Via iStockphoto / @xmarinaskiesx TikTok
A woman says that the Olive Garden meatball she received during a recent trip looked reused. Here’s what the facts say.
A woman has an audacious claim about a meatball she had at Olive Garden. According to her, there’s reason to believe the Italian food chain may have reused the meat and noodles in her dish.
Marina (@xmarinaskiesx) posted a video that received more than 374,000 views. In it, she says that the “lines” on her meatball looked suspicious—so suspicious that she thinks someone added another customer’s food to her plate.
“Olive Garden … do y’all reuse noodles and meatballs?” she asks. “My meatball had a chunk off with lines.”
A Reasonable Explanation
Multiple viewers took Marina’s post seriously. They cited their own experiences with the chain to add credence to her post.
One commenter said, “My breadstick had teeth marks in it, you could see the two front teeth and everything.
Another commenter added, “As someone who used to work at Olive Garden they def do.”
But other Olive Garden workers had reasonable explanations for the meatball’s appearance.
“It’s prolly from the tongs we use for food. It looks like bite marks, especially when we grab bread too aggressively,” one viewer said.
Another commenter said, “I seriously doubt that’s true. We make pasta in boiling hot water, and we bake new meatballs in the oven.”
Does Olive Garden Reuse Food?
There is no evidence that Olive Garden reuses any food products that make it to customers’ tables. In fact, servers and restaurant managers have alleged the opposite. They say that Olive Garden trashes any breadsticks or products that reach customers and donates potential food waste to nonprofits.
Food Republic, which debunked claims that Olive Garden reuses food, says, “Once a food item has been served to a guest, it can’t be re-served to someone else, even if the first person didn’t eat the item.”
However, people who claim to be servers and industry workers say that some restaurants reuse food, despite it being against the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) recommendations.
Anecdotally, Food Republic reported on a server’s claim that their establishment reuses bread baskets. The publication cited a Reddit post where the server said, “If you don’t eat it all, it goes right back to the bread warmer.”
The Takeout also wrote a full article about another server who said their restaurant manager encouraged them to “reuse bread from baskets for new tables.
Still, there hasn’t been a massive exposé regarding food reuse, at least at any Darden restaurants.
BroBible reached out to Marina via TikTok direct message and to Darden, Olive Garden’s parent company, via email for comment.
