WOMAN FINDS BLOOD IN BURGER KING MEAL AFTER WORKER INJURES FINGER

PEOPLE

 

Woman Finds Blood in Burger King Meal After Worker Injures Their Finger, Daughter Mistakes It for Ketchup (Exclusive)

Shortly after her daughter started eating her cheeseburger and fries, Tiffany Floyd heard, "Mom, I don't want ketchup"

By Virginia Chamlee  Published on July 31, 2024 10:00AM EDT

 

A woman took to TikTok to share that she found blood in her 4-year-old daughter's meal at a New York Burger King location — which the fast food chain says was the result of a worker "injuring their finger."

 

"Today I went to Burger King by my house," Tiffany Floyd says in the video, showing footage of the bag of food she purchased at a Gettzville, New York, Burger King.

 

Floyd says that she bought a meal for herself and a kid's meal for her daughter at the drive-thru. Shortly after her daughter started eating her cheeseburger and fries, Floyd heard, "Mom, I don't want ketchup."

 

"So I take the bag back, thinking that they messed up our order," Floyd adds. "And I look in her bag and there is blood all over."

 

Speaking to PEOPLE, Floyd says that she had visited that particular location — just up the road from one of her doctors — dozens of times in the past. But this visit was altogether different.

 

Floyd says that her daughter had eaten a few French fries and a bite of her cheeseburger when she asked about the ketchup.

 

"Instantly I grabbed the bag because I thought maybe they messed up her order. I looked at it, felt something wet and thought it was ketchup and you could tell it was human blood," she tells PEOPLE.

 

At that point, Floyd was already on her drive back home and called the Burger King location asking to speak to a manager. "I spoke to the manager and he paused and said, 'Yes. I had a worker here cut their hand right before your food was made and bagged. The worker knew he cut himself but did not think he was bleeding that bad.' "

 

"He was so nonchalant at this point and I was livid," she says, adding that the manager offered her a refund if she came back to the store.

 

"I said, 'No, thank you,' I hung up the phone and called my local health department," she tells PEOPLE.

 

In her TikTok video, Floyd shows the bag of food in question — where a dark red substance can be seen on the burger wrapping, a kid's toy and the French fries.

 

"I called Burger King because I was not going to go back there," she says. "And the manager had told me that someone did cut their hand, and that if I came back he would give me a refund of my money."

 

The video has been viewed more than 6 million times on TikTok since being posted on Saturday, July 27.

 

In a statement to PEOPLE, Burger King confirmed the incident, saying the blood was the result of "a team member in the restaurant who injured his finger, and upon noticing immediately stepped away."

 

"We were deeply upset and concerned to learn of this incident. We have been in contact with the Guest and are working with her to resolve this incident," the statement reads.

 

Burger King added that it closed its Gettzville restaurant for a retraining and deep-cleaning and has since re-opened.

 

"We closed the restaurant over the weekend to retrain all the team members and hired an external company to complete a deep cleaning," the statement said. "We expect the restaurant to re-open Monday, July 29, and are fully paying team members for any lost shifts during this temporary shut down."

 

Floyd tells PEOPLE that she is "distraught," noting that she has since filed a report with the local health department and contacted her daughter's pediatrician.

 

"She now needs to get bloodwork done every month," Floyd says, adding that the tests will look for things like HIV and Hepatitis.

 

In addition to being "emotionally not okay," Floyd says her daughter is now refusing to eat.

 

"I try to give her food, she thinks there's blood in it," she says.

 

As for why she posted the TikTok about the incident, Floyd says she is worried that someone else may have ingested blood that day without realizing it.

 

"Every time you get food through a drive-thru, you open the bag up and start eating without even looking," she says. "I just want other people there to check to see if they ate it, too."