Taco Bell is firing the employee that was caught licking a stack fo taco shells in a photo that went viral.
According to the Associated Press, the photo was taken in March at a Taco Bell in Ridgecrest, 100 miles north of Los Angeles. Taco Bell tracked down the employee and is now taking action.
The photo was originally posted to the Taco Bell Facebook page by a user named J.J. O'Brien Nolan who said "This sure says a lot about your employees, food treatment and what they post on the Internet."
Taco Bell responded to the photo on Monday and said
"We have strict food handling procedures and zero tolerance for any violations. When we learned of the situation, we immediately contacted this restaurant's leadership, and, although we believe it is a prank and the food was not served to customers, we are conducting a full-scale investigation and will be taking swift action against those involved."
Taco Bell Products Inc. claims that the employees were provided with the shells to be used as they practiced making the new Cool Ranch tacos. They said the shells were thrown out and never sold.
The company also said that the photo was taken as part of a contest in which employees were asked to send a picture of them enjoying their first bite of the new product. This particular wasn't submitted but it was placed on Facebook, which goes against company policy.
Taco Bell took action against the shell licker. They released a statement saying"
"Our franchisee is responsible for the employment and conduct of his restaurant's employees and he has informed us that he immediately suspended the employee shown in the photo and is in the process of terminating his employment. The employee who took the photo no longer works there. As we complete our investigation we will work with our franchisee to implement any additional action we find appropriate to address this situation and ensure it never happens again."
A Reddit user posted a photo to the site which appears to be the same worker in the taco licking photo. The Snapchat photo has the caption, "Just got the call. I'm fired." The photo has not been verified.
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