A New York mother went through a Burger King drive-thru hoping to get a quick bite for herself and her daughter, but what she left with was anything but an edible meal.
Tiffany Floyd and her 4-year-old daughter had been running errands on Friday before they decided to stop by a Burger King in Getzville, about 16 miles from Buffalo.
"I went through the drive-thru. I handed my daughter the meal. About five minutes down the road, I heard 'Mommy, I didn't want ketchup.' I grabbed the bag back from her thinking they just messed up her meal," Floyd said.
To her surprise, the red liquid "all over" her daughter's hamburger, french fries and kids' meal toy was not ketchup; it was blood.
Floyd told Scripps News Buffalo she pulled over immediately and asked her daughter to spit out whatever she had in her mouth. At that point, her daughter had already eaten a couple of french fries.
The mom then called the Burger King on Millersport Highway and spoke to the manager, identified as Dan.
"He did inform me that somebody cut their hand right before they cooked and bagged my food, that he was sorry and that if I wanted to come back with a bag he would refund me my money," Floyd said. "I declined. I said 'No thank you.'"
Floyd next contacted the Niagara County Department of Health and filed a complaint. Niagara County forwarded the complaint to the Erie County Department of Health due to the location of the Burger King.
Later that night, Floyd posted a TikTok video, which has now gone viral, of the bloody wrapper in order to "alert people," she told Scripps News Buffalo.
"If you were at that location at that time that day, to maybe check the bags if you still have the bags, or if you really think that this might impact you, maybe call your doctor and get your blood done to check," Floyd said.
Floyd said her daughter is traumatized by the situation and has not eaten much since.
"I'm not trying to talk a lot to her about it because she is only 4, but she does know that there was blood in her food," Floyd told Scripps News Buffalo. "Even if I go to give her food, she thinks there's blood in all her food. She did eat a little bit today but she watched me make her food which she has never done that."
According to Floyd, her daughter is getting a blood test on Tuesday. Her pediatrician will not test her until 30 days have passed because she said that's when they will truly know whether something has been transmitted. This means the blood test that will be taken on Tuesday will be a bloodline test that doctors can compare with the test 30 days from now. She will need to have a blood test every month for an entire year to ensure nothing was transmitted.
Scripps News Buffalo reached out to the Erie County Department of Health and received this statement on Monday:
"Though we did not receive a complaint from the public regarding this incident, based on news reports our sanitarians did log a complaint and a sanitarian inspected the facility today 7/29. No critical or non-critical violations were found at the time of inspection.
Our public health sanitarians follow up on all health and safety complaints received about food facilities in Erie County. Summaries of complaint-based and routine inspections are available online within a few days of an inspection at https://www.healthspace.com/erieny [secure-web.cisco.com].
Our environmental health division handles complaints for food facilities in Erie County. Call 716-961-6800 or use our online form [secure-web.cisco.com].
Our department investigates reports of food-related illness – call (716) 858-7697. Symptoms of food-related illness can include vomiting/nausea, abdominal cramps and diarrhea. Anyone with a concern about their personal health should contact their doctor or other qualified medical professional."
Scripps News Buffalo also reached out to Burger King and received the statement below:
"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. This incident was the result of a team member in the restaurant who injured his finger, and upon noticing immediately stepped away. We closed the restaurant over the weekend to retrain all the team members and hired an external company to complete a deep cleaning. We expect the restaurant to re-open Monday, July 29, and are fully paying team members for any lost shifts during this temporary shutdown."
Anyone who has a problem with their food can reach out to Erie County Environmental Health Division, which handles complaints for food facilities, at (716) 961-6800 or Niagara County at (716) 439–7579.
Additionally, the New York State Department of Health Bureau of Emergency Medical Services has guidelines for potential blood exposures. That document can be found here.
This story was originally published by Pheben Kassahun at Scripps News Buffalo.
