25 most shocking chain restaurant scandals

Junk food is usually tasty, cost-effective, and not-necessarily-the-best-for-you.

That’s because no matter what you order, it is typically loaded with sodium, sugar, artificial color, MSG to give it better flavor, monoglycerides to keep it stable, and high-glucose corn syrup.

It is also the subject matter of countless gag-inducing urban legends, perhaps because the cheap price of the food you crave makes it easy to believe that restaurant owners are cutting corners.

But what if the urban legends are true?

Pink slime, fake meat, chicken heads, disgruntled employees, hepatitis outbreaks — this list scoured news sites from around the web to compile some of the most outlandish stories about fast food restaurants.

Read on if you dare, though you may swear off drive-thrus forever. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Here are 25 of the most shocking chain restaurant scandals.

25. You say “lasagn-yay”, I say “lasag-NAH”

Whitbread Restaurant, the U.K’s response to Denny’s, had a blow-out over their lasagna in 2017.

An investigation by U.K. news outlet The Sun found that the restaurant chain had been listing the lasagna on its menu as “beef lasagna”, when it was actually cooked with a beef and pork ragu.

Chris Elliott, the director for the Institute for Global Food Security based in Belfast, said that the “mislabelling” seemed intentional and was done as a cost-cutting measure.

He pointed out that, beyond the fact that it’s illegal to sell a customer one thing but provide them with another, it raised serious concerns for those who may be allergic to pork or those who don’t eat it due to religious reasons.

A whistleblower at the restaurant said that they had noticed the ingredients on the packages changing and had mentioned it to management, but months later, no change had taken place. In fact, the higher-ups had instructed the service staff to not mention it to customers.

Apparently, by the time the media found out about the issue, nearly 250,000 lasag-NOPES had been sold to unsuspecting hungry people.

24. 100% fried what?

Many cultures cook with beef fat, also known as beef tallow. The problem is when you lie about it.

Up until 1990, McDonald’s had been open about cooking their fries in animal fat, but they claimed to stop when customers began asking for “healthier” alternatives, filling their vats with vegetable oil instead.

What the fast food giant failed to mention was that the “natural flavors” it seasoned its fries with still included “beef products”. A Seattle-based lawyer filed a lawsuit against Mickey D’s in 2001 on behalf of three vegetarian plaintiffs, two of whom had religious reasons for avoiding meat.

McDonald’s settled the lawsuit in 2002 by donating $10 million to various Hindu and vegetarian groups, and issuing a public apology for the “miscommunication”.

The apology and the payment were part of a wider-ranging agreement regarding five class-action lawsuits charging that “the company had misled consumers by wrongly describing its French fries as vegetarian.”

23. No more chickie nuggies

When you order a 10-pack of chicken nuggets after a hard day at work, the most difficult decision you want to make is which dipping sauce to get, not what to do if you find a breaded chicken head in the box.

That is exactly what happened to Virginia native Katherine Ortega in 2000 when she was serving her kids what she hoped would be a happy meal for dinner.

She found an entire chicken head — including beak, eyes and comb — breaded and masquerading as a traditional nugget and immediately freaked out.

She reported it to the franchise location she bought the nuggets from, which said she could return them either for a refund or a fresh box, which she refused.

According to an interview with ABC, Ortega said she ended up making her kids grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner instead, and also that she doubted she’d be picking up any take-out any time soon.

22. Prank pizza gone bad

Ew. Just, ew.

While apparently having a boring shift at work one night in 2009, two Domino’s employees decided to have a little fun by pranking their delivery customers.

One of the employees decided to make the sandwiches with cheese that he’d put up his nose, “nasal mucus,” and other health code violations while the other employee filmed it and provided narration.

It was 2009, a time when people did not quite understand the concept behind viral videos or that once something is on the internet, it usually stays there forever, so they uploaded evidence of their shenanigans to YouTube.

A few days later, the video had been viewed over a million times and Domino’s had its own hashtag on Twitter.

A few days after that, the employees had been identified, fired from the restaurant — no kidding — and brought up on felony charges.

The two pranksters swore they hadn’t delivered the compromised food, but the damage to the brand had been done.

The managing director of a public relations firm called Domino’s situation a “nightmare”.

21. The secret’s in the sauce

Dunkin’ Donuts had a rough 2017, starting with the lawsuit filed by a customer in Massachusetts who claimed that customers in a total of 20 locations were being served margarine, or a butter substitute, even if they asked for butter.

The absolute, unmitigated horror.

The suit had apparently been in the works for a few years, ever since it was found out that several franchises used a butter substitute because it was easier to spread.

The lawsuit was successful, but it depends on what you define as success. Mashed reports that each of the 10 plaintiffs went home with $500 each, while their lawyers went home with $500,000.

Dunkin’ Donuts called the $500 payout an “incentive” for its miffed customers to come back.

Later the same year, DD also got raked over the coals for using ground beef in their steak and egg sandwiches, as well as flavored crystals in its blueberry muffins.

20. Pure water…that came from the tap

This one is definitely an oldie, but a goodie.

In the early 2000s, Coca-Cola started offering Dasani bottled water, which was marketed as being “purified, reverse-osmosis” water.

Customers hit the metaphorical ceiling when they found out the water was actually filtered water, taken straight from the tap.

The filtration process also sees the manufacturer re-adding trace minerals, such as salt, back to the water to add a bit of oomph to the bottled product.

While Dasani is still on the market, and its advertising is careful to mention the difference between filtered and spring water, it was still a relevant joke in 2020.

During the first wave of the pandemic, a Twitter user uploaded a video to their account which saw them trying to stock up on water. The shelves were completely bare except for boxes and boxes of Dasani.

The beleaguered brand was called out by Consumer Accountability International for intentionally misleading consumers with their vague labeling.

19. Fastest fingers in the west

You just can’t get rich quick and don’t believe anyone who tells you otherwise.

In early March of 2005, Anna Ayala, of San Jose California, claimed that she had bitten into a severed finger that she found in her Wendy’s bowl of chili.

But her story didn’t add up. Authorities had the chili and the finger put through forensic tests, which showed that the finger had neither been cooked or bitten into, no employees had a missing digit, and no ingredient suppliers had reported any finger injuries.

Later in the investigation, it was discovered that Ayala’s husband, Jamie Plascencia, had paid a co-worker $100 for the severed finger, which the co-worker had lost in an unrelated industrial accident.

It had been an attempt to get money out of the fast food franchise, but it backfired.

For her part in the attempted fraud, Ayala was sentenced to nine years in prison, while Plascencia was sentenced to 12.

18. I ordered beef, not horse!

Many cultures eat and enjoy horsemeat, but they know when they’re ingesting it.

It is not a common item on many Western plates, so when British and Irish Burger Kings realized in 2013 that their beef supplier had sent them ground beef mixed with horse DNA, customers were outraged.

Burger King, who assured the public its burgers were 100% beef, completely severed ties with Silvercrest, its meat supplier, which in turn shut down production lines in order to issue a recall of potentially contaminated products.

Around the same time, different firms also came forward to say their products had been found to contain horsemeat, most only confirming small trace amounts.

But a hamburger patty sold by U.K. grocery store chain Tesco’s was found to contain 29% horse meat.

While officials said there was no risk to human health, it obviously raised food security concerns.

Ironically, according to the Associated Press article from 2013, while Britain sells very little horse meat for human consumption, it does send thousands of horses a year abroad to be sold for meat.

17. You can’t always drink what you want

In 2013, The Briad Group, the corporation that owned several New Jersey TGI Friday’s, was caught serving cheaper spirits to customers in place of the premium alcohol they had ordered.

New Jersey investigated the claims against the restaurant chain for several months under the code name “Operation Swill”, raiding 13 restaurants in May of the same year and seized over 250 bottles.

During Operation Swill, agents had ordered drinks from the bartender, asking for them neat. The drinks were tested with a “true spirit authenticator”, and if the results were suspicious, they were sent to the brand manufacturer for further testing.

What they found was premium liquor bottles filled with, appropriately, swill. They found river water in one, in another, they found rubbing alcohol tinted with caramel coloring to appear like aged scotch.

Eight restaurants were included in the lawsuit and were charged with “substitution of a drink.”

The Briad Group agreed to pay $500,000 in a settlement, and also did not contest the charges that they had, indeed, swapped their swill.

Talk about lowering the bar…rail.

16. Chi Chi’s Hepatitis A

Chi Chi’s may not be a familiar name now, but when it was founded in the mid-1970s, it introduced Tex-Mex cooking to the Midwest.

At first, it was a hit, serving fajitas and goblets of margaritas to the suburban masses, but it started to have financial trouble only a decade later because its attempts to branch out left the company riddled with debt.

In 1993, a shipment of green onions arrived at a Monaca, Pennsylvania Chi Chi’s location. It was contaminated with the hepatitis A bacteria and because so many of their dishes contained green onions, it caused the biggest hepatitis A outbreak in U.S. history.

The restaurant was responsible for making 660 people sick, and for four deaths.

As you might imagine, Chi Chi’s never recovered. Even though it had already filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the judges allowed victims to settle with the company. By 2004, it had quietly shuttered the last of its North American locations.

However, it’s not dead completely. It still operates in the United Emirates, Kuwait, and Austria.

15. The extra toppings are needles

An Army sergeant, serving at the Oahu, Hawaii military base, was home sick one day in 2010. His wife bought him a Burger King value meal for dinner.

Biting into his Triple Whopper, Clark Bartholomew thought he tasted something funny. He realized that the something funny was actually a needle that had pierced his tongue.

He had also swallowed a second needle, which became lodged in his small intestine and required removal and nine days of hospitalization.

Bartholomew filed a lawsuit against Burger King, which the restaurant fought by saying that his injuries had been sustained during military service.

It was further complicated by the fact that the case was tried in Hawaii, and Sergeant Bartholomew had already medically retired and moved to Virginia. Lawyers for Burger King wanted to dismiss the case because the plaintiffs missed a court date.

Eventually, in 2015, the lawsuit was settled, with BKC — Burger King Corporation — paying Bartholomew $50,000.

14. Human skin in a sandwich

Picture it: you roll up to Arby’s, order a chicken sandwich, and grab a booth. You take a sip of your fountain Coke, unwrap the sandwich, and take a big bite — only to realize there’s the tip of someone’s finger in your meal.

That is what happened to Ohio-based David Scheiding in 2005, when he started to eat his chicken sandwich and noticed a piece of skin about three-quarters-of-an-inch long — complete with fingerprint — mixed in with his condiments.

After fleeing to the bathroom and getting sick, he filed a lawsuit against the Ohio restaurant.

As part of the investigation, health inspectors spoke with the restaurant manager, who had a bandage on his thumb and was wearing a latex glove, according to a district health report. The manager told the inspectors that he had sliced his thumb while chopping lettuce, and had sanitized the area where he’d cut himself, but not thrown out the lettuce.

Scheiding’s sandwich contained lettuce.

The courts awarded Scheiding $50,000.

13. You’ve been slimed

There are two sides to every story, and this one is no different.

To hear McDonald’s tell it, they had made the decision in 2011 to move away from using “boneless lean beef trimmings” in its hamburger patties.

The trimmings, which consist of what’s left after the choicest cuts have been removed, are illegal to sell for human consumption in the U.K., and used in their pet food instead.

In the U.S., the trimmings are treated with ammonium hydroxide in order to kill off bacteria and to make it safe for human consumption.

McDonald’s boneless trimmings supplier, Beef Products International, had said they had stopped supplying the fast food joint because they were unable to keep up with the global demand.

However, the issue was brought to the center of public attention after celebrity chef Jamie Oliver highlighted what he called “the pink slime” in an exposé on his show, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.

By the time the show aired, McDonald’s affirmed that they had stopped the use of pink slime in their hamburgers months before.

12. Chipotle’s new menu item

Another day, another dollar, another case of food poisoning.

During the span of four days in July 2018, a Chipotle’s location in Ohio was responsible for an outbreak of “gastrointestinal illness” that affected 647 customers.

The customers had eaten either Chipotle’s tacos or burrito bowls and had complained to the restaurant afterwards of food poisoning and digestive issues.

Local health officials went on record to say that the illnesses were caused by the bacterium Clostridium perfringens, which occurs in food that has been prepared in large quantities and kept warm for a long time before serving.

The bacteria is non-life threatening and people usually recover after a few days of being ill. The CDC says that more than a million people are affected by the bacteria every year.

Chipotle’s executives immediately closed the Powell, Ohio location, removing all their food and sanitizing all surfaces, while also mandating a nationwide retraining of their staff on the basics of food safety.

11. A new type of lettuce — E.coli

In 2006, Taco Bell was responsible for an outbreak of E. coli-related illnesses that infected 71 people across five states.

Ground zero of the outbreak was traced back to Taco Bells in the northeastern part of the U.S., specifically New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.

The E. coli caused 75% of the infected people to be hospitalized, and eight people developed a type of kidney failure called “hemolytic uremic syndrome”.

Health officials initially thought the culprit was green onions, which Taco Bell immediately took off their menus. Through rigorous testing, and a few leads that didn’t pan out — the cheese, the ground beef — it ended up being traced back to their shredded lettuce.

In New York, some yellow onions found in a dumpster behind a Taco Bell did test positive for a kind of E. coli, but it wasn’t the strain that ignited the outbreak.

Perhaps the lesson is, don’t ask for vegetables at a fast food restaurant at all.

10. Chicken faux-pas

When you go to a restaurant and order a chicken sandwich, you expect to get a chicken sandwich, but what if the chicken is not chicken?

That’s what investigative journalists working for a Canadian television program, CBC’s Marketplace, found when they looked into two chicken sandwich offerings at Subway.

The two sandwiches tested by the journalists, the Subway Oven Roasted Chicken sandwich and the strips from the Subway Sweet Onion Teriyaki sandwich, were found to contain only about 50% chicken DNA.

Specifically, the oven roasted chicken contained 53.6% chicken, and the strips from the teriyaki sandwich contained 42.8%. The rest of the “meat” was discovered to actually be soy.

Taken overall, the Marketplace journalists discovered that the fast food chicken contained about a quarter less protein than its home-cooked equivalent, and their sodium levels were about seven to 10 times what they would be in plain, unseasoned chicken.

Subway put out a public statement disagreeing with the results and said that they would speak with their supplier about the percentage of soy in their meat.

9. Papa Jerk’s

Papa John’s has been in the news several times due to the antics of its former owner John Schnatter and not the quality of its trademark pizza pies.

The first public debacle he found himself in happened in 2017, Schlatter was observed blaming the NFL’s “take a knee” protests for declining sales.

His comment caused shares to tumble an astonishing 11% and he resigned from his position of CEO.

As part of the fall-out from those comments, Papa John’s hired a public relations firm to run media training for Schnatter, in the hopes that he wouldn’t spark more controversy. During the conference call, Schnatter used a racial slur.

Throughout his tenure as founder and board member of Papa John’s, Schnatter has consistently been in trouble — settling at least two lawsuits from former employees, and dealing with allegations of spying on his restaurants.

Since approximately 2013, he’s had all corporate employees sign non-disclosure agreements, and he’s also waded into politics, publicly criticizing the Affordable Care Act, and later donating $1,000 to Trump’s election campaign.

The trouble with naming your restaurant after yourself is that you become inextricably associated with it.

8. Popeyes food prep

This story seems to be a one-off, but it still deserves an honorable mention given the video evidence.

Shakita Shemere was just trying to get through her shift at a Detroit Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen when she saw a cockroach running across the floor and screamed.

When her manager yelled at her for screaming, she took out her phone and pressed record, taking a video of all sorts of health code violations, including garbage strewn across the kitchen floor, buckets of raw chicken sitting out, abandoned prep areas, and water leaking from somewhere.

That’s just in the first few minutes, but the video is over 20 minutes long.

When the manager caught her making the video, he asked her to go home. Permanently.

In consolation, that Popeyes location was closed while it was cleaned up enough to comply with health codes.

The Popeyes corporate office issued a statement saying that public health and safety were priorities for them.

7. Doughnut club no-no

In 2015, a Krispy Kreme franchise in Hull, U.K., decided to launch a doughnut-decorating initiative for their customers.

Envisioning it pulling in lots of people who could design their own pastries, they thought of calling it the Krispy Kreme Club, but with the “club” spelled with a “K” for a “kute” effect.

The person who made this decision had obviously not thought of how the name would look by its initials — identical to the nickname of the collection of vigilantes that the Southern Poverty Law Center calls the “oldest and most infamous of American hate groups”.