WATCH: Carl's Jr. Employee Caught Mixing Sauces With His Bare Hands
If you are a fast food lover, this video will make you think twice before you order from outside, and if you have phobia of germs, you might not even want to look at it.
The video that has recently surfaced shows the co-owner of fast-food restaurant chain Carl's Jr. in Alberta, Canada, picking up a chicken tender that fell on the floor. Jack Webb, the co-owner, can also be seen transferring sauces to different containers without wearing hand gloves.
Webb was captured violating the food safety measures by in-store security cameras. He was temporarily barred from his own restaurant's kitchen after a former manager alerted authorities about Webb's unhygienic behavior, CBC News reported.
Andrew Minnes, the former restaurant manager, highlighted these violations to the health authorities concerned and CBC News, which was the first publication to publish the news Wednesday. "I've never seen anything like this. If he wasn't an owner, he would have been fired instantly. There wouldn't even have been a debate," Minnes told CBC News.
In the video, posted by the news outlet on YouTube, Webb can be seen committing at least 10 food safety violations. He can be seen mixing barbecue and honey mustard sauce without wearing gloves. While looking for a utensil, he picks up an unwashed spatula from the pile of dirty dishes. He has been also captured putting food — that he dropped on the floor — back to the warming tray. In the video, two other staffers approach Webb with other utensils, but he refuses to use them.
The kitchen staff reportedly claimed Webb was committing these violations for quite some time.
Minnes told CBC that kitchen staff had alerted him about Webb's way of working. He also said he had approached Webb to discuss it, but Webb just dismissed it by saying he was the owner.
Webb also warned his staffers not to reveal about this to anyone. According to Minnes, Webb told the staff: "Don't talk about what I'm doing, I do what I feel like doing." It was then Minnes decided to collect proof of Webb's unhygienic ways of working through the CCTV that overlooked the kitchen.
Regarding taking action against Webb, Minnes told Global News he wanted to go through the right channels. "I felt like AHS (Alberta Health Services) were the guys that dealt with this stuff, so I just wanted to make sure they were involved."
Although these videos were recorded in February and March, AHS — the only health authority for the province of Alberta — said it received the videos Aug. 8. An investigation was launched into the violations soon after the videos were received, according to the authorities.
The Environmental Public Health officer, Michael Lambert, wrote about the incident in an email to Minnes calling Webb's behavior "disgusting," according to reports. Lambert added: "The food handler was very apologetic and assured us this will not happen in the future."
Webb had apparently never taken provincial food safety training and after his acts were made public, he was ordered to refrain from handling food till the time proof of that training was handed over to the AHS, CBC reported.
In a statement, the popular U.S. fast food restaurant, which is trying to expand its business in Canada since 2011, called the improper food handling behavior "unacceptable and (that it) in no way, represents Carl's Jr.'s commitment to safe food handling." The statement also assured Webb had completed the AHS food safety training and the chain had taken its own "corrective action" including an independent safety audit."
Currently, Webb is serving his second term as a town councilor in Rimbey in central Alberta. He was the owner of Monterey Jack's restaurant in Rimbey before it was sold in late 2015, according to Red Deer News Now.
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