This Cold Stone customer was so disgusted after witnessing a worker’s lack of cleanliness that she abandoned the ice cream she’d been craving.
When working with food and drinks, whether it’s a fast food drive-thru or a fancy restaurant, cleanliness is of the utmost importance.
Hands can carry a number of bacteria that can easily contaminate food, leading to potential foodborne illnesses like E. coli and salmonella.
While both of these illnesses tend to self-resolve or can be taken care of with proper medical attention, no one wants to go through nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea when it could have been prevented with a simple hand wash.
Case in point: McDonald’s recently had an E. coli outbreak. As of Nov. 1, one person died, 27 were hospitalized, and 90 total people were affected.
Why this woman won’t be eating at Cold Stone
And dirty hands aren’t the only way food can get contaminated.
In a viral video with more than 185,000 views, Georgia woman Janna Banks (@thejannabanks) explains that as the worker was creating her cold concoction, his nose started bleeding from a scratch on the top of his nostril, and it was dripping down.
“I do not know if the blood dripped into my ice cream,” Banks says.
You’d already expect the person to go take care of the bleeding, wipe themselves up, wash their hands, throw out the ice cream in case it was contaminated, clean the area, and start again, right?
But that’s not what happened
In a follow-up video, Banks says that he did grab a paper towel from behind him and patted his nose, inappropriately commenting that the blood made a heart shape on the paper towel.
He proceeded to keep working on Banks’ ice cream, she says. She says she had to politely ask him to wash his hands after handling his blood. Even his co-worker was side-eyeing him, Banks says.
As he headed to the back to wash his hands, Banks says the worker set the bloody paper towel between the register and the ice cream.
“I just walked out. Because I’m like, ‘This is gross, and one thing you can’t play about is someone’s bodily fluid,’” Banks says.
She adds that she left a voicemail for corporate alerting them about the incident.
“Be mindful, be careful. I mean, there are lots of things that are floating as far as illnesses. So yeah, be very mindful,” Banks says.
@thejannabanks Part 2 – Next Video
♬ original sound – Janna Banks 🫧✨💕
Cold Stone replies
Banks was able to contact customer service, she reveals in a follow-up. The representative says they spoke to the employee about their lack of hygiene and the proper sanitization processes. The worker was suspended for four days, the representative says on the call, which Banks recorded and shared.
The call also alludes to a conversation with the local health department.
“We just want to welcome you back if you want to come back we can make sure you will not have that experience again,” the person says, adding that this is the first time they’ve gotten a report of the sort. “I apologize for your experience.”
Commenters and Banks were surprised that Cold Stone didn’t offer her at least a free ice cream.
“No come get some ice cream on the house? Like what?!?” she said in the comments section. Though, Banks said she isn’t sure she’d eat there again.
But aside from that, Banks seemed satisfied with their course of action.
@thejannabanks I had limited storage on my ipad, so i had to record on ig story and save the videos to upload. What are your thoughts? Do you think this response is acceptable?#CapCut ♬ original sound – Janna Banks 🫧✨💕
Commenters react
“You shouldn’t even had to tell him to wash his hands like??? He immediately should’ve walked away and had someone else assist you,” a top comment read. Banks said that she was giving him grace since he seemed young.
“Ohhh noooooo. I’m so glad you walked out because WHAT,” a person said.
“I’m glad you called &. reported this to everyone necessary because that is disgusting on so many levels!” another added.
The Daily Dot reached out to Banks for comment via email and Instgram direct message and to Cold Stone via email.
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