Of course food safety is your top priority; dancing rats at Manhattan Dunkin’ Donuts

Oh iPhone cameras and youtube.com; how do I love thee?

And Dunkin’ Donuts, you’re no Tim Hortons.

Two videos uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday show rats crawling around a New York City Dunkin’ Donuts location in the Garmnet District.

In the first video, uploaded by user ‘Pjayone’, a rat is seen making its way from the top of a display rack, touching croissants, bagels and other Dunkin' Donutsbaked goods in open tubs.

The second video shows yet another rat crawling up a window curtain at the same location on 37th Street and 8th Avenue.

In an email to Gothamist, the YouTube user explains that this is a normal occurrence  at the location.

‘At two-thirty [in the morning] every [day] the workers load the shelves with the morning’s wares. Shortly thereafter like clockwork the rats come out and party.’

‘My phone ran out of power, or I would’ve filmed the outright nine deep rat assault which followed the action above,’ he added.

‘The items in the video that are being besieged upon by the rats were to be sold for that mornings breakfast rush.’

The location captured in the video has an ‘A’ rating from the city’s health department, despite getting a citation for vermin-related issues in November 2013.

The citation called the facility ‘not vermin proof. Harboarge or conditions conductive to attracting vermin to the premises and/or allowed vermin to exist.’

When contacted by Gothamist, the location manager said simply: ‘We don’t have an issue like that.’

Dunkin’ Donuts’ corporate offices issued their own statement, saying ‘food safety is a top priority’.

‘We have stringent food safety and quality standards, and we take great pride in the food and beverages we serve to our guests every day.

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About Douglas Powell

A former professor of food safety and the publisher of barfblog.com, Powell is passionate about food, has five daughters, and is an OK goaltender in pickup hockey. Download Doug’s CV here. Dr. Douglas Powell editor, barfblog.com retired professor, food safety 3/289 Annerley Rd Annerley, Queensland 4103 dpowell29@gmail.com 61478222221 I am based in Brisbane, Australia, 15 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time