Moldy buns and old sauces at Burger King: Investigative research shows a disgusting scenario

Created: 03/10/2022, 06:00

By: Juliane Gutmann

Things can go wrong in restaurants.

But what happened in a North German Burger King was systematic - and endangered the health of the guests.

Günter Wallraff's RTL investigative team regularly uncovers abuses in German companies.

In the case of the fast-food chain Burger King, the discovery of serious hygiene deficiencies and the disclosure of the exploitative machinations with regard to employee management around eight years ago even led to 89 Burger King branches in Germany having to close.

The fast-food chain then vowed to improve.

But "Team Wallraff" recently published another enormously unsavory story.

Visit to Burger King: After doing RTL research, many will take a closer look at what they are biting into.

© Imago

The RTL team infiltrated a Burger King branch in Bernau near Berlin and observed how the employees worked there.

The regulations regarding food processing, which are strict on paper, were often not complied with.

For example, products such as salad, cheese, bacon and sauces that had expired according to their expiry date were simply relabeled and were fresh again, at least on paper, as the private broadcaster RTL reports.

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In the undercover report, which was broadcast on RTL, the TV journalists around Günter Wallraff show what goes on behind the scenes in the Burger King branch in Bernau.

Mostly uncooled sauce bottles with expired contents are simply refilled again and again without cleaning them beforehand.

Also a disgusting truth that came to light during the research: Old and already hard buns were reused for the burgers, partly toasted so that the customers wouldn't notice.

“We had long buns that started to get moldy because they were three months old.

And they were still used, ”explained an informant in the RTL interview, who worked for Burger King for several years.

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RTL published the statement from “Burger King Deutschland GmbH”: “We – like our franchise partners – take these allegations very seriously.

Burger King Germany will not tolerate any breach of its high standards.

(...) The processes are being optimised: renewed training for restaurant management, particularly in the areas of food safety, hygiene and vegan preparation;

the training sessions take place in person and digitally (in different languages)."