Even though Little Caesars is well-known for its tasty and affordable pizzas, it can sometimes draw some criticism for its less than stellar hygiene standards. An incident that occurred recently in Cleveland, Tennessee is a testament to this, as a passerby witnessed a group of Little Caesars employees transporting pizza dough in the back of a dirty SUV. The footage made its way back to the health department, and the organization formally instructed the business to throw away all of the pizza dough due to concerns over hygiene standards. Said clip is circulating online right now.
The video opens outside of a Little Caesars establishment in Tennessee, and in the center of the frame is a maroon-colored SUV with its boot wide open. In the storage compartment — which appears to be a little unkempt and untidy — you can see several large boxes of dough, and a few of them are overflowing onto the floor of the cargo area. Several employees are busy moving the boxes into the restaurant, though it’s worth noting that one of them is not wearing gloves.
The person recording the footage can be heard, saying, “Alright, Cleveland. This is Little Caesars. This is how they handle the dough. I would not order. They have no gloves. And this is how they handle their [expletive] dough. This is Little Caesars making dough. Check this [expletive] out, man, y’all. This is insane. I have never in my life — look at this [expletive]. It’s on the [expletive] carpet and [expletive].”
The camera then zooms in on the interior of the vehicle’s storage compartment and it looks incredibly dirty, with dust and grime covering the entirety of the trunk. The man recording continues, “I’m calling the health department, guys. Oh my god. I cannot believe that Little Caesars off of Paul Huff in Cleveland, Tennessee. If you eat pizza, don’t eat here.”
Interestingly, in the description of the video, there’s a snippet of additional context that confirms that the health department were indeed involved. Specifically, the description reveals: “Update: health department came and made them throw out all the dough but allowed them to continue business with no stipulations“.
As the footage continues to make the rounds, social media users took to the comments to air their thoughts. Over on Reddit, a sensible commenter who allegedly has experience in the food industry weighed in, penning, “When I worked at a fast food place I will say that we often had to get supplies from other stores if we ran out. So this was probably a trip to another little Caesar’s to get supplies. It was never open stuff though, only sealed. Regardless, that is not proper food safety.” Elsewhere, many netizens concluded that this is the reason why Little Caesars is likely so affordable with one declaring, “That’s why so cheap” and another stating, “I mean it’s 6 dollars what did you expect lol“
At the time of writing, Little Caesars has not yet issued an official statement regarding the Cleveland dough incident.
