being disposed. Walmarts nationwide, including branches in Virginia and Colorado, received several complaints regarding what was seemingly portrayed in the video.

"We have fielded a number of calls regarding a video circulating on Facebook showing our associates throwing out food, and we wanted our customers and community to understand the situation," the Celina Walmart wrote on its Facebook page. "Unfortunately, due to a tornado that affected our store in Celina, Ohio on November 5, the food being disposed of was unsafe for consumption after the store lost power for 14 hours."

"Per internal and health department policies, we followed proper procedures by disposing of the food," the Celina branch added.

The video footage showed what appeared to be numerous carts full of cheese, butter, deli meat and milk, among other food items, sitting outside of the store.

"See all that? I'm at the Walmart here in Celina and they're throwing all of this food away," Ahrns said in the Nov. 6 Facebook Live video. "That's what's f—ed up with our country. They don't let any of the employees have it. They won't sell it to anybody else. They're throwing it away."

Ahrns spoke with one of the store's managers and asked them why the branch had decided to dispose of cartloads full of food. The manager said that the food had been contaminated. The store's employees later asked for Ahrns to leave the premises.

The video has garnered more than 7.7 million views and over 200,000 shares. It does not mention the storm or the apparent power outage the Walmart experienced.

Mercer County Health Department took to Facebook Nov. 8 following the storm to warn residents about the dangers of consuming unrefrigerated foods.

"Food is deemed 'unfit for human consumption' after 4 hours above 41 degrees F," the department wrote on Facebook. "Therefore, during extended lack of refrigeration, restaurants and grocery stores have no choice but to discard refrigerated foods."

It added: "Also, during these disasters, packaging can become damaged such that the safety of the food is in doubt. In those cases, facilities must also be cautious and err on the side of safety. And — if it is unfit for consumption that means it should not be donated to food pantries either."