Viral TikTok video shows worms crawling under McDonald’s drinks station in south London

Stills from the viral video showing the earthworms at McDonald’s Old Kent Road branch
@mcoldkentroad / TikTok
Josh Salisbury24 November 2021

Earthworms have been filmed crawling under a McDonald’s drinks station in south London.

The viral footage of the fast-food giant’s Old Kent Road branch shows a mass of large earthworms congregating on the bottom of the machine which serves soft drinks.

It was posted on TikTok by user @mcOldKentRoad, who claims to work at the chain, and captioned: “This is McDonald’s old Kent road in south London!”

While it was suggested the creatures are maggots, a McDonald’s spokesperson said they were in fact earthworms.

The clip has been viewed more than 400,000 times since it was posted five days ago, and received more than 260 comments.

Users on the social media site have reacted with disgust with one saying: “I used to go there, never again.”

Another wrote: “I will never go to this McDonalds.”

A spokesperson for McDonald’s said the company took hygiene very seriously, and the machine was “immediately” closed when the issue was discovered.

“Unfortunately, a number of weeks ago we were made aware of an issue in the drain serving the drinks station at our Old Kent Road restaurant,” a spokesperson told the Standard.

McDonald’s Old Kent Road branch
Google Maps

“We immediately closed the drinks station and our hygiene team identified the cause of the issue which was fixed before a deep clean was carried out.

“The area was inspected by external specialists and no drinks were served to customers until we were sure that the issue was fully resolved.”

The spokesperson said its external specialists had confirmed that the worms were an “isolated incident”, and not an infestation.

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