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Photo Of Rat Droppings On Domino's Pizza Dough Goes Viral

JOHNSON CITY, TN (CBS Local) - A Tennessee Domino's Pizza is under fire after a photo of raw dough covered in rat droppings was posted online. According to health inspections, the store in question has had a rodent problem for at least three years.

The Details:

  • A photo of rat droppings on Domino's pizza dough has gone viral
  • The photo was posted by an anonymous source who claims to work at the Tennessee location
  • Rats have been found at the store during health inspections dating back to 2015

The Domino's on Boones Creek Road in Johnson City, Tennessee drew massive scrutiny after an alleged employee posted a photo of feces-covered pizza dough to Reddit on May 1. The anonymous whistle blower, using the handle "matchgame74," also claimed that rats are a common sight at the location and employees at the pizza chain don't understand how the store continues to pass health inspections.

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"We ate that pizza like a week ago. That's surprising to understand that they could find that and sell us that pizza," customer Jeff Bowman told WJHL. Complaints about insect, animal, and rodent violations reportedly date back to 2015. Health inspectors, who found "14 trays contaminated with rodent droppings," still gave the store a score of 86 on their most recent inspection on May 2.

"This was an extremely isolated incident, confined to a single store, and it's been puzzling... The affected trays were removed; all others were inspected and new ones were delivered. The health department then cleared the store to open. The store is clean, open and back in business," Domino's spokesman Tim McIntyre told WJHL.

The state's Department of Health told WJHL that restaurants can be shut down if they believe a health hazard "is imminent", however they did not shut the pizza chain because staff immediately corrected the problems after the inspection.

The unnamed employee disputed the claims that Domino's has actively tried to clean up the Tennessee location and even alleged that inspectors were being paid to look the other way. "I'm willing to lose my job over it at this point. My coworkers and I all feel guilty serving this to people," matchgame74 wrote in Reddit's comments section.

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