A former Panera Bread employee apparently paid a stiff price for appearing in a video showing the chain’s popular macaroni and cheese is pre-packaged and frozen.
Shared on the app TikTok with the caption “exposing Panera,” the short video — which has amassed more than 6 million views — shows a plastic packet of frozen mac and cheese dropped into boiling water, cut open and poured into a bowl. A woman with a Panera Bread cap then gives a thumbs up over the ready-to-serve meal.
The woman in the video on Friday announced on Twitter that “I lost my job for this.”
The viral clip drew a stream of commentary and complaints on social media, with one Twitter user calling it “proof” that the company’s mac and cheese “is garbage.”
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Others were disdainful that anyone would be surprised to learn that the restaurant chain used frozen food. “Did people really think there was a chef hanging out in the kitchen of Panera Bread making their mac and cheese? This is literally how every fast-food joint operates,” declared another Twitter user.
Panera did not immediately return a request for comment.
According to Panera, it sells more than 3 million mac-and-cheese servings a month. Its mac and cheese “is made with 100% clean ingredients, free from artificial preservatives, sweeteners, flavors and colors from artificial sources,” Panera stated in a news release last year.
Privately held by JAB Holding, Panera operates more than 2,300 bakery-cafes in the U.S. and Canada.
