Panera Bread employee fired for posting viral TikTok showing boiled mac and cheese

Panera spokesperson refuses to comment on personnel matters but confirms boiling mac and cheese

(TikTok screenshot)

A Panera Bread employee has been fired after a TikTok video of hers went viral, showing that the restaurant chain heats up frozen mac and cheese for all of its customers.

The TikTok video — titled "exposing panera" — was posted by a woman, identified online as Bri, who can be seen in the video walking into the restaurant’s kitchen, picking up a frozen packet, and putting it into boiling water to defrost.

Then, the video shows her cutting the bag open, and plating the meal before giving the camera a thumbs up.

“Lol I lost my job for this video,” wrote Twitter user @BriiRamirezz, retweeting the video that has now been viewed over 10 million times.

When contacted by The Independent, a representative for Panera Bread refused to comment on individual personnel manners, but explained the reasoning behind using frozen products in Panera Bread locations across the US.

The statement detailing and confirming the use of frozen mac and cheese has been supplied to several other national and international media outlets as well. It does not contradict any part of the TikTok video, which was later followed up on with tearful pleas to keep the job posted by Bri. She also later wrote that there was no "wrongful termination" on Twitter, and said she still likes Panera Bread's food.

“Panera serves at least 3 million servings of mac and cheese every month across more than 2100 locations and to do that we adhere to industry best practices for food safety and quality. Mac and cheese is made off site with our proprietary recipe developed by our chef and using our source ingredients that meet our standards for our clean menu offerings,” the statement says.

The statement continues: “It is shipped frozen to our bakery cafes this allows us to avoid using certain preservatives that do not meet our clean standards. The way we prepare our mac and cheese ensures that people can walk into any Panera nationwide and get the same delicious clean mac and cheese that makes it one of our most popular items.”