Current and former Salad and Go staff claim raw chicken put customers at risk, question company's response
NORTH TEXAS – Current and former employees of Salad and Go are criticizing the company, accusing it of putting customers at risk by serving undercooked chicken.
Employees and managers of the drive-through restaurant chain began exchanging text messages, emails and photos in mid-November.
"It was chaotic. There was a lot of gaslighting."
Three Salad and Go managers, two current and one former, employed at separate locations spoke to CBS News Texas on the condition of anonymity because some still work for the company.
An email they received last fall from the corporate office, headquartered in Coppell, warned that "there was a report of raw chicken from a guest that was received, and then a store noticed raw chicken."
At the time, Salad and Go bought cooked chicken from CW Brown LLC, a distribution company based in New Jersey. CW Brown shipped the product to the chain's 142 locations in four states, including dozens of restaurants in North Texas.
"My initial thought was we were having a major food safety concern," one manager said.
"The next day or two, my employees started sending me pictures of what's obviously undercooked chicken," another manager said.
Emails obtained by CBS News Texas show the company ordered its restaurants to dispose of all chicken with a package date of "11/19" or before.
However, employees CBS News Texas spoke to took photos of what they believe was undercooked chicken that kept showing up in bags into December.
"It was very unsettling," one manager said.
"I personally stopped serving chicken," said another.
"We started going through the bags and we kept finding more and more raw chicken the more we looked. We would take pictures, we would send it, and we really weren't getting much back for a while," said another.
Employees said they stopped serving chicken and reported the problem to the Coppell corporate office, which they said was dismissive.
"Hi team! These are blood spots. Please remove the pieces and serve the remaining product. This is a quality issue rather than food safety," one response they received from the corporate office reads.
Meanwhile, employees said customers started posting about getting sick after eating at Salad and Go.
"I believe 100% that raw pieces went out [to customers]," one manager said.
Salad and Go's Chief Supply Chain Officer Richard Maranville said the problems were related to the quality of the chicken, not its safety. In a statement to CBS News Texas he said:
"The chicken at Salad and Go is safe and poses no health risk. We meet all guidelines for healthy food service as mandated by the USDA. In late 2024, the quality of some chicken was not to our standards. We acted swiftly to make a positive change in our supply chain and feel confident in the food we are serving."
But Maranville referred to the meat as "raw" in a separate email sent to managers in November. And another executive said that it was a food safety issue and not just a food quality concern regarding the chicken.
North Texas health departments investigate
At least three city health departments in North Texas, Mesquite, Addison and Allen, became aware of the concerns and started investigating.
Employees said inspectors threatened to shut down a Mesquite location if any chicken received before Nov. 25 was served.
"We had health departments coming in and saying, 'That can't be served,'" one manager said.
"We simply asked them not to use that here and to send it back," Barry Jenkins, a Mesquite health official, told CBS News Texas
The health department in Allen also had concerns.
On Dec. 5, inspectors visited the restaurant's Allen location and identified products matching the description and packing dates. The manager immediately and voluntarily discarded the affected product.
However, some employees said they were told not to be upfront with health inspectors about their issues with undercooked chicken.
In a group text message, a North Texas Salad and Go district manager gave store managers instructions to "let them check our chicken, but do not mention that we have had issues."
And:
"Just a reminder that if the health department shows up, we do not discuss any previous issues with chicken or talk about it at all. If they ask, we do not admit any issues. We simply say that we have not experienced any issues. Less is more.
Even if they give exact dates or numbers, we give the same information.
The OPS Services and Food Safety Teams are working on talking points for this."
Victoria Renwick, a representative for Salad and Go verified the text, but said the message was not company policy. In a statement, she added:
"...this is a text from a District Manager to a Store Manager, but this is not a directive from Salad and Go Corporate. In fact, we do not communicate company policies via text. We agree this text is concerning, but this is not a reflection of our protocols."
Employees said they are speaking out because they believe the company got people sick and there should be some accountability.
Salad and Go terminates vendor contract
Salad and Go said it terminated its contract with CW Brown last December.
The employees who spoke to CBS News Texas said they have not noticed any issues since. But they question how Salad and Go's corporate office handled the situation.
"I think it was terrible. I think it was a very bad move. I felt like we were hiding stuff versus just being honest," one said. "We put the public in danger and we're supposed to be a healthy affordable option for everyone and I can't back that we are healthy anymore."
Corporate representatives for Salad and Go met with CBS News Texas and insisted the problems are behind them and they don't believe anyone got sick.
The company also sent a statement saying none of its chicken ever posed a health risk, employees were told to throw out chicken that was not up to standards and the company never received violations from food safety inspectors.
But the employees who spoke out said they felt compelled to do so because they were concerned that the chicken did pose a health risk and should have been taken off the menu during that period of time until the change of vendors.
CBS News Texas reached out to CW Brown by email and phone but has not received a response.
Salad and Go said it changed vendors because CW Brown did not their quality standards and says it's the vendor's responsibility to report any issues with its poultry to the United States Department of Agriculture.
Salad and Go also sent the statement below to CBS News Texas:
