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Photo Quickly Makes Employee's Face Infamous, Soils Taco Bell Brand

Employee allegedly licks Taco Bell taco shells

IRVINE, Calif. – Social media quickly went abuzz Sunday over a photo of a young man in a Taco Bell uniform that was posted on the company's public Facebook page.  It showed the employee licking a stack of taco shells.   Within a day, the world's mass media charged in as the photo went viral. "Spit looks to be Taco Bell's secret ingredient," cried the New York Daily News in its title. "Photo of Taco Bell worker licking shells sends shudders," wrote USAToday. "Shocking picture of Taco Bell employee," wrote Britain's Daily Mail.

The left side of the employee's face was fully shown and recognizable in the photo (a distorted portion of the photo as it appeared in Facebook is posted on Blue MauMau).

Worried that customers may begin avoiding its restaurants, a spokesperson for the brand on Monday vowed that the firm would in short order find out what happened.

Irvine-based Taco Bell, a division of Yum Brands (NYSE:YUM), now says that it was an employee of one of its franchised restaurants who is in the photo. The photograph on a Facebook page, posted by a "Jj O'Brien Nolan", was meant for a contest to illustrate just how great Taco Bell's new Doritos flavored taco shells are. The shells were used in the restaurant for training purposes and "were in the process of being thrown out," states Taco Bell. The employee apparently couldn't resist licking them as they were going out to be destroyed.

Whether well intentioned or not, the foodservice employee has been suspended by the franchise owner and is in the process of being terminated. The brand and the franchise cannot afford to associate with such action.

Here is Taco Bell's latest statement:

What is the Issue?
On June 2nd, we learned of a photo circulating online illustrating a Taco Bell restaurant team member violating our food handling procedures with a stack of taco shells.

Our food handling procedures are strict and we have zero tolerance for any violations.  In the spirit of full transparency, we want to inform you of what we know in order to respond to customers' questions on our social media channels.

How Did this Happen?


What we did

We immediately investigated the situation and learned these facts from our franchisee.  We are continuing our investigation and our franchisee is cooperating fully.


What We're Doing


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Staff reporter for Blue MauMau