RICHMOND, Va. – Virginia’s Sugar Shack Donuts has shared additional information about a video that showed an employee spitting on a tray of decorated doughnuts.
The video, which was recorded in 2017 according to the time stamp, came to light over the weekend when it was posted online.
“We have seen the videos being shared and are horrified that any employee would have such blatant disregard for our customers and our hard working staff,” a statement posted to the Sugar Shack Facebook page Monday began. “We understand there has been some confusion on when this video was shared and when we knew: To be clear – we knew when you knew. The individual left the company in June and only recently shared a video with a date stamp of two years ago after her last covered shift at Sugar Shack. We do have 100% confirmation these videos were done as jokes and no donuts were served to customers.”
The three-second Instagram video showed the worker lean over the tray of doughnut and spit on them.
A second video, posted later in the weekend, showed a worker dip doughnuts in icing before the camera tilts to show a pile of sprinkles on the floor next to a broom and dustpan. That worker, who is wearing gloves, then presses the glazed doughnut onto the floor to decorate the confection with sprinkles.
“In the time since we were notified we contacted the police and filed reports, we’ve investigated our own staff and management to determine any involvement or knowledge of these types of actions,” the Monday morning statement continued. “We’ve set emergency staff meetings to discuss food safety and Sugar Shack culture. We are working directly with management for additional checks and balances in both Front and back of house operations.”
Sugar Shack has not confirmed the location where the videos were recorded, nor if the incidents involved the same worker.
“We are so sorry that this happened, that you felt we didn’t care or weren’t clear enough,” the statement concluded. “We wanted to take action and didn’t keep you informed. We love our customers and our company and we are going to work diligently to earn your trust again.”