The cheesy truth behind one of Panera Bread‘s most popular items!
Recently, TikTok user @briannaraelenee — who appeared to be an employee at the fast casual restaurant — posted a video captioned, “how panera prepares mac & cheese,” revealing the truth behind the pasta.
Related: Panera Bread Apologizes To Georgia Family!
In the clip, the worker takes out a frozen, plastic packet of the concoction from a box, drops it in boiling water, cuts the packet with a pair of scissors, pours the food into a bowl, and places it on a tray to serve to the customer.
The disgusting video can be seen (below):
As of this writing, the crazy clip has over 947,000 likes and 8,000 comments.
However, in another vid, the staff member said she was fired from her job — presumably due to shooting the behind-the-counter footage.
Additionally, the social media user allegedly wrote on Twitter:
“lol i lost my job for this video”
She did clarify her termination wasn’t because of the video itself, but because of “food safety and health regulations”:
There was no wrongful termination. Having such long nails and my phone out is a risk to food safety and health regulations. Everything was completely justified. I made a mistake and i’ve learned from it. I will always love panera and their food.
— Bri (@BriiRamirezz) October 14, 2019
Bri continued, shutting down a follower who asked if Panera made her type the above response:
No, I just want it to be known that I respect panera and what the situation is. It was a mistake on my part and there really isn’t a way to take back the video.
— Bri (@BriiRamirezz) October 14, 2019
On Monday, Panera Bread spokeswoman Jessica Hesselschwerdt confirmed the authenticity of the clip, but would not comment on the woman’s employment status.
Additionally, the company defended its unappetizing cooking methods by telling various outlets:
“Mac and cheese is made off-site with our proprietary recipe developed by our chefs and using our sourced ingredients that meet our standards for our clean menu offerings.”
The representative also said the dish is prepared daily as it’s ordered and is “shipped frozen to our bakery cafes — this allows us to avoid using preservatives which do not meet our clean standards.”
After the controversial video went viral, some people SLAMMED the restaurant for its quality of grub. They penned:
“I’ve said before that Panera bread Mac and cheese is garbage, and here is the proof.”
“Someone said Panera is just hospital food and this proves it.”
However, others rushed to Panera’s defense, and say their practices are standard with chain establishments.
“That’s how almost all chain restaurants cook and serve their food. It’s called efficiency.”
“I don’t get what she’s exposing? Did people really think there was a chef hanging out in the kitchen of Panera Bread making their Mac and Cheese? This is literally how every fast food joint operates, don’t be fooled.”
“literally not surprised, i work & mcdonalds & literally everything is frozen, including hotcakes & EVERYTHING from McCafe lmaooo”
Drama aside, the eatery says it serves more than 3 million mac-and-cheese servings each month.
Panera is rollin’ in the dough!
[Image via Panera Bread/Twitter.]
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